The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-11-09
Stage Machinery.

a stage. proves to be very differeht thing
from what the popular eye, gazing from pit or
boxes, presumes it to be. A great arch, a sion
ing floor, pierced here and there with trans
cellars below, regions above, grooves at each
side, in which scenes glide forward or back,
rollers stretching ACROSS, on which the cloths
behind are rolled up-such is the popular ideal
But the stage of one of the grand houses of.
fers very different spectacle. There is neither
floor nor ceiling proper; 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 vast expanse of open graf
lngs. or cage work, one below the other. the
bars OF which are parable! with the seats of
pit. The whole, therefore, is ore clear" from
Top TO bottom, resembling one of those great
engine houses which have iron galleries and fiy
ing bridges all round. A large stage looks i'm
posing enough from the boxes; but few. per-
haps, are aware that below it, in grand opera
house. there is space of about the same height
as the stage; and above, more than twice that
extent. Thus the space devoted to performance
IS really no more than seventh or eighth part
OF the unseen regions above, below and around
it. The stage and the floors below lin a large
theatre there are often four) thus appear like
series OF gridtrons one beneath the other
Inis mas been found necessary arrangement
owing to the great scenes stretching the whole
width OF the stage that must ascend or de-
scend and have clear passage. AS these
openings may be required at any part of the
stage, the only mode is to make the entire
stage an open frame, covered with panels
which can be drawn away. A trap" can thus
De 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 mo-
ton IN all great theatres, or how it is 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 mechanical power& would entail a
vast expenditure of human strength which,
indeed, 1t would be found impossible to concen-
trate at fixed point The motive power be-
hind the scenes is wonderfully simple and even
scientific, and has been in use without change
for more than century and half. 1t con-
slsts In permanent arrangement of great bal
ance weights always ready mounted, and with
which the object to be raised can be readily
connected. A child could raise ton weight to
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 ships
rudder. To these are attached series of
concentric drums, much like the coue-
SNAPPED wheel upon which watch cham is
wound, Tor the purpose OF allowing cords to be
wound upon them. The balance weights are
hung 1h grooves next the walls while the
cords attached to them run up to the roof pass
through pulleys, and are then brought down to
the drums to which they are attached. When
some. slowly evolving transformation is in pro-
gress, to be crowned by the ascent of some
glorlhed frame stretching the whole width of
the stage, on which number of ladies are be-
slowed, its ascent is thus cOntrived The weight
OF the machine and its burden is roughly
found it is then attached to the counterposes
the ropes in their course being made to pass
over the drums of the windass. The men
who lower or raise it Dave therefore only few
pounds weight to deal with, and hence that
smooth even motion always to be seen in stage
changes. In fact, the counterpoises being
slightly heavier, raise the machine itself, aud
nave only to be controlled or checked by the
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 fguies ascend through trap
doors. Even the great chandelier that lights
abe ball is thus balanced.-NeD Quarterly Nag.
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