The rain machine is usually placed high up in the flies. A hollow wooden cylinder five feet in circumference and four feet in length is provided. Upon the inside are placed rows of small wooden teeth. A quantity of dried peas are placed in the cylinder, and a belt is run around one end of it and down to the prompter’s desk. By turning these cylinders the peas run down between the teeth, and the noise produced by them makes a good imitation of rain falling upon a roof. Traveling companies often have to go to small theaters where such luxuries as “rain machines” are unknown. A sufficiently good substitute is, however, easily obtained. A sheet of heavy brown paper is pasted over a child’s hoop and a handful of bird shot is placed upon the paper. The hoop is tipped from side to side, and the shot rolls around the paper, producing a fairly good rain effect.
RAIN MACHINE.
Our [engraving] shows a French form of rain machine. It consists of a wooden box seven or eight feet long, divided into compartments, as shown in our engraving, by oblique pieces of tin which transform the interior into a tortuous passage for the dried peas. The quantity of peas is regulated at the top, and the violence of the drops of rain depends upon the quantity of peas and the inclination of the box.
RAINBOW EFFECT.
In the last scene of “Rheingold” the gods enter Walhalla over the rainbow bridge. The rainbow is a magnificent stage illusion, and is produced as follows: The prisms are fastened one above the other in front of an electrical projector. The light from it passing through the prisms produces the various colors of the prismatic spectacle due to the influence of the raindrops. As in nature, there appear to be two arches, the primary and the secondary.
