Vintage Lighting Stage Plug Quad Box

[ship]

Never seen this before. It's Kliegl, but never really looked at those pages on the Kliegl website.

Must I think be for carbon arc fixtures. No evidence of carbon arc's at the 1925 theater and by than most carbon arc's were obsolete. Floor pockets I think have stage plug and could have been to run something.

Be it a drop box from the grid or extension cord from the stage. Suppose one would strike one arc at a time and one might be able to power up four from it.... Wow!

Each fuse - one for the neutral, one for the hot is for each of four 30 Amp (non-polorized very unsafe outlets.)

I wonder if the groove ground into the plug is some attempt to polarize it?

 

[JonCarter]

Don't know that this was intended just for arcs--many instruments had stage plugs on their cables (vs. split pins.) The groove cut in the stage plug is to allow it to fit into a polarized stage receptacle.

 

[ship]

Didn't know there was a such a thing as a polarized stage receptacle - thanks. Was it some round head screw in that recepticle or something more special. Was that something standard? Definately something to look at in detail next time I'm there for the floor pockets. thanks.

 

[Dover]

Based on the way the fuses are bused together and the cord grip size, I would say this was originally intended as a distribution box for a high amperage feed or dimmer not just a 4fer. 100a seems reasonable given the size of that cord clamp with it being 2 wire.

 

[JonCarter]

Ship, Aftrer grounds all over the place became a "thing," split pins gained a third pin, offset from center, (to distinguish them from 220 volt 3-wire split pin plugs & sockets which had the three pins equally spaced) and stage plugs & receptacles gained an offset round groove and round-head screw in the receptacles to match. These are in most everybody's (Klieg, Century, Capitol, etc.) catalogs from the late '50s-early '60s.

Dover: You're probably right. These four-ways often had much heavier feeds and were usually used to feed deuces or fives from a spider box.

For youngsters: Spider boxes were wooden frames, about 18" wide x 12" high x 10" deep, with 3 or 4, 8" x 10" x 1/4" copper plates mounted vertically in them. Connections were made with cable lugs which clamped onto the plates with set screws. They had canvas “safety” covering flaps over the open front & back, if they weren’t torn off. Used to distribute power and connect lights to feeder cables.

 

[ship]

Great observation as a concept thanks. Given 2-wire feeding into the box of say #2 AWG size, still not the correct cord grip. Great observation! That's the way we would and these days we all would assuming wooden box with asbestos liners, on the other hand if one starts one at a time, actual amperage could not be too much a problem for 30 amps. Or as mentioned same plug for the 1Kw fixtures (500w fixtures as per the spare lamps found.) Over fused.

Those with more time can easily research the Kliegl websit into the box and see how it was wired. 1905 was it's pattent date. 1905 is way before nitrogen lamps and seats it into something carbon arc. Re-wired for a lesser cable... possible given the wrong cord grip and a bunch of friction tape applied. Certainly this design is older than the 1925 theater. Possibly this was a Quad box for 500w lights of some sort re-done.

A in date photo of the stage plug's stamping.

 

[Mac Hosehead]

It looks safer than this:

 

[ship]

Is that an un-fused 6-fer? With Tweko's? Wow oh' Wow! Very cool!

 

[Mac Hosehead]

I guess it is really a double 3fer. I believe it said 85 amps per hole and 240 amps per side. Scary, no fuses. It is film, so...