ELECTRICAL AIDS TO THE DRAMA.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7286, 16 April 1889, Page 2

ELECTRICAL AIDS TO THE DRAMA.

Scientific Amirican SUNSET AND MOONE-SB. The moon in nature borrows her light from the invisible sun, but the moon at the Metropolitan Opera House, gets his from anelectrical lighting station in_sth-street, nearly a mile away; the energy coming along the overhead wires, up -"roadway, piercmg the stage door, thence through the wings and up in the mimic sky ovei* the stage. So, when the Fair Marguerite, in the IT. act of the opera" Faust," •thrusts her hand out of the window of the garden pavilion* and exclaims,

"How sweet thernote? of yonnigcbtingate, How soft this moonlight! ' she riot only compliments the excellent imitation of that bird, as given by Heir Hans Hochschlagen, crouching in the wings, but pays a deserved tribute as well to the stoker, engine driVer, and dynamo man in the distant lighting station. The designer and operator of the nioon— we refers of course, to the terrestrial, Mr James Stewart, a clever mechanical and electrical engineer. When he was a3ked*last as to its mechanism, he led the way behind the scenes, through mimic rocks and boulders, pictured mountains, tropical forests, and Scandinavian wastes, with here a ferocious dragon blocking theway, andtherean uncanny looking gnome peeping out from a cave. A flight of narrow stone steps led upward- from the darkness, and a drooked passageway ended at a room'where, upon a high shelf, tbje sun and the moon were resting snugly, besides some evening and morning stars and a few other planets. " Herman," he called to a man preparing a rip" pie effect for the rivef Rhine in "llheingold," " Herman,'just take the ladder and go up there and bring the- moon down." This' moon is about 18 inches in diameter, of porcelain or milk glass, and oval 1n... form. Within are six incandescent' lamps of the ordinary type.three white, each .of sixteen candle power,; connected with thestreet circuit-and-alao with" a resistance.coil. In Tannhauser the knight and minstrel of that name, < tiring of the refuge he has found from the tettefs of earth in the hill of Venu&(the Hdrselberg in Thuringia), regains his liberty, and; travelling through the country, finds himself in a valley between . the Wartberk and the Horselberg. Here he pauses to Dβ charmed by the beauties : of that nature he has been hiding from. The current in the electrical moon is switched into the three red-globed lamps, the white cut off. It rises between the hills, a great fiery red globe, as we often see the heavenly orb on a clear evening when at its full. The hills-are in a glow,there is a shimmer among the 1 ree tops,- ■ the red growing fainter and fainter as it mounts, from the lowering of the intensity of the current, till finally the red lamps are cut off , , the white ones turned on ; the hills aud trees ate entered, the little lake becomes a. mirror, the bordering trees projecting their shadows athwart it.

The moon is moved by means of a " batten," a thin piece of wood let down, from above, the coarse being marked for the operator by the apparent though exaggerated movements of the moon as we see them in an orrery. The mimic sun moves behind the "drop" (the shortest curtain in the background) but the moon moves before it, and hence, to keep up the illusion, the wire or elecfcic main it drags after it must be coloured as is the*" drop." This Is called " masking in." The edges are carefully pared off around the tiisksnd the muslin serving perforated, else it would cast a shadow backward and show the'sky" to be only a curtafn. The electrical sun is a big ground glass disk, with a voltaic arc lamp behind ifcof about 2GOO candle power, connected "with the street circuit. It shows through a. hole cut into a drop curtain, and is set firmly in a frame covered with coloured gauze to represent the various hues'with which it tinctures the atmosphere and the colours it projects upon the clouds darine ascension and declination. One of (he best effects yet had with, thia artificial sun is in Meyerbeer's " The Prophet," act 3, scene Westphalian forest near by a froiei* lake that loses itself in the mist gathered sa the horizon (also an electrical effect). s!h» day is going down in the west with the. fP- -T he .M. 6 "* are lißhta ere moder»eed ; through golden gauze, then *>ffeened by the ground glass outside. x As the sun ia let down behind the papes mountains, the purple and red caiize i pushed up over hia face, and the lower

clouds, now changed from cumulus to stratus, take on those horizontal lines of colour we know so well. " Tannhauser, act 111, scene 2, shows the mello jvglowing of twilight, the masterful incandescence light, hooded in pale yeUdw, controllins the haze so well that in the expanse of mimic sky there Ls not a tint to dispel the illusion. The evening star in the southwest twinkles clearly like the ruby Mars. Wolfram, the minstrel knight, seems justified in his apostrophe: I look on thee, O 1 star in heaven tho fairest, . Thy clear-cut beam thro' trackless space fcbou Dearest- . The hour of darkness is by theo mado bright, Thou lead'st us upward with kindly light. This star consists of a single 16 candle power incandescence light connected with the street circuit and affixed to a metal frame set in the drop curtain ; only the star itself, with a covering of red gelatine tinctured with blue, showing through. TNE DUEL IN FATTBT. IntheduelsceneinGounod's "Faust," act IV, scene 7, will be found striking electrical effect. As will be remembered, the soldier Valentine, brother to Marguerite, fights with Faust, the student and Marguerite's lover. As he ia unfamiliar with the use of the sword, the Devil in the guise of Mephistopheles stands by, sword drawn, to aid him, interposing the weapon when Valentine makes too fiercely at the student. Heretofore, though there was a claeh of swords, there was not here anything to indicate the possession of supernatural powers by Mephistopheles. The electric -wires are connected with Valentine and Faust. The poles of the battery are connected under the stage with copper plates sunk into the flooring where theduel takes place. Copper nails driven, one into a shoe of Valentine, the other in that of Faust, connect up with the floor Iplates whenever they respectively stand upon them, and wires running up the legs and body of each and then down their several sleeves cud in a small plug. So, when they draw their swords, they have but to insert these plugs into the holes sunk into their hilts and they are connected up with the electrical storage battery in the wings; Valentine representing the positive pole, and Faust tho negative. Every time MephlsfcophelflS interpoflea his sword and strikes up the contending weapons, which are then brought iv contact, the sparks fly furionsly ; and there are those weird, crackling, sizzling sounds heard in the lightning as well. When Valentine gets his death wouud,he throws out the plujs connecting his sword with the battery, by a simple turn of the thumb, and, as he falls, his sword flies from his hand with nothing to show the presence of any electrical connection. SIEGFRIED'S MAGIC SWORD. Everyone familiar with the charming music drama of Wagner's, tbe " Ring of the Nibelung," will recall that impressive scene in the first act of Siegfried where the stout lad Siegfried welds together the broken pieces of his dead father's sword which have been left him by his mother Sieglinda. The scene represents a cave in the rocks with openings into the forest. It is a smith's forge, with fire, chimney, andbellowe. The point of this scene lies in the prodigious strength of the lad Siegfried, who, Decause of it, succeeds where Mime, the smith, has failed, and welds the terrible sword that is to kill the dragon who guards the treasure. The anvil upon which the lad strikes is connected by concealed wires with the storage battery, the positive plate being a corrugated piece of cast iron 8£ inches by 12, the negative piece of iron wire 3-16 inch diameter, and 12 long, bowed upward at their centre anil placed above and free of the corrugations below them. The current required being of 15 amperes, if the negative wires should rest upon the positive plate, a dead short circuit would be formed and all metal connection with the battery would be fusedj but bowed aa they are, there is but a momentary short circuit at each stroke of the hammer, whon the springy ■wires are forced down upon the under plate, producing only a shower of sparks, as if from the great force of the plows struck. At last, when the sword is'completed and a firm "handle upon the hilt, he determines to test its temper, and raising it aloft brings it down with what seems a tremendous blow upon the anvil, which falls into two parts, as if cleft in twain, thesparks following the ewqrd down to the ground. In reality, he strikes a spring which lets one-half the anvil fall, its under and outer as will be seen, having the corner cut off for the purpose and causing momentary slfdrr.-c&rcuifcin'g. FEO f W , EBS TftAT DIE ! AirD BLOOM AGAIN. A very pretty electrical effect is had in the garden scene in "Faust," act 111., scene 'si*. Siebel, the woulfl-be lover of Marguerite, advances, to a bed of tulips, some red, some white, and some gold, to pluck anosegay that he would leave upon, her window to speak for him. Concealed in the corolla of each flower, or rather dis? gttised as stamens and anthers, acre two tiny incandescence lamps (fifteen vdlts eto.cn); the whorl of petals fresh and sparkling,as.when we see them-fed with sunlight. Now, the demon Mephistopheles had long before warned Siebel:

Every flbvrer that' you touch Shall rot and shall wither. TJnhfeedirig, Siebel a golden tulip which shines yet as hehfts'Ttup to him (the finewire current that keeps the bulbs in the flower aglow, trailing after it, unseen'amid the foliage). No "sooner does he examine it, when lof Mephi3topheles,partly concealed, raises his hand, the current from thai; slnfcleilame is cut b'ffarid it fcrow's dull and withers perceptibly;. Siebel says: Wiiat faded,? Ah mc I. .. Thui,the.Sorcerer foretold at the fair; That should I touch a blooming flower IfceMall wither.; , Tfut my hanii in holy wtfter 111 bathe—' See, now will they wither 1 Here he plucks a red tulip, a white add a golden one, holding them up triumphantly, s-rlch, mellow glow j iri each (the electrical current following upward along the fine wire and the little bulbs yet lighted), for Mephietopheles may not raise his hand against the power of what's been blessed; Then he changes-hands, and; like a-flash, they fade; beaming with light again when he, : "remembering it was the Other hand that touched the holy water, hands them back. (The operator, catching' the scene, turning the electrical switch On or off as required). A IWBRY SPEAR. • In the last act of Siegfried, the •wanderer (Wotan)is standing at the foot of a high cliff, with a deal of thunder and lightning overhead. He is armed within-great epear, steel-tipped and pronged, with the wood of it-stuaded with steel. v It is supposed to contain the sacred though unseen nre, and heretofore,,until the present application of electricity, there was no-evidence of it, save Wotan's worl He,, as guardian of the rocks, is pacing up and down, with the spear in band. Siegfried comes seeking Brynhilda's rock. As Siegfried approaches he draws his eword, dealing a heavy blow Against ~ the spear of Wotan, while, at the same moment, a man In the wings turns an electric switdh. The spear partis, and from its shattered ends flames,' like forked tongues, leap out. A lamp of SO volts intensity is hidden in the spear; the. core wrapped with Heavy brown paper for insulation, with a roaSsof secondary cotton stuffed about the carbons at the point where the spear is to parti Then come thunder and lightning add black, tolling clouds, the last two projected upon the mimic eky by a etereopticon in the wings. The lightning and the clouds are scratched -and painted on-amall bits-of glass ; before projection, being tfreatly magnifiedby lensihg, with a powerful voltaic aro electric light behind' the , condenser, throwing them with wonderful precision and naturalness; the clouds rolling across an apparently immense expanse of-sky, as the operator revolves the dlsee one over the other, arid the-forked lightning seeming to shoot across ttie heavens. CLOUD ANI> STORM B7FECT3. The reelistic fire clouds and flames in the last act o£ " The Prophet," where the latter, learning he is betrayed, orders the firing of the Palace of Mnn«ter, ore done by con - centr&ting the are :light upon coloured gelatine, using first yellow tor fumee, then yellow and white, then yellow and red, red and white* red and black. The snowstorm in "The Prophet" is made by forcing the light through white scratches on black glass. The sandstorm in the last act 6f " Qoeen of ;Sheba" is- done with yellow end black-and pink gelatine before the light, and tfre rain by; parallel scratches on a black surface; the arc lightbeing dimmed and set aglow alternately, and the glass turned thie way and that, so that the parallelism of the drops shall follow a suppoaitilaous chasging of the direction of the wind. ■ . FIREFLIES. - The firefly ie another fine effect, devised by the same hand as the others, and recently used at the Broadway Theatre Iα the playof "The Kaffir Diamond." Tiny 15----vblt incandescence bulbs were affixed to the weeds and rushea in a swamp, each bulb getting its life from a fine wire connected to an electrical accumolator in the wings) The operator in his hiding place, by pressing ttpon the hobs' of his key board alternately, lighting up one and then: another, could make a single ereny appear to be darting hither; and thither, then there would be two of them, a half do?en, a score, or, pressing upon all, twenty-eaght.

RAHTBOWB. ~ 3 I The artMdat rainbow is mado h» *v ¥ terposltlon of two triangular '* one elevated eUghtlv o»ir Kth eP W». an c ectricaJ reflector, the bWoSdnS , " and lateral edges f *f k f regard, the one prUm to tne offer & h electrical sun, set opposite to the 3 e where the rainbow fe to appear taJFS II thfebetter to aid the luosioKto ,&*& a mass of clouds, the raiubow beine ingly only the reflection, refraction 1?: disintegration of the sun's rays various colours of the prismatic gnwEl*!' 9 the influence of the rain drops £$"» genious is the work, that there is T appear as in nature two arche*** , primary with its inter circle of red and iv 8 secondary with red along the inner *i^ In " The Valkyr" an incandescence W i 3 thrust into a knot in the tree ana J2r' the hilt of the sword, to Siegmund. —^""'Wiii