I found this website by accident
Home - DRPLighting
They are a hire shop for old fixtures for TV and movie work. They include some nice photos of working fixtures going back to the 30s. Mainly Strand but some Furse and other makers. They claim what you see on the website is the tip of the iceberg. Nice photos of old focus spots.
I have a number of these fixtures in my own inventory.
You can also see a photo of the Strand Patt 45 fresnel, considered by many of us to be the worst fixture ever made. The optics are so bad that when you turn them on the stage seems to get darker - a fixture that vacuums the light from the stage. Built to be cheap so schools would buy it, no reflector a small lens a door on the rear. I am convinced the design was stolen from that of a mantelpiece clock where they removed the clock mechanisim, put a lamp inside closed the door on the rear and hoped some light would come out of the hole in the face where you inserted the key to wind up the now missing clock mechanisim. LOL
I had one friend who actually used them by pointing the back of the fresnel at the stage and leaving the rear door open, he claimed it was the only way to get any light out of them.
Home - DRPLighting
They are a hire shop for old fixtures for TV and movie work. They include some nice photos of working fixtures going back to the 30s. Mainly Strand but some Furse and other makers. They claim what you see on the website is the tip of the iceberg. Nice photos of old focus spots.
I have a number of these fixtures in my own inventory.
You can also see a photo of the Strand Patt 45 fresnel, considered by many of us to be the worst fixture ever made. The optics are so bad that when you turn them on the stage seems to get darker - a fixture that vacuums the light from the stage. Built to be cheap so schools would buy it, no reflector a small lens a door on the rear. I am convinced the design was stolen from that of a mantelpiece clock where they removed the clock mechanisim, put a lamp inside closed the door on the rear and hoped some light would come out of the hole in the face where you inserted the key to wind up the now missing clock mechanisim. LOL
I had one friend who actually used them by pointing the back of the fresnel at the stage and leaving the rear door open, he claimed it was the only way to get any light out of them.