What is it?

[Van]

One of our installers recently found this mounted on the t-bar wall of a theatre. it is a hydraulic/pneumatic cylinder. It's not attached to anything. It's in the middle of the rigging wall so I don't think it has anything to do with the Fire curtain <it's not a dash pot>. I'm not positive but I think that round plate is a brake disc.

Guesses? I'd like to see the top of it. It might help figure this out. I'll ask for some more pics and post them if I get them.

 

[What Rigger?]

Sure looks like a disc brake to me. Beyond that, I gots nothin'.

 

[josh88]

Looks like the text says "do not touch these controls"? How far up the wall does that cylinder go? Seems like a odd thing to leave installed, but maybe some kind of odd hydraulic come along that the installers used when rigging the whole system, to lift headblocks or something up to the grid? Any idea how old the system is?

 

[StradivariusBone]

I'd wager the disc brake is used to hold the mechanism, not necessarily slow it. If you're on reddit you should post it to the whatisthisthing subreddit. Those guys can figure out anything.

 

[sk8rsdad]

It would be helpful to know where the lines go. Maybe it's got something to do with the smoke vents?

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Is there a hydraulic cylinder - cylinder and piston - or is it an hydraulic motor with a drum? And is it assisting and arbor or ?

 

[Van]

as far as I know it's a purely pneumatic.. I'm going to try to get the guys to send me some more pictures. They are replacing 6 CWT sets so they should be onsite another day.

 

[Van]

Got a couple more photos, but the guys are pretty busy with their actual jobs, go figure. Anyway, the tube is apparently 20' tall the ram goes out 20' with another 15' extentsion on it. One of my guys says it seems like it was used to "Lift a batten vom de loadin' deck to the top catwalk" But he's German and hard to understand when he's rushing...
It defiantly appears as if the round bit is a brake and there looks to be a cable that winds up on a drum attached to it. My guy say's it's an air brake. He also said it's all pneumatic, but the piping on the rleft side of the photo seems to be water lines and the right side seems to be air. I'm wondering if it's not a pneumatic over hydraulic system. Apparently it's been on the wall since the 50's and nobody knows what it does. Looks like something that should be removed to me.

 

[RonHebbard]

Got a couple more photos, but the guys are pretty busy with their actual jobs, go figure. Anyway, the tube is apparently 20' tall the ram goes out 20' with another 15' extentsion on it. One of my guys says it seems like it was used to "Lift a batten vom de loadin' deck to the top catwalk" But he's German and hard to understand when he's rushing...
It defiantly appears as if the round bit is a brake and there looks to be a cable that winds up on a drum attached to it. My guy say's it's an air brake. He also said it's all pneumatic, but the piping on the rleft side of the photo seems to be water lines and the right side seems to be air. I'm wondering if it's not a pneumatic over hydraulic system. Apparently it's been on the wall since the 50's and nobody knows what it does. Looks like something that should be removed to me.
View attachment 18527 View attachment 18528

@Van An ancient church from the 1800's across from the stage door of our first serious road house had a three or four story elevator powered by city tap water; water pressure rotated an impeller which wound up the cable, gravity pushed the water out at a controlled rate dash pot style. One year the church borrowed a pile of lighting and cable, we loaded it into the elevator and had to remove some to get the 'vator to go up.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[IMLICHTMAN]

This is just too interesting not to comment on... At first glance this looks like a pneumatic cable cylinder, and the fitting visible just below the light/guard rail in "img_20191002_141801200-jpg.18527" would seem to reinforce this notion. Cable cylinders are occasionally fitted with brake assemblies for affirmatively holding the position of the driven device. This doesn't jibe with the notion of a 20 foot ram with extension however. What I haven't seen is a hybrid 'rodded' cable cylinder where the cable and brake are used to hold the ram position. Another thought is that the driven device (a double purchase lineset perhaps?) is absent and would have been installed to the left of the cylinder cable.

 

[JohnD]

I must admit that the very impish devil in me so wants to post a very serious looking sign stating "DO NOT PULL THIS LEVER" on that device, whatever it turns out to be.