Carriage-and-Frame

Carriage-and-Frame (or Chariot-and-Pole), device for changing the wings, devised by Torelli in 1641 for the Teatro Novissimo in Venice; it was used extensively on the Continent, and can still be seen in operation at Drottningholm. Each wing-piece was suspended just clear of the stage on a rectangular frame (or on a pole) which projected downward through a long slit in the floor, and was borne on a wheeled carriage running on rails in the cellar. At each wing position this arrangement existed in duplicate, the two carriages being connected by ropes to a drum serving all the wing-sets in such a way that as one carriage of each pair moved off stage, its neighbour moved on. The withdrawn wing was then replaced by the wing needed for the next scene. In England a somewhat similar system was used to change the book wings.