In 1909 Gaston Leroux drew inspiration from the counterweight accident in his novel Phantom of the Opera, in which the phantom dislodges the chandelier from an opera house ceiling. Chomette, one of the unfortunate occupants of the fourth tier, was struck in the head by a girder that had fallen from the fifth tier, trapped until rescue workers were notified she was missing by her daughter, and was pronounced dead when workers found her.Ī keen observer will notice the similarity between the opera house incident in 1896 and Broadway's Phantom of the Opera. The disks fell through the ornate ceiling, through the unoccupied fifth tier, and came to rest on the fourth tier's guests.

This increased the number of injuries, but, with the exception of a single casualty, it diminished the mass and severity of a blow from any given projectile. As the weights fell the pins holding the disks together sheared, and the disks fell over a more widespread seating area. In addition, each counterweight was comprised of eighteen disks. Because each object was hung by a number of counterweights, however, the bronze reflector to which the faulty cables were connected did not fall (it was not, contrary to popular belief, the chandelier that fell), rather the weights themselves came loose to the surprise of the opera's patrons. Forensic specialists at the time speculated that, based on the distinctive break in the cables, one of these wires came in contact with the two cables, short-circuited the system, and generated enough heat to melt through the steel of the cables. While they were supposed to be kept insulated from the cables, electrical wires ran alongside to a power source. The chandelier and reflector were each connected to their own series of weights by 'wrist-width' steel cables. The chandelier and bronze reflector behind the chandelier were supported by a system of counterweights that insured the fixture's firm attachment to the ceiling. The Cantilene from Helle, sung by Rose Caron

Paris opera house 2013