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Author Topic: industrial accidents Boris Sorokoumov Film Handler Posts: 7 From: Moscow, Russia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 07-19-2011 07:43 AM                     Does anyone know any scary stories about industrial accidents in the cinema?  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 07-19-2011 08:33 AM                        During the nitrate era, cinema staff and customers were cremated on a regular basis. Fire remains a serious risk afterwards, as it does in any enclosed space in which lots of people are packed in closely. I remember reading a news story about a fire in a cinema in India that killed a significant number of people a couple of years ago, but can't find it on a Google search. If I remember correctly the main cause turned out to be that some builders had left a bag of cement leaning against an emergency exit door. It then rained, the cement got wet, it set (thereby cementing the door shut), and then a few months later, no-one could get out when the place caught fire.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-19-2011 08:43 AM                     The "fire proof" Iriquois Theater burned in Chicago in 1903 and claimed over 600. Bodies of those trying to flee were piled ten high by still locked exit doors. There is much about this on the net so just google it. This fire led to the very strict fire codes in public buildings adopted by most large cities in the USA.  |  IP: Logged Boris Sorokoumov Film Handler Posts: 7 From: Moscow, Russia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 07-19-2011 09:46 AM                     Oh, sorry, guys, I was referring to an injury in the projection room, such as electric shocks, or some mechanical injury. What the risks projectionist.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 07-19-2011 10:57 AM                     In the dim and fortunately distant days of carbon arc, A friend was training an apprentice for the union in one of the downtown theaters. After what seemed to be an adequate time the new guy was allowed to adjust the trim after a reel. He pulled the arc switch and immediately opened the lamp and grabbed the still white hot positive carbon with his fingers. Burned instantly to the bone he was rushed to the hospital only 4 blocks away. He made a full recovery but decided against a career in the booth.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 07-19-2011 11:32 AM                        I remember the first time I saw a carbon arc lamphouse in action (at the Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, in 2003 or 2004). It was exactly as you describe apart, thankfully, from the 'grabbed the still white hot positive carbon' bit. However, as soon as he'd opened up the lamphouse immediately after killing the power I took an instinctive few steps back. The other projectionist there giggled: of course, do that with a xenon lamphouse (and without wearing a safety mask), and you risk the bulb blowing up in your face. But of course with a carbon arc lamphouse, assuming you keep your paws off the business ends, there's no risk. Has there ever been a documented case of a serious injury or fatality caused by an exploding xenon bulb as the result of mishandling it? I've never come across any reference to any. I do wonder if the conversion to digital cinema might increase that risk. From my first day in a projection booth it was drilled into me that xenon bulbs are something you don't mess with or cut corners in handling. But I've got a sort of gut feeling that film projection is an inherently more physically safety conscious profession/enviromnent. There are lots of fast-moving and sharp parts around, you're working in low light, and poor film handling can cause serious economic damage as well as to health (e.g. accidentally scratching a print). In the IT world, the safety is more virtual: for example, the computer equivalent of accidentally putting a deep emulsion scratch down all eight reels of a 70mm print of 2001 might be accidentally rewriting the master boot record of a HDD thinking you were talking to a different drive letter. That's a problem if you need to show the 'film' in an hour's time, but it won't put you in any physical danger. Yet d-cinema projectors have the same high-pressure xenon arc bulbs as film projectors do/did, and I wonder if, going forward, the cinema site staff will be properly trained to know that opening up one of these things is something you really don't want to do if you don't know what's in there. Just thinking aloud...  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-19-2011 12:32 PM                     quote: Boris Sorokoumov What the risks projectionist. Ties getting caught in the sprockets of the projectors.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-19-2011 01:02 PM                        There was a story around Local 224 in DC that one of the long haired hippie projectionists got his hair caught in the projector and had a hunk of his scalp pulled out. Could be urban legend. If you search the Boxoffice archives up until the 60's you will find many references to nitrate film booth fires. I'm sure more than a few resulted in injured projectionists. I knew one guy whose arm caught the edge of a platter at just the wrong angle and ended up with a bunch of stiches.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-19-2011 06:45 PM                     No major accidents to report on in my 32 years. A couple of electric shocks is about all and those were never more than 120 volts. Never had a lamp explode in my hands. Worst thing from moving heavy gear over the years is my problematic back. I let the younger generation do the heavy moving these days.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 07-19-2011 07:26 PM                        You are right about digital (or any equipment that has no training.) I have researched over the years the urban legend that the "bulb exploded, propelling the lens into the audience, killing a man." No truth. One that i can personally attest to: In 1971, Jon, a very elderly Union projectionist in Louisville, had no right thumb. I would never ask, but he volunteered that he had been cleaning the #1 Western Electric Universal Base when a "bad patch" went through #2. When he turned suddenly, the cleaning rag wrapped around the square projector vertical drive shaft & pulled off his thumb. He finished off his shift, 4 hours, before he went to the hospital. Blood formed a wye between the machines and the rewinder. I know this to be true; I know the man and the booth. Louis  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 07-19-2011 07:33 PM                     A local owner of a 3 screen dinner theatre had a lamp that he had to open and thump the circuit board with his finger in order to make the bulb strike. His 3 Centurys were in terrible condition but he never wanted to spend the $$ to do more than get one more run out of them so I saw him a lot. He never wanted to come in more than an hour before opening so there was never time to take the board out and check it----until one night his wife called and said Roy had had an accident with lamp #3. I got there and found Roy & wife in the office, he looked like a train had hit him. Seems he had opened the lamp and reached in without looking and gotten full igniter voltage from one hand and out the other---he had burns on his hands to prove it. He was found with no pulse or respiration, one of the waitresses revived him with CPR. Funny thing, he wanted me to trouble shoot the board, found several cold solder joints which fixed it.  |  IP: Logged Donald Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 131 From: Lincoln, DE Registered: Sep 2009 posted 07-19-2011 07:51 PM                     Not to minimize the gravity of the topic, but Brad's reference to ties getting caught in sprockets brought back a rather odd recollection: Many years ago I was working in an old carbon arc booth at a central Massachusetts drive-in. The theatre was equipped with a pair of old Brenkert BX80 heads along with two Brenkert Enarc lamps. At the time, the Motor-In was the oldest operational auto-theatre in central Massachusetts. Anyway, one night following intermission, after the snackbar had closed, as I was threading up another reel for the second feature, I noticed that blood was flowing from the surface of my thumb! What quickly became evident was that the old BX80 had removed a stubborn wart that had snagged on a sprocket! Since the snackbar was locked and I didn't have access to the hand wash sink or band-aids, I simply washed up with a dabbing of Clorox and wrapped my thumb in splicing tape! Hardly an industrial accident when the sprocket succeeded where Compound W failed! Don Brown  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 07-19-2011 08:00 PM                     25 years in the booth (most of them carbon arc) and no accidents. And c'mon Bill, carbons did and still do put out a beautiful light.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-19-2011 08:22 PM                     Rouss Looses His Projectionists Job  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-20-2011 01:43 AM                     quote: Bill Enos In the dim and fortunately distant days of carbon arc I had the brightest picture on the screen in town using 9mm carbons in a Peerless Magnarc while the others had either Christie CH20, or Cine 1600w xenon lamphouses.. townfolks love coming to our theatre due to such... ..being not careful when checking running machines, get distracted, look one way while not paying attention where my hand is and manage to run a finger under the pad roller so the turning sprocket perforates my finger... Some dumb things a projectionist do once in a while ...  |  IP: Logged

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