Re: [AMIA-L] Looking for...

[Arthur Gaer <gaer@MATH.HARVARD.EDU>]

Having worked as a projectionist for a few years during and after college,
mostly in a repertory theater where the projection equipment was the
state-of-the-art around 1933, I should mention that the thing that I found
as tension inducing as the changeovers was operating the carbon-arc lamps.

Especially because the power supply when I began was incorrect, so
striking the arc on the second projector in preparation for the changeover
would cause a voltage drop (?) in the lamp of the on-screen projector,
such that the carbons would start moving slower and slower, the gap
opening wider and wider, the light getting dimmer and dimmer, and could
quite conceivably go out entirely before the end of the reel and the
changeover cues appeared...

The combination used to literally give me nightmares--rather hard to do a
correct changeover from a black screen (the soundtrack still playing away
of course, so it was kind of hard to fake it).

I suppose depictions of carbon-arc lamps are even rarer than general
projection booth/changeover scenes.  But not unimportant, as I've always
assumed that it was pretty much impossible to eliminate changeovers and
develop full automation until there was a light source that required far
less frequent manual intervention than carbon-arcs.

And the cinema audiences of the world are much worse off as a
result--especially if they prefer to see their films actually in focus.

Arthur Gaer
gaer@math.harvard.edu

On Fri, 26 Jul 2002, tim wrote:

> i just want to thank everyone for their suggestions and i hope they
> keep coming. i have been working on this project for 18months and i
> hope to have it finished within the next 6months.
>
> thanks again,
> timothy massett
> --