Re: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:

>
There are two, and "wet spot" as the cause is
incredibly unlikely given the temperature
of the arc.  They're solid carbon (think old
carbon battery electrode) rods coated in copper.

When carbons are kept in the damp, they get absorb moisture... and then they
shatter when they get hot.  A competent projectionist can swap it out in
a matter of seconds without even stopping the film.

The more likely cause would be a fault in the
mechanism that maintains a consistent gap
between the electrodes as they burn up (which
the operator needs to adjust to the burn rate
for the particular carbons being used).

It doesn't really do that very well (at least on typical lamphouses) so
it always requires the projectionist to spend a little time fiddling with
the rheostat that runs the motor to keep things stable without much
tinkering.  If the gap is getting too wide or too narrow you can tell
pretty easily on screen without even having to look at the sight glass
on the lamphouse.  But you have to be paying attention.

My experience with AFEES projectionists is they were all pretty good
and pretty careful (and much better than the Navy guys).  And the selections
at the AFEES theatres were great and included films like Godzilla On
Monster Island, The Devil Bat, and Au Pair Girls.  I spent much of my
childhood hanging out in the booths at AFEES theatres.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."