The Electrical experimenter

820 ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER April, 1918
"Yes or No" an Electrically made Drama
HUMAN An
nature !
— !
unfathomed
source from whence must spring
the theme upon which every truly
successful play is built. Firstnighters
and frequenters of New
York's "Gay White Way" have been literally
"fed up" with the eternal triangle
therefore it is somewhat of a miracle when
a new play can so impress an audience as
to make it sit up and take notice
The seemingly impossible has
ized in Anderson and Weber's
been real-
new theatrical
production bearing the title ''Yes or
No." Under a new setting and manner of
presentation we see a vital human issue
argued and answered in the "uptown home"
amidst richness, sumptuousness and splendor—and
on the other hand in the "downtown
home" with poverty, pathos and
squalid surroundings on all sides. A most
graphic story of American wives and their
homes.
The play proper is preceded by a prologue
revealing a discontented wife about to run
away from home with her neglectful husband's
false friend. As she wavers on the
brink, hesitating whether to say "yes or no"
—the voices of her aunt and mother speak
—and beg her to listen to a story of two
women and how they met the same crisis
in their lives.
Then follows the dual story of how two
neglected wives each met a situation in
which they were highly tempted to wander
from the straight and narrow path. The
wife of luxury, whose particular curse has
been idleness, yields to temptation and rues
it ; the other who has seen nothing but
drudgery resists and is more fortunate.
The epilogue brings the two stories together
and the experiences set forth teach
the wife of the prologue a strong lesson.
The cast is notable, both by its numbers
STATIC ELECTRICITY AND THE
AUTOMOBILE.
Have you ever stood on a crisp, cold winter
morning on one of our asphalt streets
and watched automobiles whizzing
which may have temporarily blocked
past,
your
progress across the streets ? Like as not you
have heard a peculiar swishing sound not unlike
the sound produced by escaping steam,
the sound being apparently produced by the
wheels of the automobile. It probably occurred
to you that this sound was totally unlike
the sound you hear
at other times of the
year, as for instance on
a warm summer morning
or on a wet day.
If you are at all observant
you must have
wondered at the great
difference in sounds.
There is, of course, an
explanation. On a cold,
crisp winter morning,
the conditions for static
electricity are ideal. Any
possessor of a static
electric machine will
readily confirm this
hence, we find that an
automobile, which is
nothing but a huge
static machine on rubber
rollers rubbing
against a highly electrified
asphalt pavement,
produces static electri-
;
;
By George Holmes
and excellent portrayals. Suffice it to say
that evervone acquitted themselves admirably.
The stage mechanism of this simultane-
ous narrative has been conceived by Jesse
J. Robbins, and is a distinct as well as
surprising novelty. The various settings
are permanently arranged on three movable
platforms, with guides arranged to keep
them plumb and in place. They operate
noiselessly, being supported on rubber tired
wheels. The electrical equipment, including
the lighting
electric motor is
and
such
the control of the
that it moves with
the platforms.
A large electric motor is set in the cellar
as shown, of about 10 horse-power capacity
and arranged with two rope winding drums.
one of which revolves rather fast, and the
other slow. The "prologue" takes place on
platform No. 1—and while the two voices
are speaking, telling the young wife to
hesitate, the platform in the semi-darkness
(this scene taking place with just a ray of
moonlight coming thru a bay window) is
moving slowly toward the back or "up
stage." This is accomplisht by the operator
in the cellar who pulls on cable No 1,
by winding it on one of the motor driven
drums. As soon as the last words are
spoken, the stage is in darkness and scenes
numbers two and three are quickly brought
together with cable No. 3
on the fast drum—Scene
by snubbing it
two being the
"uptown mansion" and scene three the
"poor down-town home." By an ingenious
arrangement two moving curtains,
working automatically, block out scenes
two and three while scene one is being
moved, but as soon as that has been set
back, the curtains keep moving to it so as
to be out of the way when scenes two and
three are brought together.
city in an abundant quantity. As any owner
of a static machine knows if the crank is
turned and the electricity escapes, a peculiar
hissing sound is observed which is due to
the fact that the static electricity escapes
into the air. The same thing happens when
an automobile runs at high speed along the
asphalt, the electricity emerging from the
rubber tires and escaping into the surrounding
air with the aforementioned swishing
noise. In this case the automobile is negatively
charged, while the ground (asphalt) is
Did You Ever Hea r the Strange. Swishing Sound Made by an Automobile. Running
Along the Asphalt on a Clear Cold Winter Day? If Vou Did You Heard a Static
Electricity Discharge.
There is no division wall between the two
sets and both are always in view. But only
one scene is used at a time. Attention is
focused on the side where the action is
progressing by a clever arrangement of
lights.
On the front of the auditorium balcony are
six pairs of "baby spotlights," one in each
pair giving amber light and the other white
light. When the scenes of luxury and
idleness are progressing, they are illuminated
with amber light ; the other side of
the stage being in deep shadow. The tenement
scene, in turn, is flooded with white
light and the amber rays dimmed. The
effects of contrast are telling and exceedingly
novel.
After the first act the two clamps on
cable No. 3, are placed in the new positions,
PI and P2, as indicated. The end of cable
No. 3, with clamp No. 1 is shifted to platform
3—position (PI) by the stage attaches,
while clamp No. 2 is shifted to platform
2—position (P2). Each platform has
a small trap-door as indicated, which gives
ready access to cables and clamps. The
work of changing the clamps on the cables
is the work of but a few seconds and
easily accomplisht. The positions of platforms
2 and 3 are not changed during the
progress of acts one, two and three.
At the end of the third act the stage is
darkened and cable number 3 is worked on
the motor-driven drum in same direction
as previously, thereby pulling the two platforms
apart. Cable number two is pulled
next, bringing platform number one and its
setting "down stage." Then the lights go
up, friend wife sees how narrow has been
her escape, hubby comes home, and this
being her birthday, a grand party takes
place and "all's well that ends well."
positively charged, and the high speed of the
rubber tires rolling along the asphalt produces
a sufficient electro-static stress which
may amount to several thousand volts. This,
of course, charges or electrifies the automobile
to a high degree, and it has often been
noted by motorists, that long sparks can be
drawn from such an electrified automobile
the minute it comes to rest. Of course, this
charge is dissipated and lost a few minutes
after the car comes to rest.
While there is no danger, as a rule, by
thus highly electrifying
an automobile, it sometimes
happens that
should a person, who
had not been riding in
the same car and who
stands on the ground
should touch the gasoline
tank (which perhaps
had been leaking),
an explosion often follows.
The reason for
this is that the car is
still highly charged,
while the body of the
third person presents a
good path for the electricity
to surge into the
ground, and if the
spark made is anywhere
near the gasoline tank,
of course, results are
apt to be disastrous. Using
anti-skid chains on
auto wheels obv iates this.