Drum-and-Shaft System

Drum-and-Shaft System, early method of moving theatre scenery by means of a rope fixed to a cylindrical shaft. A lever was inserted through the shaft and the whole twisted like a corkscrew, drawing the piece of scenery to the required position. An improvement on this method was achieved by the use of a circular drum, or barrel, built round the shaft and considerably larger in diameter. The shaft was then rotated by pulling on a line wound round the drum, and in this way the piece was moved more easily and steadily. The system was used to move borders, bridges, cloudings, drops, and traps. By using drums of different diameters on the same shaft several pieces of scenery could be moved at the same time, and by attaching them singly to different drums they could be made to move at different speeds. The Glory, a scenic effect frequently employed in Renaissance and Baroque spectacles in which a number of clustered cloudings gradually expanded into a great aureole, was controlled by the drum-and-shaft method. It is now obsolete, all pieces of flown scenery today being worked independently.