CHAPTER VII.

CYCLORAMAS. The origin of the cyclorama is traced to the use of scenery by the Italians two or three hundred years ago. They arranged outside of their windows scenes painted on canvas that simulated extensive gardens. Robert Fulton is said to have exhibited a panorama in Paris at the beginning of the present century. It was not, however, a cylindrical painting, as is used in the cyclorama, and the effect was not as illusive. Cycloramas have been on exhibition in many cities of the United States, and they are also very popular abroad. The cyclorama which we illustrate is the “Battle of Gettysburg,” which has been shown in New York, Brooklyn, and other cities of the United States. It was painted by M. Paul Philippoteaux. The “Battle of Gettysburg” covers an immense sheet of canvas four hundred feet long and fifty feet high. The canvas was imported from Belgium, none being manufactured in the United States which would answer the purpose; it is nine yards wide, and the seams run up and down. The immense canvas is supported from the sides of the building so as to form a cylinder. The building is circular, and a cornice is provided which runs entirely around the building; the upper edge of the canvas is nailed to this cornice. The cloth is first rolled smoothly on an iron roller surfaced with wood, fifty feet long. The roller is held vertically in heavy framework which runs on tracks around the building. From the roller thus carried around, the cloth is gradually paid out, as shown in our engraving. As fast as it comes off the roller it is seized and held by pincers while the edge is being tacked to the cornice. The lower edge is secured to a circle of gas pipes which run entirely around the building. As the pipe would not give sufficient weight to stretch the canvas, a twenty-five-pound weight is hung at every third foot. [Illustration: SECTION THROUGH A CYCLORAMA.] The effect of the stretching is that the canvas loses the true cylindrical shape; its sides are no longer parallel, but curve slightly inward, about one foot in amount, at the center. Thus, at the horizon line, the most distant part of the scene, the painting is about a foot nearer the vertical line than in the foreground. In absolute distance from the eye the difference is still greater. Owing to obliquity of the line of sight, the foreground, which seems so near at hand, is really much further off than the horizon. [Illustration: NAILING ON THE CANVAS.] In a cyclorama of this kind it is necessary to have the scene portrayed with the utmost fidelity. The result is that the landscape is really an artistic transcript of photographic views of the field. The artist first went to the scene of the great battle of Gettysburg, and selected one point of view, and caused a small stage to be erected at this point, which was of the same height as that upon which the people were to stand in the completed cyclorama. Around the stage a line of pickets was driven in a circle, as shown at the point B. The distance was measured from the top of the stage as a center. From the top of the scaffold three series of ten photographs each were taken, the instrument being sighted by means of the posts. This series of photographs showed the entire field; one series being taken for the foreground, while the other two, by their focusing and exposure, were devoted to the middle distance and background. Each view was divided into squares, as shown in our illustration; the canvas was marked off by corresponding divisions, and the photographs were copied square by square; the blending of the ten views and the aërial perspective was, of course, the critical part of the performance. The painting was done from a scaffold which traveled around on the same tracks which carried the roller frame, as shown in our illustration. [Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHING THE FIELD.] The painting was done in oil, tinsel being occasionally employed. After the circular wall was covered, the foreground next claimed the attention of the painter and his assistants. A wooden platform was built which extended all around the platform upon which the visitors stood, and earth and sod covered these boards. Fences, tufts of grass, wheat, etc., lent their aid to fill up the scene. The continuation of the road was met almost perfectly on the canvas; in fact, it was almost impossible to see the line of demarcation between the real and the painted foreground. We give an interesting engraving of this method of constructing a realistic scene. [Illustration: PAINTING A CYCLORAMA.] Two men are seen carrying a litter. The more distant soldier is painted on the canvas; the litter is real, two of its handles passing through holes in the canvas. The figure resting on the litter and the nearer bearer are cut out of boards and painted. Other scenes are similarly painted. The spectators occupy an elevated stage which they mount by means of staircases running under the scaffolding of the foreground. Once upon the platform the spectators lose all idea of orientation, and cannot tell the points of the compass or have any conception of the size of the building. Over the stage a circular screen is suspended so that it shades it from the light which enters from the skylight. The sky is thus lighted up, and a peculiar luminous effect favoring the aërial perspective results. At night a number of electric lights, suspended out of sight of the spectators, give about the same effect. Many of the details of the picture were obtained from eye-witnesses of the battle; the uniforms, the modes of carrying the blankets, and the details of harness, and the minor parts of the scenery were studied carefully. Everything in the building combines to make a wonderful illusion. [Illustration: HOW THE ILLUSION IS PRODUCED WITH REAL OBJECTS.] THE ELECTRIC CYCLORAMA. Notwithstanding the fact that cycloramas of the pattern we have just described were the result of the most careful blending of science and art, still their popularity seems to have been limited, and the cyclorama has been, in numerous cases, obliged to bow to the taste of the day. One has been converted into a circus, others into skating rinks and bicycle academies. The cyclorama we are about to describe ought to be able to bring panorama once more into fashion. The idea of Mr. Chase, a resident of Chicago, was to turn to account the most recent discoveries in the way of panorama photography, projection apparatus, electric lighting, and the systems which permit of faithfully representing the phenomena of motion. The possibility of causing a considerable number of views to pass before the spectator in a limited amount of time, of imparting life to them, gives the cyclorama an animation and diversity which is lacking in the ordinary panorama. [Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF THE CHASE ELECTRIC CYCLORAMA.] An ordinary panorama building is used; spectators stand upon the floor of a cylindrical chamber one hundred feet in diameter and thirty feet in height. Upon the walls are thrown photographs placed in a projecting apparatus suspended from the center of the scenery, after the manner of a chandelier. Our first engraving gives a general view of the panorama as used at the “Chicago Fire” cyclorama. Our second engraving shows the projection apparatus, and our third where a battery of lanterns are used, showing the lantern carriages. Nothing more is required to convert an ordinary cyclorama into an electric cyclorama than to paint the back canvas white and to suspend the platform in the center of the building. [Illustration: PLATFORM FOR THE OPERATOR AND PROJECTION APPARATUS SUSPENDED IN THE CENTER OF THE HALL.] [Illustration: THE PROJECTION APPARATUS.] The apparatus is secured in the center of the panorama or cyclorama building by a steel tube and guys of steel wire. The operator stands in the center, upon a circular platform, and is surrounded by an annular table supporting eight carriages, upon which are mounted the lanterns, cinematographs, kinetoscopes, and all arrangements required for imparting life to the scene and producing the transformation. Each lantern is provided with an arc light, and the wires to furnish the current pass through the suspension tube. The annular table carries the rheostats by which the light is regulated, according to the effects to be produced with iris diaphragms, which permit of obtaining vanishing effects and night, sunrise, or sunset effects. The projecting lanterns, eight in number, are double, one being ranged over the other, thus permitting of the preparation of a view, and focusing it, while the spectators are looking at another. The change of pictures is not effected until everything is in order. The carriages which support the lanterns permit of accurately adjusting views so that the registry is perfect. The eight positive slides produce a panorama three hundred feet in circumference and over thirty feet high. The rays which emanate from each of the projecting lanterns are such that they would overlap did not a frame fixed to the lenses, and carefully regulated, suppress those parts of the views which would encroach upon one another. When the lanterns are properly arranged it is possible to project moving pictures upon any part of the canvas screen.