Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1916)

Record Details:

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access to the lamps, electrical connections and raising and lowering devices. The individual lamps are hung in tracks on these transverse carriages and are thus movable to any position across the width of the studio. Each lamp takes its current through contact shoes from properly protected bare copper feeders strung along the carriages. These feeders on the movable carriages pick up the current through larger contact shoes from a set of stationary bare copper mains strung along the side wall and connecting with the switchboard. The top lights are thus all controlled from one switch. When a light effect is called for, requiring one or a number of top lights, controlled independent of the rest; provision is made for this in the following manner: Each lamp is connected to its respective contact shoes through a separable plug with a short piece of flexible cable. In the center of the studio, throughout its length and above the transverse carriages, there is an auxiliary feeder run in conduit, from which are hung at intervals, pendant cables terminating in plugs which fit the plugs attached to the lamps. Thus, any of the carriages may be moved to a desired position, one or more lamps thereon disconnected from the trolley feeder and plugged through the nearest available pendant plugs to the auxiliary feeder which is under separate switch control on the board. This equipment has proven quite satisfactory, but is cited here merely as an example and not for any superiority over numerous others now in use. In the dark studio, where sunlight is never available to the camera, it is practicable to dispense with the carriage system by lining or studding the ceiling with lights properly spaced and wired for individual control, so that wherever a set may be placed on the floor, top light is provided by simply switching on the desired lamps. Provision should however be made for raising and lowering the lamps individually, to meet the various conditions. FLOOR LAMPS It is hardly apropriate to suggest here, either the kind or quantity of lamps required for any assumed condition, but it is important that all floor lamps be sturdy in construction and light enough in weight to be readily portable. They should be fitted with easy running swivelled rollers of large diameter so that they will readily ride over floor obstables. The lamps are continuously moved from place to place and ease of handling is very much desired. Stage cables of 25 ft. length or more, are usually attached to the lamps and dragged about with them. It seems a good suggestion to fit each cable with a separable plug close to the lamp, so that the lamps and cables may be separately moved and quickly reconnected. DISTRIBUTION OF CURRENT TO FLOOR LAMPS A simple, safe and flexible arrangement of current distribution^ devised by the writer several years ago, is described as follows: 23