Crash_Override Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I didn't know where to put it. When traveling with our small show, we found a town theater which had it's old equipment still in place. Thought I'll put some pictures of them, haven't seen thees quite a while. These all are from the Soviet times. On top of the old sound mixer there is a new one to put the haven't removed the old one. These should be in some kind of a museum. I'll add the link here: http://www.fotki.com/Strand/Tehnika/Haapsalukultuurikeskus08 Anybody has ever used those things?These are located in Estonia. Sound mixer: Tesla AUA 4146Amplifier: Tesla AUC 4121 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinE Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Shame it's not all still in use! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash_Override Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 Couple years ago I saw one that was in use. The lightning desk I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 That old LX kit looks to be in an amazingly good condition! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Cool - Tesla is such a cool name...I do hope it was a descendant of Nikolai's company.... Actually, the sound console doesn't look as old as the LX, to my eye. I suspect with a tiny bit of love, they would probably both still work - they built things to last in those days! I also loved the way that the new consoles are just dropped on top of the old ones. Maybe in 10 years time they'll drop the new ones on top of those, and so on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Possibly more like 2. I'd like to have a bet that if that old desk still works, it'll STILL work when they go for the NEXT new one. And the next. And if they carry on like that, the next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Certainly looks as if someone has taken loving care of it over the years! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash_Override Posted March 9, 2008 Author Share Posted March 9, 2008 The sound console actually worked, they use it to, but only for (I don't know how should I say it in English, but they give the signal for the people before the show, so they know how much time is until the beginning of the show. Maybe I explained it now wrong.)The old cabling from the LX console was also OK. So if you wanted, you could use it if you had correct plugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Cool - Tesla is such a cool name...I do hope it was a descendant of Nikolai's company....AFAIK, Nikolai Tesla never actually formed a company himself, not in that part of the world, anyway. Most of his best known work was carried out while working for Edison and later for Westinghouse in the States. Wikipedia - Tesla (company) Although of "ancient" design, some of that kit may not be quite as old as you think Great photos, though - thanks for posting them :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinE Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Mm Ive got a Tesla radio in my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Jelfs Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Cool - Tesla is such a cool name...I do hope it was a descendant of Nikolai's company....AFAIK, Nikolai Tesla never actually formed a company himself, not in that part of the world, anyway. Most of his best known work was carried out while working for Edison and later for Westinghouse in the States. Wikipedia - Tesla (company) Although of "ancient" design, some of that kit may not be quite as old as you think ;) Great photos, though - thanks for posting them ;) Just in a short diversion off topic... There is a very good chapter on the Edison Vs Tesla rivalry in http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0436204630.02.MZZZZZZZ.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Looks like I made a good investment when I bought a copy of... http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0747262659.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg ...a few years ago ;) An excellent potted biography, with information sourced from Tesla's own diaries. It tells of how his early work in France for the Edison company led to him being hired by them to work in the US; how Edison's failure to honour certain promises ultimately led to his working for Westinghouse (with a spell of menial labour in between) and how he was generally taken for a bit of a ride by both companies. A fascinating book about a fascinating man, with plenty of background information to flesh out the broader picture of those times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roderick Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Seeing that they placed the new lighting desk on top of the old one, how did they operate the old desk! You'd be sitting on the floor to use the lower row. I do recall using the Strand version of the same 'desk' too many years ago but they were normally installed sideways because they were too big to look over the top of them. For those who have trouble programming a Frog, Hog or some other newfangdangled thing, welcome to the art of the mechanical lighting desk.When working from 'pre-sets', the small T-bars are the locks you used to set the level for that dimmer. You would then turn the big wheels on the side (you can just see them behind the table) to change from one level to the next. You needed to turn two wheels at a time, one to take out the old pre-set and one to bring up the next. The term 'pre-set' now makes sense doesn't it!The cables behind would then operate the waterbased 'blade' dimmers. And NO, it doesn't have DMX or would be suitable to operate wobbly buckets. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmills Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 I ran across something VERY similar from Siemens in a school theatre in Germany some years ago, to give it its due it all worked perfectly (which was pretty unique on that tour). Just to expand on how you set up the presets (on that particular example), there are two sliding limit stops that lock into the slots above and below the operating handle, you use these to set how far you want the level to change... The handle itself is coupled to the lay shaft by a rather clever gear and slipping clutch arrangement, and by rotating the T bar on the handle you can either disconnect it from the shaft, have it move in the same direction as the shaft or have it move in the opposite direction.It took a little getting used to, but was actually a very simple and reliable system. The example I encountered used variable air gap inductors to vary the power to the lamps, the other end of the control wire connected to a soft iron rod that formed part of the magnetic circuit for a choke, pulling the rods caused the inductance to fall and the power to increase. The local crew chief had something of a nuclear engineering background and played on this by fitting a switch at the end of each bank that controlled a contactor feeding that set of chokes, written above it were the words "SCRAM[1] Switch"! "At the end of act 1, I will hold the scram switches while you drop the rods", apparently I was one of the few who got the joke. Regards, Dan. [1] Legend has it that when Feynman and company assembled the first manmade nuclear reactor (which had a single control rod operated by a rope), a man was stationed on a catwalk over the pile with an axe... He was the Safety Control Rod Axe Man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidLee Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 Legend has it that when Feynman and company assembled the first manmade nuclear reactor (which had a single control rod operated by a rope), a man was stationed on a catwalk over the pile with an axe... He was the Safety Control Rod Axe Man!Definitely legend! Feynman was not involved at all (he was a Princeton man). The reactor was built in a squash court at the University of Chicago in 1942 by Enrico Fermi. It was built from graphite bricks (as a moderator) with no radiation shielding at all and actually had several cadmium control rods. There was an automatic safety rod that was meant to drop into place in the event of a runaway reaction but there was also an emergency rod suspended from a rope which was indeed to be cut with an axe in extremis. If that failed to control the reaction then a bunch of guys were standing by with buckets ready to flood the pile with a cadmium salt solution. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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