Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Are good carbons for arc lamps still available?

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Operations » Film Handlers' Forum » Are good carbons for arc lamps still available?

Author

Topic: Are good carbons for arc lamps still available?

Joe Schmidt
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 172
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-19-2001 12:23 PM

Where do arc carbons come from these days?

The Byrd theatre in Richmond, VA still runs arcs, and they have a Master Brenograph and the C-14 spotlight so will need such exotica as 13mm x 8" positive and 9mm x 8" negative, perhaps, depending on the DC Voltage. Of course if at some point in the past a whole case of the carbons in each size had been purchased, with just
occasional use this supply could last for decades

Related question, could Breno stuff be converted to xenon? If you've ever been around any, the gases vent direct out the top into the room & that stuff is poisonous. osha would have cardiac arrest. I could envisage a round hood of some sort above the equipment connecting to a powerful
exhaust fan on the roof. That would help.

Thanks!

| IP: Logged

Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-19-2001 06:25 PM

There used to be a brenograph in toronto area that had 2 Zies XenosolIII's fitted on it

| IP: Logged

Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-19-2001 06:47 PM

Carbons are definitely still available. For a theatre that's only open on a seasonal basis (which includes most drive-ins), buying carbons is cheaper than converting to xenon. The Cape Cinema is open May through October and they still use 6mm/7mm carbons.

A friend and I recently found a couple of boxes of old 8mm/7mm carbons in a closed-down theatre, along with lots of stubs. (We donated them to the Byrd.) I'm sure that there are plenty of people and old theatres that have stockpiles as well, which (sadly) will likely never get used.

Of course there are other uses for carbons besides film projectors--for example, carbon-arc Super Trouper spotlights are still quite common, and the large searchlights also usually burn carbon.

| IP: Logged

Jerry D. Cox
Film Handler

Posts: 35
From: Nashville, TN, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 04-19-2001 08:23 PM

Joe the 13mmx8,an the 9mmx8 or Low intensty carbons,They may be hard to find,You could try "THE MARBEL CO" In Nashville,Tn. Talk to Randy if he does not have them he may be abel to tell you where to get them.

| IP: Logged

Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 04-19-2001 10:32 PM

The National carbons that were made by Union Carbide are now made by another company called National Specialty Products

Here's the link:
http://mamat.com/Specialty%20Products.html

| IP: Logged

Robert Throop
Master Film Handler

Posts: 412
From: Vernon, NY USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-20-2001 12:32 PM

In about 1980 I visited the Imax booth at Pyramid Place in Niagara Falls, Ontario. They had a Brenograph F7 that had been converted to xenon. The carbon lamphouses were removed and replaced by a pair of small Cinemecannica lamphouses. I think they were 450 watt. Also Radio City Music Hall had an F7 that had been split up. Each unit on a separate pedestal. These were converted to HMI in the mid seventies using the original lamphouses.

------------------
Bob Throop

| IP: Logged

Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 04-24-2001 12:02 AM

At the Byrd we use 11mm on the pos. side and 8mm on the neg. side at 70 amps in the C-14. The 8mm on the neg. side is generally a pos. stub left from the Magnarcs. The Bren. F7 uses an 8mm pos. stick on both sides, no point is buying negatives. Yes it is vented into the room but there is a strong exhaust in the ceiling directly over it, smoke, etc. get sucked straight into it. The Magnarcs use 8mm x 14 pos. & 7mm x 9in. neg. Carbons had been no problem to get until last Nov. when Marble apparently made an ordering error and ran out of 8mm and National made a large batch of 8mm that had defective cores that made only light from glowing carbon. Both claim to have resolved their problems. Randy at Marble says he'll not make that mistake again, National says they will have carbons at least for the next year or so, no comment on anything past that. We will stock up on sticks for the follow spot and Breno. and convert the projectors.

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.