Improvements in Apparatus for Producing Scenic Effects in Theatres and the like.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd July, 1889-Accepted, 5th Oct., 1889
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Producing Scenic Effects in Theatres
and the like.
.:
We, JOHN SCOTT Machinist, and HENRY DAVID SMITH, Gas Engineer, both of the
City of Melbourne & Colony of Victoria, do hereby declare the nature of our
Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING SOENIC EFFECTS IN
Theatres and THE LIKE and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This Invention relates to devices for producing any desired shade of color on a
Scene, Stage, or Platform for illusive or representative purposes. It consists of two
wheels discs or pulleys, preferably spur wheels, running loosely on hollow bearings
or pieces of tube held in position by a bracket said wheels being connected by two or
more carrying bars or rails; outside of these rails in a Cylindrical form are strips of
colored or stained glass held in place by double bands of pliable metal the outer
portion being serrated to allow of bending so as to place in or take out the said glass.
(Instead of serrating the outer band, it may be made in sections and held by screws
or other fastenings). Gearing into the spur wheels are two pinions carried on a
shaft hollow or otherwise running parallel with the Cylindrical Medium and supported
by a branch of the aforesaid bracket. On the end of the pinion shaft is a mitre wheel
On the upper
which gears into a mitre wheel on the lower end of a vertical shaft.
end of this Vertical Shaft in a hand wheel by which the Medium is operated.
Suspended from the hollow bearing of the Medium is an inside light carrier the lights
being fed through the hollow end bearings either by gas pipe or electric wire.
Referring to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1. is an elevation of our Invention. Fig. 2. an end view of same. Fig. 3. is
an enlarged sectional view of Medium cut off at line A. and B. in Fig. 1. A, A. are the
spur wheels. B, B. The pinions. C. The carrying rails. D. The serrated bands for
holding in the glass. E. The hollow bearing. F. The bracket. G. The wall-plate
H. The electric wire or gas pipe. 1. The lights.
or upright batten.
J. The light
carrier suspended from the hollow bearings by strap K. L. The pinion shaft.
M. The mitro wheels. N. The vertical shaft. 0. The hand wheel. P. The
colored glass.
The mode of operation is as follows,
The circumference of the cylinder having been divided into two or more sections
(preferably three) and each section filled with a different colored glass (no glass is
required for white) and held in place by the serrated band D, as soon as some other
than a white light is required the hand wheel O. is moved once round which rotates
the cylinder one third of its circumference thus placing a colored section of glass
between the lights I. and the stage and giving it may be a green or a red light until a
fresh illusion is required when the hand wheel O. is again moved round producing
a fresh color and so on. These, stained or colored strips of glass can easily be taken
out and others of a different shade or color put in without much loss of time.
The advantages of this Invention are,
That a sun-rise or sun-set, or other illusion can be gradually represented without a
blank interval intervening between the change. The change may be instantaneous, &
the effect moro sensational, yet completely under control.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed we would have it understood
that we do not confine ourselves to any precise mode of fastening or holding the glass,
nor yet to the particular gearing employed to operate the Medium, but what we
claim is.
A Cylindrical Stage Medium, partly or wholly incased with stained or colored
glass in combination with an inside light or lights substantially as herein before
described and explained and as shown in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this Fifth day of June One thousand eight hundred and eighty nine.
JOHN SCOTT.
HENRY DANIEL SMITH.