Theatre Design & Technology - May 1968 - 14

In the old Opera House, we had an antiquated German system, which was counterweighted. With this counterweight
system, it took quite a lot of time and manpower to change
opera scenery. We then had an idea that we could motorize
some of the counterweighted sets. With some machines, we
actually rigged our own pipe system and wired this in the
old opera house. We called it the Green Hornet. There was
a problem because we had no engineer on this job; it was
done entirely by our own mechanics. It did the job beautifully, except that we didn't have the control we have here.
That is where we got the idea for this system, because it
saved the intermission between this afternoon's performance
Clnd toniyht's-the extra hour we sometimes need badly.

Mr. Birkle did not indicate that, due to the slow minimum
speed and the control for it, which I requested originally,
the engineers did not have an easy time. The pipe system
does the job very well now. We have learned a lot from it.
My men have been very ingenious in this respect, and I
must give them credit. What I really like about it is the possibi lity for changing some pipes. I put in extra pipes very
close to the eight bridges. Our bridges are raised electrically; and when you have the scenery on these pipes, which
are too close to the bridges, they will foul. I know this
from the blueprints, because I specified the number of pipes
myself. I put them in for a special purpose, so that if a
motor or other component fails, we could use these motors

Unfortunately, in this opera house I got too electrical, having
been an electrician all m life, and I found there is such a
thing as over-electrification. I do not mean that the electrical
equipment doesn't do the job, but it does mean that you
must have for the theatre, which is a repertory house, time
to maintain the equipment.

Figure 5. Electrical Schematic

®

=

No

h ..

','/wt:;

w....

WINCH

1h
T

VOLrs /lC

u..~

Z

,0

4f1"-

2

,0

!-'A'..........

* Z

IFO_

.~

* J

300

,

,

,

itO

-L

FUNCTION

--

/101Dtt /"lh1ATClI!£

7

f'IELP

/XAu

3

rACJIC"'UT~~

A

./

*

.."

"""_T~
.._

..r

LJl1lr

*

I/O

~C"301'

-3W/'TCJlE~

~"(J"'r'7DOt~.

oS

r .. _~o

,.,. U.d

.

/I- U

UNITS

"'

""MrS TbrAJ.

** rt/UN

"""rTCMr
* *~~.$

..

,.

A

#0

4..~_~

PATCH PIINeL

IV1n

[)C

2,0

'",...-

'"

To

"""rs

2

""'""'"
'.e_

..
··

WINCH UNlr

,,~

Q<

COIfTJtOL

Joa

A<

"""nu,

~IJ'"

T

®

f'ArCJ/

70 li'Ecr,nu: ROOM

P/lNEl
~

.

~'l

lNf/r.J

.1

/$0_

rAGIIOHCTTIl:

~.J

110

A
0J«Ul:"

T

1
000000
0000
00

o

JO

I'rI

"roT
20-.10 -

R

l

1

N.

1,.,1,..,

V"~.1

CoN.3Ol.I
~_

CA-_

s-~_~

0 . _ Lc.-SC.('

@ c

HAIH

D<.

COIfTb:>L

'0

AC

Ct:JNTA04.

©CavrKO/ U::w!!Ot.E

~

,.

ZO

'0

...-

/lC

70 REc.nrtU?

""'",

DC

FUNCriON

300

"
"

DC (ONTfio..

:>00

.1

.c:bSrrOi

(f0

r

A<

or

,

AC

IS-

rcC'#

0<

:300

/10

"

.fOOM

.JOO

SE).r~

COHTCOt,.
t;C#rr~OL

CoorTeo,

"rep u,c;
I-I~rs

t1_~
~1D_n.J(I.

1-~LfD

--=-..T":/1'AIIr ~ ....eI:s

xcv
p/::
"""'NCIO
V.lf~

I*
j.

r,·uTl:r

=",

UIiI"'iov,r~~

21 C 10. '10

DC

2.

,fl:)

-IIOV

':'1·0- 3'0
"

" J. *

H

Z/~

~o

14

A(

~ltLhDU

r_/o·

_c.TDT.... (,.u o:wT._)

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - May 1968
