Pendle Stairway Cinema, Ilfracombe. Ross projectors, BTH Type C arcs, 2000’ reels.

Tyneside Cinema (The News Theatre), Newcastle upon Tyne. Philips projectors & Peerless Magnarcs, changeovers.

Futurist Theatre, Scarborough (stage & films), changeovers.

New Royal Cinema, Faversham (ex Odeon & Classic). Original BTH equipment, 2000’ reels.

Only very recently changed to xenons is the Plaza, Oxted with the AEI 2kw lanterns from the Regal, Cranleigh, and the Rex, Wareham.

Edit: Tyneside Cinema.

Re: Tyneside, after checking a video I have edited my last post. Or is it the same place that had a 2nd screen added with the Westars ?

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When I was given a tour of the Tyneside projection boxes around Christmas last year, they had DP75s in one screen and Westars in the other. All four projectors were still running on carbons, and the picture looks great.

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Where is this place? I will be in that part of the country at the end of September, maybe I can get to see a film while I am there

There are exceptions, but, in general, I think most British cinemas do a pretty good job, in many cases it is the audiences that are the problem, but even there we seem to be better than some places. I have only been to one American cinema, and that was good, nothing like the horror stories we sometimes read about in these forums, and rec.arts.movies.tech.

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BTW, a pedantic anoraky point - it's now almost 50 years since xenons were introduced. The first short-arc xenons were demonstrated by Zeiss Ikon at the Photokina trade show in Berlin in 1954.

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I knew it was in the '50s, but I hadn't realised that it was quite that long ago. The first time I saw a xenon was twenty years later, and that was on 16mm. By the early '80s, most places seem to have converted, in many cases being tripled at the same time.

Were these three electrode lamps, like the early BTH ones?

Scott, if you grew up in the carbon arc booths like I did, you would feel like you are "missing something" when they are gone. They all had their own personalities.

Seems like in those days the projectors and lamps would know who is tending to their needs. If you pissed them off, they would do some extremely nasty things to you for no apparent reason.

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Carbons are useful for more than just film projection: there are many places that have carbon-arc Super Trouper (and other models of) spotlights.

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Those use eentsy carbons, so their availability lifespand curve may be slightly different.

Bob Furmanek & his crew are burning carbons behind the Kinotons at the Loew's Jersey.

I'm trying to resuscitate a booth now which has carbon arc lamps, & am trying to sort out a few problems related to carbons in present day. For instance, what do you do with 6 boxes filled with a billion carbon ends in the year 2002?

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The only UK cinemas I heard of recently that are still on carbons:
Pendle Stairway Cinema, Ilfracombe. Ross projectors, BTH Type C arcs, 2000’ reels.

Tyneside Cinema (The News Theatre), Newcastle upon Tyne. Philips projectors & Peerless Magnarcs, changeovers.

Futurist Theatre, Scarborough (stage & films), changeovers.

New Royal Cinema, Faversham (ex Odeon & Classic). Original BTH equipment, 2000’ reels.

Only very recently changed to xenons is the Plaza, Oxted with the AEI 2kw lanterns from the Regal, Cranleigh, and the Rex, Wareham.

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I heard that the Plaza had converted, I have never been there, have walked past it a few times.

Visited the New Royal few years ago, with the CTA. Read an article about the Futurist some time ago, there was talk of both of these converting, I assumed they had done so by now. I had not heard of the other two.

I think the Astra, Duxford (part of the Imperial War Museum) still has carbons, but it is not a normal cinema, and I don't think it often shows anything.

Pinewood studios was still using carbons a few years ago, Peerless Magnarcs on Philips/Kinoton machines, but I don't know if they still are.

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Carbons are useful for more than just film projection: there are many places that have carbon-arc Super Trouper (and other models of) spotlights. Also, advertising searchlights use huge carbons to produce their super-bright light.

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I know of only a very few places that still have carbon spots, and I have never even seen a working searchlight. These use different carbons, and having seen the price of searchlight ones, I think their future must be in doubt

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There were only two times I ran a carbon arc booth in the last 18 years. The last one was almost a year ago. Althought I was "out of tune" with the carbon arc lamp for the 17 year gap, it still was fun.
Scott, if you grew up in the carbon arc booths like I did, you would feel like you are "missing something" when they are gone. They all had their own personalities.

Seems like in those days the projectors and lamps would know who is tending to their needs. If you pissed them off, they would do some extremely nasty things to you for no apparent reason.

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You are right about "missing something", If I see a film with carbon, having previously seen it with xenon, it's like seeing a different film, it somehow seems 'alive. It's a bit like some peolple feel about steam engines. I first ran a carbon arc when I was six, they were everywhere then. At about ten I stopped going to the cinema. When I returned in the '70s, everything had changed, including the arcs. Last year I taught a four year old to run one of my 609 16mm machines; sadly, she may be the last, and is almost certainly the youngest person to learn to run arcs. She loves them, and was quite upset when I wouldn't let her open the lamphouse to look at the arc directly!

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Bob Furmanek & his crew are burning carbons behind the Kinotons at the Loew's Jersey.

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They were when I was there, and they still had a few boxes left, but I don't know how long they will last, or whether they will be able to get any more decent ones, and I wouldn't like to think about what ones that size cost now.

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I'm trying to resuscitate a booth now which has carbon arc lamps, & am trying to sort out a few problems related to carbons in present day. For instance, what do you do with 6 boxes filled with a billion carbon ends in the year 2002?

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I've often wondered, why did cinemas never seem to throw out carbon stubs, even when they were too short to use for anything? You often find boxes or buckets full of them in old places, even years after they stopped using the things.

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Get rid of them, you will never regret it.

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No, I will always regret the last few places giving them up, but I think the end is near. I doubt that anywhere will be using them five years from now, and I think it could well be less than that.

With even very traditional places like the Plaza and the Byrd giving them up, there seems no hope for the last few.

I only ever heard of two conversions from xenon to carbon, and one of those closed a few years later.

When you get to my age you get set in your ways.

"Bright lite carbons" or something to that effect. I have a shoebox full of carbons and a few more boxes which should keep my home booth supplied for 40 years. By the time I convert to xenon, film probably wont exist anymore, and I will be nothing more than a fancy computer programmer

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Unfortunately, when I was burning the 11mm black stick, most of our stubs were too short to run a full reel. What a waste. We never chanced a contest like that with those carbons. It was too risky for the carbon to get out of trim and endanger the water-cooled silver jaws.

I have, on occassion, ran the 13.6 black stick, and we could couple those together.

Josh, I have burned just about any brand of carbon rods made. The very best was Nationals by Union Carbide. The rest were pure crap. They didn't give a good light, they sputtered excessively, left too much fly ash, and were not consistant in maintaining proper trim and arc stability.