Odd Wisconsin by Erika Janik

Author:Erika Janik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Cure for Long–Winded Politicians

When Wisconsin's second Madison capitol building was finished in 1869, an enormous chandelier was suspended from the ceiling of the west wing. Lawmakers felt nervous sitting beneath it, though, so it was soon removed, leaving a hole in the ceiling. After twenty years, a small mountain of dust and grime had accumulated around the edges of the hole, directly above the heads of the elected officials.

One day in the early 1890s, as a particularly verbose legislator droned on for hours, a bored colleague imagined how he could put all that dust to good use. He secretly instructed a page to lay a heavy plank across the hole, propped up on a stick, and to run a cord from the stick down to a nearby closet. The next day, when yet another speaker launched into an oration threatening to last for hours, the inventor snuck off to the closet and gave the cord a sharp tug. The plank crashed down with a deafening thud and “a stifling cloud of dust shot out from the hole and scattered over the members below,” according to the Sheboygan Press Gazette, December 13, 1924. “There was no more talking that day.”

After that, the overhead silencer became something of an institution in the Wisconsin assembly. A page was assigned to reset it regularly, and some lawmakers even brought umbrellas to their desks to protect themselves from the shower of dust. As a result, legislators learned to express themselves in the fewest possible words, and if any member left the room during a speech, the legislator, with anxious glances at the ceiling, usually picked up the pace and brought his speech to a hasty conclusion.

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