"All projection lamps should be adequately ventilated. The recommended practice as set forth in the report of the Projection Practice Sub-Committee of the Society of Motion Picutre & Television Engineers (Journal of the S.M.P.T.E., Vol.,XXXIX, September 1942, pp. 158) is as follows:
"'The carbon arc exhaust system shall be a positive mechanical exhaust system independent of all other ventilating systems of the theatre. Each projector, spotlamp, stereopticon, or floodlight machine, of the carbon arc type, shall be connectred by a flue to a common duct, which duct shall lead directly out of doors.'"

Blah, blah, blah, c.f.m, etc. It's in the National bulletin #5, "Operating Precautions".

Maybe John Pytlak can search up the RP # to further agonize poor Scott.

Ventilation is definitely on the list, but will probably have to wait a while. Just getting the thing up to the theatre balcony is going to be, umm, "interesting."

Show us a picture, Scott! I tend to minimalist cosmetic repair on antique stuff if possible, if the original cosmetics are good enough to be useful & appreciated. I sort of like finding good, original condition items that just have a small well-done patch, etc.

The bearings on those old lamps were very beefy and smooth. Have you tried moving it around yet? You probably won't need to do anything more than clean and lube them. As for paint, I guess the real old Supers were black. The later ones were crinkle-finish gray. Probably the same paints recommended on this forum for restoring projector heads.

Another Film-Tech member and I disassembled this to get it to the theatre, but there is still some question as to whether it will fit through a particular doorway.

I'm pretty sure that this is the long-throw model, as it was previously used at the Boston Garden (large basketball arena). I think I will have to get some neutral-density gels in order to avoid blinding people with it.

The short-throw can be used for some pretty long shots. We used to use short-throws in the Caesars Palace Circus Maximus showroom at about 110' to the stage. When they switched to Xenon they went with the long-throw version. Never did like those--they were very awkward lamps to run.

Paul

Paul -- I'll post pictures in a couple of weeks when I get this set up. We need to have an electrician come out and put in the twist-lock plug and check the wiring to be sure that the circuit can safely handle 30 amps.

Strong switched to the new pedestal with that shallow cradle design when they converted to Xenon. Unfortunately the new design doesn't balance as well (narrower range of tilt angle) since the center of gravity moves more with that cradle (over center effect). Ah well. Just balance it for the tilt angle you will use most often. Keep a knee under it when you operate, and it won't get too far away from you. All good 'Vegas spot operators keep a knee under the lamp--helps control the lamp and frees the hands to do the fancy simultaneous color, size, focus and strip changes we were famous for.

Yeah, all the Xenon models except the Gladiator have square-section barrels.
Looks more "modern" I suppose.

Paul

quote:

---

Strong carbon arc Trouper in origninal black paint.
If you restore one, it should come out looking just like this.

---

That's a strange looking spot, I never saw anything that looked like that. How old is it? It's got a sort of modern, streamlined look to it, but the fact that it's carbon, and quite rusty, suggests that it may be older than it looks. The lamphouse looks rather small, or is it just that the whole thing is very large, with a normal sized lamp? It's difficult to tell from the picture. How are the carbons arranged in this, is it a reflector or a condenser arc?

Most of the spots I've seen over here have been 1930s Stelmar, or 1950s Philips, which look rather similar, with a 'haystack' shape lamphouse, and a colour magazine right at the front, operated by rods or wires. The bed of the thing on which everything is mounted is made of steel bars, and there are sliding weights, which can be moved to adjust the balance of the thing. I can't find a picture of one at the moment, but there are some pictures of a Stelmar spot on the www.cinephoto.co.uk site, in the 'Arcs and spots' and 'Odeon Leicester Square' sections. The Odeon also had a BTH spot.

Can anyone tell me what this spot is:

This is likely to be an American model, as I saw it in an American theatre.

This looks like a half way between the sort of spots I am used to seeing, and the Strong one. A more typical European spot would have the pedestal further forward, with the lamphouse behind it, as with the Strong one.

The National Carbon Bulletins available in the maunals section of the film-tech site mention a type of ac arc, where the carbons are almost parallel to each other. I have never seen this arrangement, what type of equipment used it?

More modern spots seem to use mainly CSI, (I don't like the colour), or HMI lamps, xenons don't seem very common, but in film projectors, xenon is the norm, I have never seem an HMI projection lantern. Why the difference, is HMI cheaper to use in spots than xenon?

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

In an interesting one-off, the Stardust Hotel here modified its center booth short-throw Super Trouper by fitting it with a Peerless Magnarc lamphouse in order to get enough light for use in the long-running Lido de Paris show.

The Genarco Metro is my sentimental favorite since it was my "break-in" lamp at the Tropicana Hotel in 1974 when I was recruited into IATSE Local 720. The Metro was the total opposite in spotlight design philosophy from any of the Strong lamps. To wit:

Operator position: Strong--right side, Genarco--left side

Lamp optics: Strong--reflector, Genarco--condenser lens

Carbons: Strong--in-line, Genarco--offset negative, rotating positive

Size control: Strong--slide handle with auto-focus and separately controlled iris
Genarco--rack and pinion wheel with integrated iris and separate manual focus lever

Shutters: Strong--horizontal blades; control mounted above the barrel; no lamphouse douser
Genarco--horizontal and vertical blades; controls mounted below the barrel; lamphouse douser

Fader: Strong--internal doors or front-mounted iris
Genarco--front-mounted iris

Color boom: Strong--magnetic pull up or mechanical latch
Genarco--gravity drop

Output: Strong--varied with spot size, getting dimmer with increased size; efficient
Genarco--constant regardless of spot size; inefficient at any size smaller than flood

The Genarco's were magnificent brute-force lamps that simply blew away the competition with raw light output, especially when set for flood. We had five of them here in town--the Tropicana's two are still intact though no longer in use. The Strong's were more of a finesse lamp perfectly suited for the precision cues demanded in showrooms back then. There must have been hundreds of them in town in their heyday.

Many of today's smaller spots use HMIs instead of Xenon--probably due to cost and maybe safety concerns (spots do get banged around more than projectors). HMIs put out a very discontinuous spectrum somewhere in the 4000s K correlated color temp. Acceptable for stage use but not the best for image projection--colors get all messed up in a way similar to what happens when shooting under regular (i.e. not Kinoflo) fluorescent lamps.

Regards,

Paul

 |  IP: Logged