Vintage Lighting Backstage at the Fox Theatre Atlanta, 1929

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From notes I typed but did not fully understand:
-Hall and Connolly Spotlights,
Hall & Connolly lamps, and thought I'd offer my own two cents worth. I have a very extensive background with carbon arc equipment- I'm 58 and worked worked as a projector mechanic when I was younger. Most of the machines we serviced still used arc lamps at that time. In some of the larger New York area theaters it was not unusual to see Hall & Connolly spotlights still sitting up in the projection booth, from the days of live stage shows presented before the film. The previous edition of Madison Square Garden was equipped with Hall & Connolly spotlights. They were always of great interest to me, and I began collecting them from whichever theaters would part with them. Today I have 5 or six of them sitting around, in various condition. A couple of comments about the history of the company: although Hall & Connolly did use a burner that had Sperry patents, Sperry never owned the company. The Sperry burner was also used in searchlights, in a different configuration. And by the way, the term "high intensity" does NOT refer to the brightness of these lamps, although they certainly are radically brighter than low intensity arc lamps. It refers instead to the current density relative to the size of the carbon. High intensity carbons are also of a different chemical makeup than low intensity. The high intensity carbon arc was discovered by a German scientist named Heinrich Beck, and operates under different principles than the low intensity arcs it superseded. Hall & Connolly started in New York, and made lamp houses for film projection as well as spotlights. They were eventually acquired by J.E. McAuley Mfg in Chicago, maybe best known as the manufacturer of the Peerless Magnarc- a projector lamp. After buying H &C, McAuley offered a condenser style projector lamp called the HyCandescent, which was clearly a reference to H&C. The very largest screens needed that kind of light output, and so the "HyCan" was often used in houses like Radio City and Loews Paradise. McAuley was eventually bought by Strong Electric. Strong used to advertise a variable focus lens on their spotlights. They'd inherited that from Hall & Connolly. The light output of a Hall & Connolly spotlight in good condition certainly exceeds that of a carbon arc Super Trouper. While the Super Trouper lamp was a high intensity lamp, it was only a small one, a 1KW projector lamp modified for spotlight use. In the world of film projection, the 1KW lamp was the smallest thing useable in a movie theater in terms of what it could do to illuminate a screen.It used a 7mm positive carbon and operated at 42 amps at about 29 volts. The Hall & Connolly in it's most common configuration used a 13.6mm positive burning at 125amps at about 75 volts. Efficiency of light collection notwithstanding, there's no substitute for cubic inches.---Holzmuller, C.F., 1108 Howard St., San Francisco. (Catalogue) c.1929 Listed & c.1930-1940, 1954 Listed.


Not me in the above - and not sure where I got the quotes above from, just notest on lighting history in my notes if of any help.
 
From notes I typed but did not fully understand:
-Hall and Connolly Spotlights,
Hall & Connolly lamps, and thought I'd offer my own two cents worth. I have a very extensive background with carbon arc equipment- I'm 58 and worked worked as a projector mechanic when I was younger. Most of the machines we serviced still used arc lamps at that time. In some of the larger New York area theaters it was not unusual to see Hall & Connolly spotlights still sitting up in the projection booth, from the days of live stage shows presented before the film. The previous edition of Madison Square Garden was equipped with Hall & Connolly spotlights. They were always of great interest to me, and I began collecting them from whichever theaters would part with them. Today I have 5 or six of them sitting around, in various condition. A couple of comments about the history of the company: although Hall & Connolly did use a burner that had Sperry patents, Sperry never owned the company. The Sperry burner was also used in searchlights, in a different configuration. And by the way, the term "high intensity" does NOT refer to the brightness of these lamps, although they certainly are radically brighter than low intensity arc lamps. It refers instead to the current density relative to the size of the carbon. High intensity carbons are also of a different chemical makeup than low intensity. The high intensity carbon arc was discovered by a German scientist named Heinrich Beck, and operates under different principles than the low intensity arcs it superseded. Hall & Connolly started in New York, and made lamp houses for film projection as well as spotlights. They were eventually acquired by J.E. McAuley Mfg in Chicago, maybe best known as the manufacturer of the Peerless Magnarc- a projector lamp. After buying H &C, McAuley offered a condenser style projector lamp called the HyCandescent, which was clearly a reference to H&C. The very largest screens needed that kind of light output, and so the "HyCan" was often used in houses like Radio City and Loews Paradise. McAuley was eventually bought by Strong Electric. Strong used to advertise a variable focus lens on their spotlights. They'd inherited that from Hall & Connolly. The light output of a Hall & Connolly spotlight in good condition certainly exceeds that of a carbon arc Super Trouper. While the Super Trouper lamp was a high intensity lamp, it was only a small one, a 1KW projector lamp modified for spotlight use. In the world of film projection, the 1KW lamp was the smallest thing useable in a movie theater in terms of what it could do to illuminate a screen.It used a 7mm positive carbon and operated at 42 amps at about 29 volts. The Hall & Connolly in it's most common configuration used a 13.6mm positive burning at 125amps at about 75 volts. Efficiency of light collection notwithstanding, there's no substitute for cubic inches.---Holzmuller, C.F., 1108 Howard St., San Francisco. (Catalogue) c.1929 Listed & c.1930-1940, 1954 Listed.


Not me in the above - and not sure where I got the quotes above from, just notest on lighting history in my notes if of any help.
Thank you very much, very informative, I will "share" it with the Archiving Technical Theatre FB site.
 

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