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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: Is this really the end for carbons?
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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-05-2002 12:29 AM
quote:
When carbon trims were down to about four inches, we inserted them in "carbon savers", either the ones we rolled from Maxwell House Coffee tins, or the commercial ones made from steel bar stock
Gerard, what's the design for rolling carbon savers from coffee can stock? Umm, do they make coffee cans any more? Would aluminum soft drink can stock work? Does the arc just vaporize the carbon saver? We'll be doing some carbon economizing with carbons in that booth on calibration & non-ticketholder nights. quote:
Get rid of them, you will never regret it.
I'd like them to get some other toys in that booth first! Paint is high on the list, along with new 1:37 lenses.
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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 08-05-2002 06:01 AM
I once visited the London Coliseum Cinerama, and saw two positive carbons being joined together, but I cannot remember exactly how it was done, I think it was with the aid of a machine, but I could be wrong.I can remember only two makes of carbons in my early days, being MORGANITE, or SHIP. At my cinema from 1978 I used MARBLE 7mm & 8mm carbons in Peerless Magnarcs. I had no problem with these carbons and they burnt very satisfactory. I changed to xenons in 1982. Jack Roe Cinema Supplies, who still supply MARBLE carbons, also use to supply excellent copper carbon misers, which joined carbons very firmly.
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 08-05-2002 01:47 PM
I guess coffee no longer comes in tin-plated steel cans, but vegetable or soup cans should do. I think aluminum beverage cans would be too soft and have a lower melting point. Projectionists simply cut the tins into strips wide enough to hold a trim to a
fresh carbon, and rolled them around a carbon or bar stock of the same
diameter, to make a snug tube. You want to sand any paint off first to secure good electrical contact and avoid burning paint fumes.The commercial savers I have used did not join two carbons, but had a
spring-steel strip to hold the trim in the hollow end. The otherend was solid, turned down to a smaller diameter ( the way some large drill bits have turned-down shanks to fit a standard size .25" drill chuck.) Some had a central plunger pin for knocking out the remaining stub to insert another. The shank was clamped into the lamphouse jaws.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 08-05-2002 03:18 PM
I want to put a carbon arc behind a DLP projector; that would be really silly, wouldn't it? Or would it... Take a look at:
http://www.cinephoto.co.uk/eidophor.htm The picture at the bottom of the page shows a very early model of Eidophor, maybe not digital, but it was an electronic projector, and it did use a carbon arc! Later models, which I remember seeing in use, used xenon lamps, there is a picture of one of these, as well as a lot of other interesting stuff on the cinephoto site. I rather like the original Eidophor, it looks like some sort of sinister military device used in atomic weapons production, or something. Something else I can't help wondering, that arc wouldn't burn for very long, did they only use these things for short periods, or were they possibly the only video projectors ever used with changeovers?
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Gordon Bachlund
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 696
From: Monrovia, CA, USA
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted 08-05-2002 07:50 PM
I wouldn't give up on the carbon arc quite yet, folks. Decent carbons are still made, and, while carbon arc booths in the US and the UK may be a rarity these days, there are still some around, even in private screening rooms. And, given the number of small cinemas in other countries where money is scarce, as well as the remaining carbon arc follow spots, photographic equipment, and advertising searchlights, they will be with us for some time to come.The "carbon savers" that I was obliged to use in my carbon arc booth days were tubular, fabricated of soft-drawn copper, with a loose seam that could be tightened with a pair of gas pliers to effect electrical continuity. These worked quite well except when a miscalculation caused them to burn through. Those were the days! 
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