, and contrived effects of colour by means of silk
screens of various hues placed before the foot and side lights. He was
the first to represent a mist by suspending a gauze between the scene
and the spectator. For two seasons he held a dioramic exhibition of
his own, called the Eidophusikon, at the Patagonian Theatre in Exeter
Change, and afterwards at a house in Panton Square. The special
attraction of the entertainment was a storm at sea, with the wreck of
the "Halsewell," East Indiaman. No pains were spared to picture the
tempest and its most striking effects. The clouds were movable,
painted upon a canvas of vast size, and rising diagonally by means of
a winding machine. The artist excelled in his treatment of clouds, and
by regulating the action of his windlass he could direct their
movements, now permitting them to rise slowly from the horizon and
sail obliquely across the heavens and now driving them swiftly along
according to their supposed density and the power ascribed to the
wind. The lightning quivered through transparent places in the sky.
The waves carved in soft wood from models made in clay, coloured with
great skill, and highly varnished to reflect the lightning, rose and
fell with irregular action, flinging the foam now here, now there,
diminishing in size, and dimming in colour, as they receded from the
spectator.
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