Control/Dimming - Old "telephone" switchboard style lighting patch panels

[Reggie]

Ship, Wolf and anyone else with a long history in theater lighting: who other than Century were building boards in the 50's and 60's. I just saw an old patch bay style system in a dis-used high school in NJ. Sorry I was in total awe and didn't write down any info.
It probably predated the (non digital) one I worked on in a school built in 1966/67 which also had rheostat dimmers and a manual patch bay. As best as I can describe it, the patch cords (40) were in a horizontal field, the dimmer circuit jacks, 5 per dimmer, were vertically arranged above, beneath the patch cord field were the breakers for each patchable circuit as well as those for the house lights. The actual control system was all level style rheostats, no possible provision for a remote lighting board. It seemed like the power was off to the entire control system, but four circuits still control scoops hung in the proscenium. In the past someone had removed control of the house lights.
Any guesses?

[gordonmcleod]

All the dimmer manufacturers made patch panels Many used jacks and plugs supplied by Ward Leonard
Some also used the smaller American Superior SuperCon connector
Some of the dimmer makers like Major and Ariel Davis developed slider patch panels with some degree of sucess

[derekleffew]

My favorite of these was always the Kliegl Saf-Patch:

Photo from 1965 catalog# T-61.

A circuit breaker was adjacent to each hole, and the circuit could not be energized until the plug was fully inserted into the jack, then the breaker could be engaged. This made it impossible to hot patch a live circuit.

[Reggie]

Not Klieg either. Might have been Major?? Pictures of some old panels would help. I'm sure each builder of controls wanted to have thir equipment have a recognizable look. If it helps to narrow it down, the dimmer jack field consisted of seperate sections, one for each dimmer, each panel section of 5 jacks (in a pentagon layout)was bolted into the cabinet face seperately. Any photos of panels that Major made?

[dramatech]

It sounds like it could be Electro-Control. If it was, it would be a Dark brown cabinet with a very light ivory color for the female patch connectors. sorry i don't have any pix. Most Electro control and the earlier company Ariel Davis had some sort of analog meter for checking the load.

[Reggie]

Nope, battleship grey, except for the patch cord panel which was black.

[JD]

Blast from the past on that Kliegl! It's funny how legacy in the industry dictates design. (Location and shape of faders... Remember the old EDI scrimmer boards with the backlight?)

Still have an old patch bay back in the shed, remember them well. Then we moved to the diode matrix patch bays, and then to the current soft patch.

I like that feature on the old Kliegl where you can't overload them! Some modern dimmer manufacturers should learn that lesson

Thanks Derek, for the sheet and the trip down memory lane!

[Esoteric]

We had that Kliegl panel in one of our college theaters!! But the plugs came from the top to plug into the dimmers.

Wow I hated that thing!

Mike

[rustystuff]

Wow - You've just described the dimmer board that I learned on in high school back in 19&*! (Back before the earth cooled...) And I thought I was the only dinosaur that remembered that stuff!

Nothing like a whole wall full of "black spaghetti" to make things interesting...

[ship]

Possibly Hub? Did Major make dimmers/control? Though in NJ on the other hand... I would have to think someone else, don't think they had offices on the East Coast.

Was a few companies making control gear at that point but not something allot of catalogs survive to these days. Nor something much I have studdied, I more do fixtures - still working on acquiring old catalogs also so nothing to check other than stage lighting books written during that period. Perhaps Strand archive. Strand as a company would be supplying the East Coast also.

I know my first College had the first slide panel patch board (think it was Kliegl) seen it in a text book recently though I forget which. Wish I photo copied the manual and tech drawings I found backstage. - Imagine a two scene pre-set's faders, except each circuit locked into a dimmer per which fader it was slid into.

This verses the patch bay at the Athanaeum that was I think 1926 telephone patch bay and still in operation. If not 1926 probably will have been from the 50's. Believe the origional dimmers for that patch bay were "Cypress Creek" as another brand possibly making a patch bay or dimmers. Don't remember who made either of the above two patch panels. I'll be going out to both theaters this spring and take lots of photos.