Lighting Effects on the
Hupfeld Helios III/39 Orchestrion

The imposing and majestic center section of the Helios contains the majority of the dazzling art-glass and lighting effects. Central to it all is the beautiful three-dimensional animated scene, which boasts both mechanical and lighting effects. As the orchestrion plays, the lighting effects go through a four-minute long sequence depicting daytime, sunset, nighttime, and then sunrise. As if the lighting effects alone were not enough, their is also a (1) miniature train that glides across the arched stone bridge, moving in front of a lighted train station; (2) a funicular railroad that climbs and descends a steep mountain grade; (3) a windmill that twirls in a steady mountain breeze, (4) a water wheel that turns and provides power for the millhouse situated alongside the mountain stream, and (5) two zeppelins that in turn navigate slowly across the diorama's sky. Directly above the animated scene is a colorful "Fancy Light," consisting of a rotating lighted ball mounted inside a cone of slimly tapered mirrors that provides a beautiful kaleidoscope of dancing color. And yet above this is an illuminated arch of yellow-green glass jewels set into the decorative casework.

Sunset in "Hupfeld Land." As the sun slowly sets over this picturesque alpine setting its warm reflection on the mountain peaks and placid lake bring a sense of intense color and gaiety to this happy valley. Meanwhile, up in the sky a zeppelin glides lazily along (to the left of the mountain peak), while far below it a windmill twirls, a funicular railroad inches it way up a steep incline, a water wheel revolves on the front side of the millhouse and a passenger train glides across the arched stone bridge near the bottom of the picture. Soon, as dusk finally settles over the peaceful valley, a soft light will glow in the windows of many buildings as the warmth of sunset evolves into the darkness of nighttime. Then, before long, the golden light from a rising sun (from off-scene left) evolves into the light of full day, ready for sunset to come along once again. The entire 24-hour day cycle takes about four minutes from beginning to end.

The backside of the Helios's upper center removable panel. The "Fancy Lamp" is at the top. At upper left is the geared drum-type electrical switching unit that controls all of the timed lighting effects on the machine. There are six electrical circuits for the animated scene alone, which are: (1) daytime; (2) sunset; (3) night; and (4) morning, with two specialized circuits that project (5) the setting sun and (6) the moon. The drum-switch also sets the twinkling lights on the facade into action, which go into 30-second flash sequences that change approximately every 2-minutes. It takes about four minutes for the drum-switch to make one complete revolution, resulting in one complete twenty-four hour Hupfeld day and two different flash sequences for facade lighting.

The mechanical effects, i.e., the moving trains, flying Zeppelins, waterwheel, and twirling windmill, are powered from below by a steel shaft running the entire width of the animated scene, and that is fitted with little round-belt pulleys that connect to the various mechanical effect mechanisms.

Backside of the "Fancy Lamp." The twirling polished brass and glass jeweled bulb (when viewed from the front side) is rotated by means of a round leather belt drive system. Inside the rotating bulb is a stationary electric lamp held rigidly in place by a hollow pipe. This pipe also serves as the bearing area for the outer rotating collar that supports the fancy jeweled bulb. The red fiber insulator at the top holds the brass electrical contacts that connect the removable front panel with the main casework wiring.

The Helios's two matching side-wings are essentially mirror images of each other, with identical Hupfeld style art-glass panels. Small electric lamps artistically placed about the art-glass panels flash in one of several pre-determined sequences while the great instrument is in operation. The new side-wing art-glass panels were made in Ron Cappel's own workshop by David Sorrow, and were patterned after existing original panels from another Hupfeld orchestrion housed in the same style case. Originally, each side-wing were fitted with a single heavy beveled glass mirror, both of which have been saved with the instrument for possible future use when so desired. One of the beveled mirrors had the date 1911 penciled on its backside near its edge.

The left side-wing contains the three large scale ranks of bass pipework (not pictured here), while the right side-wing (pictured here) contains the orchestra bells, snare drum, bass drum and cymbal striker mechanism (the actual crash cymbal is located at the top center of the main chassis, above the Melodie Violin pipework).