Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1876 — Theatrical Stage Machinery. [ARTICLE]

Theatrical Stage Machinery.

to bo a wy different Atasrftom "bat the popuUr eye, gazing tran pit or boxes, pneamea it to be. A •real arch, a (doping floor, pierced here 2*si*,sa , 5 1 »SR to SEJ3, JUS ,Kte IWrdorV*. roll«rs stretching across, on which the “cloths” behind are rolled up—such U 4he popular We 2. But the stage of cue «f the “ grand” houses offers a very different epettackß. There is neither floor uaarcaHuigpraper; but above there is a number of light galleries running round in tiers, while, instead of a floor or stage, properly so called, there is a vast expanse of open gratings, or cage work, one feeinw the jsther, the bars of which are parallel with the seats of a pit. The whole, tiMiefore, is one “clear” from top Us bottom, resembling one of those great «ngine-houses which nave iron galleries

and flying bridges ell around. A large Stage looks imposing enough from the boxes, but few, perhaps, are aware that below it, in a grand opera-house, there is at apace of about the same height as the stage, and above, more than twice that extant. Thus the space devoted to performmaoe is realty no more than a seventh or eighth part of the regions above, below astd around it. The stage and the floors Mow (in a large theater there are often four) thus appear like a series if gridirons, one beneath the other. This bus been found a necessary arrangement, owing to the great scenes, stretching the whole width of the stage, that must ascend or descend, and nave a clear passage. As these openings may be required at any part of the stage, the only mode Is to make the entire stasre an open frame, covered with panels, which can be drawn away. A “ trap” can thus be opened at any spot, as one of these panels containing the trap and its machinery can be inserted. Few persons are aware of what Is the traditional and established engine of motion in all the great theaters, or how it i& that in some ambitious transformation scene, a huge iron frame, laden with fifty or sixty figures, can be raised aloft. The agency of windlasses and such UMchanical powers would entail a vast expenditure of human strength which, inriepd, it would be found impossible to concentrate at a fixed point. The motive power behind the scenes is wonderfully simple, and even scientific, and has been in use without change for more than a century and a half. It consists in a permanent arrangement of groat balance weights always ready mounted, and with which the object to be raised can be readily connected. A child could raise a ton weight to a particular height if the cord passing over

a pulley be balanced by another ton weight. Roof and basement, aloft and below, are filled with enormous rollers, each furnished with wheels something like that of a ship’s rudder. To these are attached a series of concentric drums, much like the cone-shaped wheel upon which a watch-chain is wound, tor the purpose of allowing cords to be wound upon them. The ballance•weights are hung in grooves next the <waua; while the cords attached to them nut up to (£e rpof, pass through pulleys, and are then brought down to the drums, to which they are attached. When some slowly-evolving transformation is in progress, to be crowned by the ascent of some glorified frame stretching the whole width -of the stage, on which a number of ladies are bestowed, Its ascent is thus contrived. The weight of the machine and its burden is roughly found; it is then attached to the counterpoises, the ropes in their course being made to pass oyer the drums of the windlass. The men who lower or raise it have therefore only a few pounds weight to deal with, and hence that smooth, even motion always to be seen in 9tage changes. In fact, the counterpoises being slightly heavier raise the machine itself, and have only to be controlled or checked by the men at the drum. So, too, is the heavy drop scene made to ascend or descend, and with such smooth motion that it can be made slow or rapid; so figures ascend through trap-doors. Even the great chandelier that lights the hall is thus balanced. —A«r Quarterly Gazette.