We present an [engraving] of the theater stage of the Madison Square Theater, New York City, which shows a remarkable advance in stage management. The first movable stage is probably that which the late Steele Mackaye patented in 1869. The details of Mackaye’s patent were not completely worked out, but this was done by Mr. Nelson Waldron, the stage machinist, who elaborated the system and obtained a patent on it. The stage in the theater we refer to is moved up and down in the same manner as an elevator car, and is operated so that either of its divisions can be easily and quickly brought to the proper level in front of the auditorium. This enables the stage hands to get one scene ready while the other one is in view of the audience. The shaft through which the huge elevator moves up and down measures one hundred and fourteen feet from the roof to the bottom. The stages are moved up and down in a compact, two-floored structure of timber strapped with iron, and knitted together with truss-beams above and below, and substantially bound by tie and tension rods. The whole construction is fifty-five feet high and twenty-two feet wide and thirty-one feet deep, and weighs about forty-eight tons. A vertical movement of the structure or car is twenty-five feet two inches at each change. The car is suspended at each corner by two steel cables, each of which would be capable of supporting the entire structure. These cables pass upward over sheaves or pulleys set at different angles, and thence downward to a saddle to which they are all connected. Secured to this saddle is a hoisting cable attached to a hoisting drum, by the rotation of which the stage is raised or lowered. Only about forty seconds are required to raise or lower the stage in position, and the entire structure is moved by four men at the winch. The movement is effected without sound, jar, or vibration, owing to the balancing of the stage and its weight with counterweights, which are suspended from the saddle to which the cables supporting the stage are attached.
The borders and border lights are supplied to each of the movable stages, and each stage has its own trap floor, with traps and guides and windlasses for raising the traps. The space for operating the windlass under the top stage is about six feet. Our [illustration] shows that while the play is proceeding before the audience, the stage hands are setting the scene on the stage above.
STAGE OF THE MADISON SQUARE THEATER, NEW YORK CITY.
SOME REMARKABLE AMERICAN STAGE INVENTIONS.
The fact that there have been many important and brilliant inventions relating to stages made by Americans has been overlooked, and nearly all of the literature of the subject does not consider them at all. This is probably owing to the fact that in many cases the inventions have been planned out on so large a scale they can hardly be used, and, unfortunately, they usually exist only on paper. Still, we cannot help but admire the genius of such men as Steele Mackaye, whose inventions in this line were most remarkable, and to whom we have already referred in reference to the elevator stage. We now purpose to describe one of the most gigantic affairs that was ever devised for obtaining scenic effects. It was intended for the “Spectatorium” at the World’s Fair at Chicago, in 1893. It will be remembered that the unfinished building was just outside the lower end of the Fair grounds. Unfortunately the scheme was not carried out.