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Friday, February 08, 2019
Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 639 – Operating Means for Curtain Drops, Victor H. Volland in 1926
Drypigment.net: A little more than a decade after Seth G. Bailey invented an electrical mechanism for handling hanging scenery, Victor H. Volland came up with another option to handle scenery. In 1930, the United States Patent Office published an application filed on August 23, 1926 for operating curtain drops.
1 comment:
Katie Pyzowski
said...
It is interesting to contrast this invention with the one described in the other article posted by this blog (which was also posted to the Green Page this week). Seth Bailey's fly rail system ran on electricity, and a motor and winch system that moved drops up and down much faster and better than any stage hand could (per his testimony). That invention was patented in 1912, and this invention by Volland was patented in 1926. I think that it is interesting that installing individual cue lights to each line came after creating a motor run system. Putting a cue light on each rail is rather clever, and something that I have not seen before. This would allow technicians that did not know the performance that well to run rail for a show accurately and on time. This is a feature I have not seen in modern theatres, and it would definitely would be rather useful, especially in spaces where technicians are inexperienced or rotate out frequently.
1 comment:
It is interesting to contrast this invention with the one described in the other article posted by this blog (which was also posted to the Green Page this week). Seth Bailey's fly rail system ran on electricity, and a motor and winch system that moved drops up and down much faster and better than any stage hand could (per his testimony). That invention was patented in 1912, and this invention by Volland was patented in 1926. I think that it is interesting that installing individual cue lights to each line came after creating a motor run system. Putting a cue light on each rail is rather clever, and something that I have not seen before. This would allow technicians that did not know the performance that well to run rail for a show accurately and on time. This is a feature I have not seen in modern theatres, and it would definitely would be rather useful, especially in spaces where technicians are inexperienced or rotate out frequently.
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