This was a prize design of Leonard Shogran’s invention, and depicts in the foreground a well-rigged ship with the name “Monarch” painted on her bow and stern was nobly laboring in the heavy seas, with a motion so accurately perfect that many interested spectators stepped on the window sash in hopes to see actual waves.
Every five or six seconds a vivid flash of lightning burst forth from the sullen, stormy clouds, with such surprising reality one would invariably wait to hear the crashing thunder.
The mechanical contrivance used to obtain the above described effect is very simple and inexpensive. A painted scene on canvas represents a storm on the water, about 5 × 7 feet in size, covered on back with cardboard, making it perfectly opaque. Then cut out streaks representing lightning, and also openings in the edges of the clouds bending them forward enough to admit the light from behind. Then paste white tissue paper back of openings representing lightning, and yellow and orange back of clouds. Then place an incandescent lamp behind, which is turned on and off every few seconds by an automatic switch.
To produce the flickering effect, wherein the real novelty consists, place a large wheel, made of cardboard and thin strips of wood, divided into eight equal open and closed spaces, between the canvas and lamp, which, when set in motion, throws a rapid string of shadows, caused by the closed space. This wheel, as will be understood, was always in motion; so that the moment the lamp was lit the effect was there; and when it went out everything seemed dead and quiet, as no trace of the revolving wheel could then be seen.
DESIGN SHOWING SHIP IN A STORM.—Shogran.
The effective motion of the ship was obtained by an equally simple device, as can be seen in the drawing. The ship was first painted on cardboard, and cut out and fastened on a rod operated by a wheel below. The different speeds necessary for these effects was obtained by a series of pulleys, the arrangement of which you will find illustrated in the drawing.
MECHANISM OF SHIP IN A STORM.