Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Can You Identify This Lamphouse?

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-01-2015, 08:24 PM:

I found this 1947 photo a couple of 16mm projectors set up in the booth at the
Vogue Theater in an old business magazine. I recognize the 16mm's as being
a pair of Ampro-Arc Model AA's. But can anyone identify the 35mm lamphouse
just barely visible on the right? I know I've seen these lamps before, but I just
can't seem to remember what make/model they are? (I must be gettin' old!)

This photo also explains the purpose of the 'extra' ports in the booth that I've
never been able to figure out. They weren't the right size or configuration for
a Brenograph, but this pic makes the reason for their presence clear now.

Just for fun here are a couple of photos of the (very crowded) Vogue booth
taken around Y2k11, just before they downgraded to digtial projection.

The 35mm Projector is in place, and they've actually managed
to shoe-horn a Christie digitalcinemaprojectortingy in here!

Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 03-01-2015, 10:07 PM:

That is likely a Strong Victory lamp house. It was sold under a couple of names that escape me right now. Ran on one continuous feed screw with different pitch for the negative and positive. Thus it was a perfect feed combination for only one amperage.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-02-2015, 12:55 AM:

Had those Victory lamps in one theatre I ran down in a small town here in Idaho .. but I thought they looked like Strong Moguls-the way the motor was mounted on the back end behind the reflector, but could be mistaken.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-02-2015, 03:31 AM:

Sorry, Monte- I encountered many Moguls back in my 'union days',
so I know what those look like. Also, The ass-end was a lot
more streamlined and had a fancy engraved metal plate on it.

Sam came pretty close - - but pictures I was able to find of the "Victory"
lamphouses show some significant differences in the in the back-end
from what I can see on the lamp in the old Vogue photo.

But his suggestion got me looking at some old Strong equipment ads
and I believe the lamphouse is a Strong "Utility" Hi Intesnsity Lamphouse.

Both these pix are from 1946 STRONG Advertisements:

There's a manual for the 'Utility' lamphouse in the FT Warehouse,
and the pictures in it match exactly what I see in the Vogue photo.

While going through old ads, it appears Simplex marketed a lamphouse
that was practically almost identical, except the ammeters were square,
instead of round, and the feed motor speed control knob was in a slightly
diffrent position.

"Mystery Solved" [thumbsup]

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-02-2015, 10:39 PM:

OK since were doing Lamphouse Model identification; Can you tell me what Model Peerless Lamphouses these are! [Confused]

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-03-2015, 02:16 AM:

JIM: This Ampro Arc could be one of those in your Picture. Came out of a San Francisco Theater.. [Confused]

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-03-2015, 09:42 AM:

Steve-
That's very interesting, because those are the EXACT type of projectors
that were in the 1947 magazine photo I posted- - right down to the amplifer.
The "standard" amp supplied with the Ampro-Arc's back than was a different
model than the one in the booth picture. The fact that the one in the photo,
which was a 'deluxe' version of the amp, is an exact match for the one in
the photo makes it quite possible those are the same projectors.

And, since we're talking lamphouses on this thread:
The ampro-acrs used a pair of Strong 2100 "Junior" Hi-Intensity lamps.

They burned 5.5mm x 6" neg & 6mm x 8" pos carbons, at 28V/30A.

(I never could figure out why carbon specs always mixed metric and
decimal data, always giving the diameter in millimeters and the
length in inches. [Confused]

)

I worked with a couple of ampro-arcs when I was in the military and also
in the mid 1980's in the meeting/boardroom of a large corporation.

I'm darn curious where you found those pictures.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-03-2015, 10:52 AM:

The carbon for the 16mm machines was called Peerlex and was a very low colour temp
The Peerless in steves photo is a lowintensity lamphouse pre dateing the famous Magnarc

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-03-2015, 12:33 PM:

As Gordon said in is reply- - it's an early model Peerless lamphouse.

I have two old manuals here, both from the late 1920's that refer to it
as either the "Peerless Reflector-Arc" or "Peerless Reflflecto-Arc, Model 1"

This is from the 1927 "Richardson's Projection Manual"

Here's one on a silent Simplex (1926):

Actually, if you look closely, the lamphouses seem to be two slightly
different models. (Count the round 'vent holes' above the door, and the
position of the name-plate) All my old books show the lamphouse in the
foregorund, which has "7 holes". I can't find any pix of the other one.

I recognize those little rectifiers as early
STRONG's too. Here's an ad from 1926:

>Now, what I'd like to identify is the type of soundheads in the picture<

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-03-2015, 01:30 PM:

What are you guys saying,that this is an old Projection Booth! The Guy Told me all the Equipment was just a Few years Old! [Wink]

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-03-2015, 01:37 PM:

What are you guys saying,that this is an old Projection Booth! The Guy Told me all the Equipment was just a Few years Old! [Wink]

BTW:He also tried to sell me His Car; said it was a 2012 Model [Confused]

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-03-2015, 07:45 PM:

The lamphouse in question is indeed a Strong Utility 1KW lamp, they were the basis for the Simplex High also. The 16mms have Strong Junior lamps w/ 5.5 & 6mm sticks, the Peerless is the classic Peerless Low Intensity lamp ( 25-30 amp trim, manually fed sticks) that was also made for a very short time as a high intensity lamp w/ 1KW trim and optional motorized feed, but when the Peerless Magnarc HI lamp was introduced, the larger reflector and better working distance took care of the future of the Peerless Low. The Strong Victory lamp is actually unique, (I have a pair) They were very square in appearance and were only made in 1944 & 1945 out of non essential materials to support the war effort. They were very heavy too! They were basically a Mogul undercarriage with trims up to 70 amps and one lamp weighs more than two of the Strong Moguls! At 12 years old, I cut teeth on Strong Utilitys and Wenzel ACE projectors (at the Brockway Theatre at Lake Tahoe) soon they were upgraded to Moguls behind Motio AAAs that came out of the Basalone Theatre on Treasure Island Naval Base near San Francisco. The second booth I ever ran was a pair of Peerless Magnarcs behind Supers and RCA 9050s at the original Tahoe Theatre in Kings Beach for one summer, then the supes were moved to the new Cobblestone Cinema in Tahoe City and had the first ORC M-1000 Xenons sold by NTS at the time, My third booth worked was the Meeks Bay theatre with Magnarcs and E7s and RCA sound ran summers only. Then there was the Squaw Valley Theatre, Strong Utilitys, Century C, and R-2 soundheads. Boy, I'll never forget the early daysof my career!

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-03-2015, 08:34 PM:

Here is the Left side view of that peerless Lamp ! Finding these old abandoned projection booths is really neat when the equipment has been left behind. [beer]

Old Simplex Standard with "You tell me" Lamphouse !

Why is this guy smiling? Because his theater has a Brandnew pair of E7's with new Magnarc Lamps ! [thumbsup]

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-03-2015, 09:34 PM:

Ok, I'll tell you;>
Looks like a Brenkert Enarc lamp house. Recognize the logo on back. Don't know model details.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-04-2015, 03:44 PM:

Anyone Identify those Lamphouses...Belpark Theater 1940's

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-04-2015, 07:26 PM:

Brenkert Model A 'Super High Intensity' condenser lens type lamphouses made in late 1930s, (Similar design to the Peerless Hy-Candescent condenser lamp of the same period) according to my information they had rotating positive and used 11mm or 13.6mm copper clad sticks or 16mm uncoated positive sticks! And 3/8 to 1/2" negative sticks, No reflector, just condenser lenses! available were condenser sets and mountings for Simplex, Motio DeLuxe, and Powers #6 machines!! Imagine the heat on the trap of a Powers or Motio front shutter machine!! They operated in the 110-140 ampere range DC. As for the lamp behind the super..it's the classic Brenkert model N 'Enarc' Lamp.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 03-04-2015, 07:32 PM:

Note that the pic of the guy with the E7s and Magnarcs are pointing up. Drive-in? Also note the optional front shutter on the E7s.

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-04-2015, 07:46 PM:

Actually the front shutter was standard equipment on all E-7s from the day they were introduced, to compete with the double shutter Brenkert BX-80 and the Century CC, Simplex thought the dual shutters would help make a much smoother picture and they were smaller cut off than a single rear shutter, they were closed for 70-82 degrees in lieu of the normal 89-95 degrees of a single rear shutter. (actually resulting in a slightly brighter picture) They resulted in a double dissolving effect as the front shutter although rotating the same direction as the rear would actually cut the light of opposing the rear shutter because of the image inversion by the projection lens. Plus except for special effects, there was only one projection lens and aspect ratio used prior to Cinemascope and other wide screen ratios 12-14 years after the E7 was first introduced. in fact, in 1940 when the E-7 was new, IPC made a front shutter kit to be installed on the Super and thousands were sold and installed. I would bet the fresh wrinkle paint didn't last long on the Magnarcs cause in a drive in they were burning their maximum current using 8mm Negative and 9mm positives at 75-80 amps! I ran a pair at the Lassen Drive in many years ago w/ supers on Western Electric Universal Bases!( I bought and removed that booth in the late 1970s) There wasn't much paint left on them and you could cook your dinner inside the lamps in one reel!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-04-2015, 08:06 PM:

quote:
Old Simplex Standard with "You tell me" Lamphouse !

Nope. SuperSimplex sitting on top of the dual round belt, 14 inch flywheel driven W.E. 206 Sound Head, with the Enarc behind it.
Those where a cumbersome lamphouse to operate compared to the Peerless.

Sound head contain just a pulldown sprocket that pulled the film through a lens gate. The flywheel stabilized the pulldown along with driving the picture head.

Bet, when that drive-in went CinemaScope, out went the E7's for XL's and dropped in Strong 135's to replace the Peerless units to get that screen filled with more light.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-04-2015, 09:15 PM:

What Lamps behind these Old Powers Projectors -1930's [beer]

BTW: Name the Company that Built this Antique Rectifier from the 30's

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-04-2015, 09:45 PM:

Geeze Steve, Interesting pix, the powers booth was in San Francisco, I have an original 8x10 (that photo) that was given to me by the lead shop foreman Ben Drosty(sp?)at Pacific Theatre Equipment Co. (Formerly Walter G. Preddy) in SF Cal. I have that photo on my website and it has been copied and resold by several individules through the years! The lamps are More-Lite model A-N and were low intensity reflector arcs. The soundheads are RCA PS-2 made for the Powers head. Ironically the other picture is of the very GE Shaker Tube mercury rectifier I have in my museum that powers my Brenograph!, I purchased it and removed it from the Fortuna Theatre in Fortuna, Cal. in the early 1980s. It was located in a room next to the booth with the motor generator and originally it powered a single Brenkert follow spot (I have it too) Boy, you guys are bringing back the memories! And the GE (General Electric) Rectifier was produced from the early 1900s through about 1925.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 03-04-2015, 09:47 PM:

Don't know the make but that is a mercury rectifier. The big glass bulb has liquid mercury in the bottom. There is a mechanism to tilt/shake it to get it working.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 03-04-2015, 11:28 PM:

I gotta say, if that fellow wasn't wearing his pants to his tits, I'd have some darn fine compliments for him.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-05-2015, 01:10 AM:

That same Projection Booth also had a F7 Master Brenograph [beer]

How many of those do you think Brenkert Built back in the Day! [Confused]

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-05-2015, 10:59 AM:

quote: Buck Wilson
I gotta say, if that fellow wasn't wearing his pants to his tits, I'd have some darn fine compliments for him.

That guy shows up in a lot of old projection-booth pictures.
I've often wondered who he is/was. There's a guy on e-bay who sells
a lot of old 35mm stuff, and he has at least a half-dozen photos with
this same guy (both shirt & shirtless) in them. Whothehellizze?

The very first theater I worked at (in 1971) had one of those big old
mercury tube rectifiers still in use. The theater dated back to at least
1917, and I'm pretty sure that rectifier was 'original equipment'.

The automatic tilt-start mechanism had long ago ceased working, so I
had to manually tilt the tube by hand when I came in every night to
get it to start working.

. . until the night it pretty much blew up in my face. I was very lucky
that I didn't get glass shards in my eyes or mercury poisoning.
(I was finding little balls of mercury on the floor for weeks afterwards)

After the explosion it was replaced with an old 'sil-tube' rectifier
that came out of the basement of another old theater.

Here's a photo of another "mercury tube"
rectifier I've encountered:

An acquaintence of mine, who is also quite an avid
collector of 'old cinema stuff', actually has one of
those mercury tubes, still in the original shipping crate:

A page from an old (1918) projection manual
in my collection of esoteric electronic incunabula

-jc-

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-05-2015, 06:54 PM:

The Brenograph F7 Master was produced in the thousands, it was advertised as the special effects machine that projects everything but the motion picture! The one I have came out of a theatre in Oakland Cal. (I can't remember the one) I bought it from Jerry Tohler who owned the Chabot Theatre in Castro Valley Ca. I knew his father Jim Tohler quite well and Jim had a large collection of old gear, a lot of I now have, Jim loved big bright pictures! I had purchased the pair of XLs operating in the Chabot and Jerry had me install a pair of Supers there in front of Strong 135s! The picture was great but those heads got quite hot after a reel!!

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 03-05-2015, 07:30 PM:

Judging by the logo, some kind of Brenkert.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 03-05-2015, 08:00 PM:

Anybody know of any other 35mm Projector Mfger besides POWERS that made Square reel Magazines [Confused]

Hall and Connolly High Intensity Arc Lamp [Eek!]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-05-2015, 09:34 PM:

quote: Steve Matz
Anybody know of any other 35mm Projector Mfger besides POWERS that made Square reel Magazines

Kalee (brand name of Abraham Kershaw & Sons) and British Thomson-Houston both did.

Posted by Charles A. Petty (Member # 3458) on 03-06-2015, 09:11 AM:

I am still looking for spare reflectors and any other parts for our Brenkert Enarc Model N lamphouses still in use at the Eureka Theater. John?

>

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-06-2015, 05:38 PM:

Good looking and well kept Enarcs - using 8's and 9's

What is in front of that Peerless just off to the right in the picture?

Good luck - Monte

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-06-2015, 08:00 PM:

All the Edison models had square magazines. Charles, I haven't been in your theatre in decades! I forgot about all the risers on your pedistals!! I will look around at what reflectors I have left and what parts do you need for the Enarcs? I have several parts lamphouses and some new parts on hand. John

Posted by Charles A. Petty (Member # 3458) on 03-06-2015, 08:00 PM:

quote:
Good looking and well kept Enarcs - using 8's and 9's

What is in front of that Peerless just off to the right in the picture?

Good luck - Monte
quote: John Eickhof was the last to post

The Peerless Magnarc is out of the 1914 Minor Theater in Arcata, CA and in front of the Peerless is one of the original E-7s and SH-1000 soundheads from the 1938 Arcata Theater where it ran pretty much every day from 1938 until 2002.

quote: John Eickhof
Charles, I haven't been in your theatre in decades! I forgot about all the risers on your pedistals!! I will look around at what reflectors I have left and what parts do you need for the Enarcs? I have several parts lamphouses and some new parts on hand. John

John,
I guess they installed the projection ports a little too high. Those pedestals have been in place since March, 1939. Our Enarcs are in pretty good working condition, but the reflectors are getting pitted. I think the reflectors are the drive-in reflectors especially since they came out of the Willow Creek Drive-In. I would interested in any Enarc parts that typically wear or break. The positive carbon rest in one of our Enarcs is not original, but a fairly well made home made replacement. Here are two photos of the Eureka Theater's booth from 1939.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-07-2015, 01:08 AM:

These prob have been posted before..

SuperSimplex sitting on top of W.E. 206 Sound heads

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 03-08-2015, 08:15 PM:

Monte

That Super set-up belongs to Tom Wilson. He has photos of it all over the internet. Tom alluded to this projector being un-restored. I would love to find 1 or 2 of those Simplex pedestals!

Posted by Donald Brown (Member # 5427) on 03-08-2015, 09:13 PM:

Charles:
In the early 2000s, I rebuilt a pair of Peerless Magnarcs for a drive-in. I still have many old new stock Peerless replacement parts for the Magnarcs, including one pair of new old stock reflectors and one pair of Ultraflat resurfaced metal reflectors.
If you need any particular pieces, let me know; these old parts need a new home!
Don Brown
doncbrownjr@verizon.net

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 03-12-2015, 08:11 PM:

Don

Please contact me! The phone number I have for you is not valid.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-12-2015, 11:46 PM:

Booth I ran in 1971-1972. Royal Theatre, Rigby, Idaho.

Simplex E7
W.E.206 Sound heads
STRONG Mogul
Motiograph sound (location did have Motiograph Mag sound but the cheap owner yanked it out-too complicated for him.)

Booth wall used to end at the edge of the concrete, but the owner knocked that wall out to make the adjoining room like a screening room - complete with theatre chair, large viewing window and speaker, I mounted, above the window.

Place burnt down in 1980 from a coal furnace explosion. auditorium floor was wood along with the stage. In 1973, the above equipment were switched out for xenon, PR35's, early 5 star sound heads and 6K reel cue changeovers.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 03-22-2015, 07:38 AM:

Don Brown

Please contact me in regards to Magnarc parts. The phone number I had for you seems to be no longer valid, along with your e-mail address on your F.T. profile. I did send you a p.m. and and an e-mail @ doncbrownjr@verizon.net, but have not heard back. I have some Magnarcs that I am completely restoring and am in need of some parts, as well as finding out what you still have left.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-22-2015, 06:08 PM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer was the last to post
W.E.206 Sound heads

Monte- Great pictures. Reminds me of some of some of the booths I used
to work at back in the early 70's. I encountered several original ERPI
installations back then still using the W.E. amps and speaker systems,
but never any of the W.E soundheads, which in most cases had been
replaced by IPC or RCA soundheads.

One question: Didn't the WE-206's pre-date the invention of the rotary
stabilizer and sound 'drum'? (Which, RCA once claimed, "Was the greatest
advancement in sound since the invention of the ear")

Were those 206's still the original 'sound gate' type?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-22-2015, 10:20 PM:

Hi Jim ..

If you look at the publicity picture of the two Supers with the W.E.'s, then look carefully behind the picts that I posted, one can see that same flywheel behind the soundhead.

True, these predicate the current scanner drum setup with the sound gate.

This setup did function quite well with no problems.

I kept an eye on the twin round fibre belt condition and tension, which in itself was a trick with skewing the motor just right so the two belts were pulling at the exact tension together.

If the pulldown sprocket was new, or reversed to expose the good side of the tooth, the wow and flutter were held in check at a good rate - so explained to me by the service tech that would take care of these units on a contract basis...and how I began in the interest in projection technician field is with this setup since the mgr didn't have the foggiest on how to operate this booth in a professional manner.

there were two sprockets in the head - the upper one was the pulldown sprocket, and below it was the holdback sprocket, so a loop can be formed between the two sprockets-like a 4Star (or RCA) setup.

The pulldown sprocket was attached to the shaft that the flywheel was mounted on the other side.

Unit had a monster four pin, bulb photocell in the can behind the threading area.

With having this belt driven setup, these projectors ran superbly quiet along with very smooth ramp up to film speed.

With this slow ramp up speed, I had to frame down between "5" and "6", instead of the usual "8" in the lighted aperture plate area to make clean changeovers.

-Monte

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-23-2015, 12:23 PM:

Yes Jim, the WE 1A, 206 & 208 as well as the early RCA PS 2-22 soundheads had sound gates and were considered 'low fidelity'. The WE-211 was a sprocketless sound attachment that had a spring clutch equipped flywheel for better stability, it used the lower feed sprocket of the projector head to pull the film through it. The invention of the 'rotary stabilizer' in Europe by Tri-Ergon was the turning point where the flywheel action coupled with finer optics of the slit lens resulted in the 'high fidelity' systems. RCA had the PS-24 and then the MI-1040/1050 and then the MI-9001, and finally the MI-9030/9050 series. IPC used the Tri-Ergon style stabilzer also. WE built Century's R-2 and R-6 soundheads but had to use a magnetically coupled stabilizer as they would not pay the license fees to Tri-Ergon for the RCA style stabilizer. (It is still thought by many that there was no finer soundhead ever made in relation to wow and flutter than the R-2 / R-6) Ironically, the WE Designed Motiograph SH-2500 had the liquid filled Tri-Ergon stabilizer! Unfortunately, due to design, the flywheel was not hermetically sealed like RCA & IPC and the damping fluid was known to dry out in the Motios and severe wow would result! (Have seen many of them!)That is why Century used a solid flywheel with dampening rollers in all their subsequent designs. NTS did the same with the modern 5 Star Simplex soundheads. The cost of manufacture was greatly reduced not having to build the liquid filled stabilizer. Like Monte, I used to have to rack up on #3 on the leader when I ran WE 1A Universal Soundheads, even with a Regular or Super on them they would just be up to speed by changeover!

Posted by Jerry D. Cox (Member # 701) on 03-27-2015, 03:24 AM:

The Lamp House is A Strong Utility.I use to run one back in the
50ths They put a lot of them in back in the 40ths we had Brenkard
BX-80 and RCA sound,They took them out when 3D came in and put in
Enarc.for more lite

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-27-2015, 08:32 AM:

The Deutsches Science Museum in Munich they have a large display of the early late 1920's projectors using the Klangfilm / Tri-Ergon patents. The original rotary sound drum had sprocket teeth for traction.

Posted by Karl Brenkert (Member # 8766) on 03-27-2015, 07:32 PM:

Hi Steve,

Thought you might enjoy a picture of the Brenkert model A from an ad in 1931. I think '31 was the first year they were manufactured. The logo on the lamp house seems to match the logo from the ad but it's hard to tell.

Posted by John Eickhof (Member # 323) on 03-28-2015, 08:59 AM:

You can tell it's the model A as the housing is almost half again the size of Brenkert's standard model E & D reflector arcs and the arc viewing window is close to the front of the lamp. It was a bright lamp utilized on larger perforated sound screens.