# Vintage Stage Lighting



## patriot1

I had a call one day about some dimming system not working and this is what I found when I arrived...FInd parts for this baby!! Oh by the way, it is a 1/2 SQ D and 1/2 Cutler Hammer system. It is still operational.


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## patriot1

Frontal View


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## cdnelectrician

Wow! cool stuff! Is there a date on it?


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## goose134

That is really cool looking. I'd be interested to see how old it is as well. Somewhere, a Lutron salesman just saw an opportunity....


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## guest

Good luck with that gear, I have an installation on Catalina Island using Frank Adams dimmers and gear, parts are no longer available at all. You would have to have a machinist make contact assemblies, etc. 

I'd guess that gear to be be around 70 -80+ years old. 

Another thing to know: those old plate-style dimmers are designed to dim the rated load to dull red, NOT full off in most cases.


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## patriot1

Never could find a date on any of it. I sent pics to Sq D and Cutler Hammer but no takers. Mxslick is correct, the plates can take a full load and currently they do not dim down all the way anymore. The pieces that came up missing where like brake pads on a car, graphite of some type. It was broken off or fell off, but was fortunate to use parts from another wheel on the same unit to continue the use. As you notice the main power section is Sq D and the resistor wheels are cutler hammer. That would be unheard of today with 2 major companies.


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## patriot1

:tank: Here is another pic.


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## RePhase277

Get the patent numbers and we can look up an approximate date from that. How bout a close up of the square D label?


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## Bkessler

My guess. 1926


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## patriot1

I will check on the label. I did not have too many pics but Ill get a closer one of the label.


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## pbeasley

Ahhh.... good ol resistance dimmers... don't really miss those. :grin: Don't miss having scatter ghost loads around either...


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## tomcarrigan

I've worked on a system that looks exactly like that one, had a Square D label and the Dimmers were Cutler Hammer. It was installed in a Junior High School built in 1931 in Virginia City, Nevada. It's still working just fine.


Tom


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## j johnson

The wire could have aspestus rap. for the hight temp wire.


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## ralpha494

If it's a motor operated dimmer, I think I have one in my collection of oddities for Show 'n' Tell. Let me know if I should look closer. Mine is from the old power company auditorium when they went solid state. Probably from the 20's.

The same building had some really early QO style panels but they had a molded case switch with a little cartridge fuse in the same case. Looked kinda like a 90 year old QO120 gfci breaker. Solid wire laced with wax string and all sharp 90 degree bends going to the pipes. I set it aside but somebody took it.


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## Toronto Sparky

I've dealt with those dimmers a couple of times.. Great stuff as long as you don't have to move it.
I took one out and was going to bring it home to add to my collection of junk in the garage , but.. I would need two or three guys to help carry it.


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## JBIRD

What is this thing?
Also what does it do?
And how does it work?

Real kool find!


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## MDShunk

JBIRD said:


> What is this thing?
> Also what does it do?
> And how does it work?
> 
> Real kool find!


There's a pretty nice video on YouTube that explains it fairly well. The video's got a bit of age on it, but it lays it out pretty clearly for you:


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## nolabama

great video marc that should be required viewing for all apprentices:laughing:


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## Power Tech

Was that in English?


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## Toronto Sparky

I had to wire one of them up in trade school.. But the flux capacitor kept shorting out and sending us all back to the future..


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## geoffrey

resistance dimmers, like the one pictured, were pervasive in the theatre lighting business and came in two capacities. this one looks similar.

resistance dimmers require a full load in order to be capable of dimmng to full off. anything less will result in dimming to some other level, but not a 0 V output.

when not loaded to capacity, one needs to apply what we used to call a 'ghost load'. banks of resistance plate dimmers (14 to a 'console') may not have all been loaded to capacity, and when that was the case, and the light needed to be dimmed to complete off (0 V), we would put a second lamp, in series, back stage to raise the total load. when the light from that second fixture could not be masked properly (from the audience view) we would use an electric iron.

sometimes the contact points on the plate would break. in that event, we would get a piece of #12 wire and bend a jumper to jump over the burned out contact.

those were the days!

geoffrey


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## s.kelly

Power Tech said:


> Was that in English?


I made out several words that were definately english words. The sentances however...


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