Modern Conveniences in 1795?

[VAM]

Looks like those secret panels in Collinwood and at the
Cemetery on Eagle Hill work by electricity.  The laterns are battery operated -no flickering flames.Did I not see Angelique use a ball point pen instead of a quill when she signed Joshua's papers? Of course, the witch could write with absolutely nothing...

[Ben]

Looks like those secret panels in Collinwood and at the
Cemetery on Eagle Hill work by electricity

That brings up a question that has been bugging me for years.  Did those panels have to be electric?  I assumed there must have been a non-electric method for getting them to operate (via the link on the outside and the step-block on the inside).  

Anyone out there know if there was supposed to be a period-appropriate science behind the secret panels?  I mean, didn't the pyramids in Egypt contain similar secret panels?  Or have I been having too many hot toddys lately?

Ben

[Gerard]

And yet, whether it's 1795 or 1968, you still can't find a bathroom anywhere when you need one.

Gerard

[VAM]

That brings up a question that has been bugging me for years.  Did those panels have to be electric?  I assumed there must have been a non-electric method for getting them to operate (via the link on the outside and the step-block on the inside).  

Anyone out there know if there was supposed to be a period-appropriate science behind the secret panels?  I mean, didn't the pyramids in Egypt contain similar secret panels?  Or have I been having too many hot toddys lately?

Ben

There is a pulley type device (ex. dumb-waiter) used for underground railroad hiding places.

[Dr. Eric Lang]

I can excuse the secret panels - these may well have been operated with a sort of spring-loaded device. However, what I see consistently throughout the series, regardless of the time period, is the very visible gas jets in the fire place. Sometimes you can even hear them.

[AllenCollins]

From a construction point of view the masoleum door could work without electronics, however it would not open as smoothly or as easily as shown on the show. There would also be more of a stone scrapping sound and the hindges to hold a door of that size and weight would have to be some extremely heavy duty YO MAMA hindges. Of course this type of hardware was used in Europe on Old castles, (ie on a drawbridge door) but again I have a problem seeing Willie opening this door in 1967 after 170+ years of no use, (and without oil or lubracant) or little David opening the door by himself.

But after all arent these the things that make TV great?

B

[Philippe Cordier]

There is a pulley type device (ex. dumb-waiter) used for underground railroad hiding places.

VAM, that reminds me that the historic House of the Seven Gables (now a museum, in Salem, Mass., I believe) that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel has a secret stone spiral staircase.  I saw a photo of it on the Internet once.  It was very narrow and cramped looking.  I don't know what type of secret panel it was behind, though.  I wish they would have had a picture of that on the website, too.

From a construction point of view the masoleum door could work without electronics, however it would not open as smoothly or as easily as shown on the show. There would also be more of a stone scrapping sound and the hindges to hold a door of that size and weight would have to be some extremely heavy duty YO MAMA hindges. Of course this type of hardware was used in Europe on Old castles, (ie on a drawbridge door) but again I have a problem seeing Willie opening this door in 1967 after 170+ years of no use, (and without oil or lubracant) or little David opening the door by himself.

And that reminds me how I've been thinking lately that they seem to add sound effects for things like the creaking coffin lids and the creaking gate on the mausoleum.  I never thought about that when I viewed the series last time!

I searched our house from top to bottom for a secret passageway when I was a kid, but didn't find anything.  I remember thinking, "How could someone build a house and not put a secret passage in it?"

[Birdie]

The secret staircase in the House of the Seven Gables is next to the fireplace.  I don't remember how it opened, it has been a few years.  We might do it again this spring or early fall.  My daughter goes to Salem State and we venture up there very often.   I can relate I always wanted a secret passage way or  secret room.  The nearest thing we had was the eves.  I use to go and play in them, we gained access to them throuh my closet in the house I grow up in.  There was a storage area under the backstairs that was fun to hide it also.  My parents sold that house a year after I got married.  I wonder if the new owners children had as much fun as I did in those special places.

Birdie

[Philippe Cordier]

The secret staircase in the House of the Seven Gables is next to the fireplace.  I don't remember how it opened, it has been a few years.  We might do it again this spring or early fall.  My daughter goes to Salem State and we venture up there very often.  

Oh, Birdie, I envy you!  I would be so excited to see the actual house.  It was filmed recently for some book discussion that I happened to catch on cable a few months ago (C-SPAN?).

I've long believed that "The House of the Seven Gables" (the novel) was very much in the background of Art Wallace's mind when he was developing his original story bible.  I don't have time to detail the similarities here (or remember them all offhand).  This wasn't my idea.  There was a website that I happened upon a few years ago that detailed this.  I have tried many times to find this site again, but to no avail.  (I lost the URL, and have literally spent hours on google searches, etc.)  

Does anyone else know anything about that website, or whose it was?  The site was called something like "An Online Course in Dark Shadows."  It was actually set up like an actual college course.

I can relate I always wanted a secret passage way or  secret room.  The nearest thing we had was the eves.  I use to go and play in them, we gained access to them throuh my closet in the house I grow up in.  There was a storage area under the backstairs that was fun to hide it also.  My parents sold that house a year after I got married.  I wonder if the new owners children had as much fun as I did in those special places.

Oh, again, Birdie!      

Your description reminded me of my grandparent's house on the second floor.  It was a two-story stucco house, and two of the bedrooms upstairs had slanted ceilings from the pitch of the roof, and were connected through the closets by a narrow passageway.
You wouldn't know the passageway was there or that the rooms were connected by it unless you went into the closets of each room.  Really neat ... I'd forgotten completely about this.  This house was in the country, and they later moved to town, so I'd forgotten.  Thank you so much for bringing this wonderful memory back to me!

Vlad

[Carol]

I've long believed that "The House of the Seven Gables" (the novel) was very much in the background of Art Wallace's mind when he was developing his original story bible.  I don't have time to detail the similarities here (or remember them all offhand).  This wasn't my idea.  There was a website that I happened upon a few years ago that detailed this.  I have tried many times to find this site again, but to no avail.  (I lost the URL, and have literally spent hours on google searches, etc.)  

Does anyone else know anything about that website, or whose it was?  The site was called something like "An Online Course in Dark Shadows."  It was actually set up like an actual college course.

Vlad

    I believe it was called Dark Shadows 101. Here is the url for it:

http://users.rcn.com/sjohnson.javanet/index.html/

If it doesn't work, do a Yahoo Search for "Dark Shadows 101". It's the first one listed and will take you to AlaneSue's Favorite DS Sites.  A few times I tried, it said "Site unknown" but it did show up just a few minutes ago.  I have it bookmarked now.

Hope this helps.

Carol

[Philippe Cordier]

Carol, that was it!  Thank you!  I don't know why I've never been able to find that URL again -- perhaps I didn't have the correct search terms.

IMO, whoever it is who has this website is the MOST insightful DS commentator I've encountered.  Wish he were on this board.

*  *  *  *

Slight correction of my memory (above).  I was only about 10 years old at the time, so I can't remember exactly, but the more that I've thought about it, there may not have actually been a passageway between the two rooms in my grandparents' house.  Rather, I think that there was a door in the back of one closet, which opened into the back of the closet of the next room.  But you'd never know about this link between the rooms unless you went way in the back of either closet.

There were some mysterious twists and turns and stairways and passageways behind the choir loft and sanctuary in the church we attended, too.  

I've often dreamed of trying to find my way through these warrens of my grandparents' house and the church in years since.  Recurring dreams that I usually don't remember until I dream about them again.

Vlad

[Raineypark]

Vlad, I think dreams of wandering through unfamiliar rooms must be universal.  

I have dreamt of rooms beyond rooms in strange houses since I was a small child.....but except for the Housing Project I was born into, I have lived in single story ranch homes my entire life, with nary a secret passage or hidden panel among them....to my everlasting regret!  

Oh, and I never read "The House of the Seven Gables" until I was at least 40!  

Raineypark