This is topic Ashcraft advertisment in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 08-10-2002, 04:08 AM:
I like the ashcraft advertisment uploaded as a test by Jon Miller."Our Lamphouses Never Explode!!!" (I can't do the underscore on the last two words) was obviously seen as an important consideration at the time. I have heard that this was much more of a problem with early xenons than it is now.
Of the advantages claimed over xenon, were the first two, "They cost less to buy" and "They cost less to operate", really true. It seems hard to believe that these things with all the complexity of the feed mechanisms, plus the rotation and water cooling for the positive could be cheaper to buy than a relativly simple xenon lamphouse. It doesn't say if the cost of the water cooler was included in the price being compared.
As for being cheaper to run, if that was true, then carbons must have been very much cheaper then than they are now. I suppose that at that time the staffing of projection rooms would have been the same for carbon or xenon, so there would be no extra labour cost.
Does anybody have any price lists for lamphouses, xenon lamps and carbons from this period, so we can make our own comparison?
"Union made by skilled American labour" Would you see anything similar in a modern advertisment in the U.S.? Here in England we don't seem too concerned where things are made, (almost everything sold here here seems to be made in China now anyway, and some of it is very good, the days when China just produced junk are now gone), We did have the rather strange habit of stressing "Empire made" long ago.
What is the difference between the Super Core-Lite and the Super-Cinex?
Does anybody have a xenon advertisment from the same period, it might made an interesting comparison.
What was the date of this? The Ashcraft lamps always look rather old-fashioned to me, and I don't think of them as being contemporary with xenons.
What became of Ashcraft, are they still around?
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 08-10-2002, 07:12 AM:
At the time, carbons having the market advantage, were indeed cheaper by todays standards. Also because of the established union carbon burning houses, I'm sure a lot of people would have rallied behind something like this if for nothing else but to save their jobs.Josh
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-10-2002, 11:00 AM:
I think it pretty much died when Clearance Ashcraft did. His son was also involved in the company for quite a while but they never undertook a xenon design that was marketed. When you make the absolute best projection light source in the world why would anyone want to make something not as good? That was pretty much the philosophy back there.
Mark
Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-10-2002, 04:38 PM:
I liked that ad, too. 
The primary difference between the Cinex and Corelight was speed. The Cinex was f/2.0 or f/1.8, and the Corelight was really fast, like f/1.4 or f/1.6, or something ridiculous (can't recall offhand the exact numbers).
The Super versions had big blowers on top.
Ashcraft Company failed in 1972, shortly after Clarence S. Ashcraft passed away. The son ran it into the ground, as I understand. They had developed a xenon lamphouse, with an automatically rotating bulb, of all things. They spent 2 years developing their xenon lamphouse, and only weeks after they announced it, the company folded.
The xenon design resembled what would become XeTron's 2000 watt lamphouse, with the bulb mount and reflector that swings open to relamp. I think LP Associates ended up with the Ashcraft design.
The last carbon lamphouse Ashcraft ever made, the Super 180 (or was it Super 160 - #$%@* my memory's failing me), was introduced in 1968. It was the last hurrah.
Ashcraft lamps were the top of the line, as far as I was concerned. They cost 4 or 5-thousand dollars a pair in the 1960s. Super Corelights hit the streets circa 1963.
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-10-2002, 05:32 PM:
The Chicago area had mainly Super Cinex lamphouses with a few Corelights thrown in here and there, at least one pair of Super Cinex's is still running as far as I know at the Copernecus Center on a pair of X-L's. There is also a pair of Ashcrafts running at a theatre in Detroit. I wonder what the rotating bulb would ahve been like and if the electrodes are centered accurately enough to be able to do this. Certainly an extremely novel idea and one that one might want to consider someday.
Mark
Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 08-11-2002, 01:17 AM:
The Ashcraft xenon design, according to sales literature, would rotate the bulb 20 degrees prior to each strike to prolong bulb life; so there was probably a sliding ring type of contact. Bulbs where expensive due to small market share and few xenon suppliers during that period.....while you had 3 - 4 good sources of carbon. I remember in the middle 1970's we where handling Osram at a profit markup which is several times greater than what people purchase today.
Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com
Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-11-2002, 01:20 AM:
Oh, it wasn't continuously rotating, it rotated a fraction of a degree everytime the lamp was struck.Yep, Ashcrafts were made back when equipment was intended to last for 50 years. I'm glad to hear there are still some in service. Hope they can keep them in carbon.
Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 08-11-2002, 04:40 PM:
Wow, the memories of the Ashcraft Super-Core, these were the lamphouse of lamphouses !! The light output was the greatest, I ran these in Houston at several Drive-In theatres, easy to work on & to clean....I once had a theatre owner/manager, I was a the projectionist, who everynight would come to the booth & demanded I help him down a 6/12-pack with him, Being in my late 20's, this was great, a boss who allows you to drink on the job after the boxoffice close, we once had fog roll in, both of us half drunk running the movie, we were talking about the light output of the lamp, I told the now drunk owner to jump up on the that light beam & walk out to the screen to see how far the light goes before it stops (for those of you that never ran a drive-in, when fog rolls in, you see the light beam but cannot see the screen)...the owner said to me, "NO I won't, I get half way out there, you'll turn the light off then I break a leg".....at that time, being half drunk, that was a funny line, I will always remember that line...the year was winter/1972...I was sorry to see this theatre close in 1977, the Ashcraft lamps & projs. sat there rusting away a few years later, by 1985, the equipment was sold for junk...