My father owned Sun Ray Lighting in Los Angeles. As a kid I would work at the business with my brother cleaning the 60" mirror with Bon Ami, clean the brushes, check the carbon, etc. before they went out to open new businesses, new car introductions, grand openings, etc. Continued to do that while going to college. Paid good money for the time. He ended up making many replacement parts for the lights and selling them. Long time ago.

@@2098elk that’s pretty cool. I’d like to have one of those

I talked to a guy yesterday who was still doing this, I talked to him about the searchlight for a solid hour

They are drawing straws to see who flies the plane through the beam so the anti aircraft guys get their turn. 😂😂

I remember these when I was a kid in the 70's. They were usually at furniture stores if I remember. It made a lasting impression that I'll never forget. Thank you for keeping this great old equipment alive.

That's amazing but how did you convince your wife that you needed 491,000 lumen searchlight? thats what I really want to know 🤣🤣🤣

how long do the rods last for?

If memory serves me well, the Negative rod lasted about 1.5 to 1.75 hours and the Positive rod about 2.5 to 2.45 hours, give or take. The negative rod is 7/16" diameter and the positive rod is 5/8".

@@BVHVVH OMG that thing burns darn quick!

In the General Electric version, I'd set an initial arc gap when replacing the rod(s) of about 1/2". When the power lever was engaged, the control system would automatically move one of the rods (I don't remember which one) into the other one making contact and striking the arc and then move the rod back to the proper gap (maybe 1/8" to 1/4" (again, don't remember exactly). There was an optical sensor/mirror that would automatically maintain the arc by rotating and advancing the positive rod. There is a very sophisticated electrics and gearbox on the outside of the light drum that did all this fancy automatic work. Very advanced for it's time. Yes, some say that about 42 Lumens per Watt is produced, some say in the high 30's. The original positive rod had a core composed of the element Cerium that enhanced the Lumens per Watt produced over standard solid carbon rods. I understand that my light still sits unused by its current owner for years down in Banning CA. I convinced my wife I needed a hobby for my retirement and the light was it for a few years.

Its all about a biggg Spark.

@@Pitchplus8 in xenon light you can also find a big spark but i have never seen a very large xenon light bulb.

@@RandomInside Photonicinduction had one yearsssss ago if memory serves me right

@@davidtheawesomeone5358 30kw and 50kw.

LEDs are great, but I don't imagine any Single Diode LEDs that will beat a Carbon Arc Lamp any time soon in terms of Surface Brightness.

Not annoying, blinding. Laser is a hell of a lot more focused, than this. This’ll light them up, a laser will blind.

Yup, let some perp try aiming one of these suckers into the cockpit of a landing plane and see where it will land them.

@@matte2160 I still wouldn't point this at a plane. You'll get jail time for that.

That laser blinding pilots ... Cockpit is pointed front up not front down ( except if flying inverted 🙃) so laser wil hit a plane on belly ! Is about sensor avionics underbelly (foto cells, camera, etc ) which a powerful laser and optics focusing on those devices can fry! That jail is valid if seen laser ( green, red, blue...) on IR ( more powerful even using diodes ) is not visible for third parties ( only wearing night vision....).

The only thing he won't be able to Pop. But yes, I would love for him to get ahold of one. Quite easy to rig up a makeshift one though minus the Giant Convex Lens.

Photonic induction is long gone

At least they're still using Arc Lamp tech.

Thx × xactly !!! ☝️👍🤝✌️🐞

Yeah, in the 70’s in western NY state two lights in the sky usually meant there was a carnival was open, with the distance they were visible, you could tell which town they were at.

Watched another vid couple days ago on WW2 German search light. Guess this is how this one came to my recommendations. It goes into detail how the arc is struck and then maintained. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rch9ppVyxre5hqs.html

In the General Electric version, I'd set an initial arc gap when replacing the rod(s) of about 1/2". When the power lever was engaged, the control system would automatically move one of the rods (I don't remember which one) into the other one making contact and striking the arc and then move the rod back to the proper gap (maybe 1/8" to 1/4" (again, don't remember exactly). There was an optical sensor/mirror that would automatically maintain the arc by rotating and advancing the positive rod. There is a very sophisticated electrics and gearbox on the outside of the light drum that did all this fancy automatic work. Very advanced for it's time. Yes, some say that about 42 Lumens per Watt is produced, some say in the high 30's. The original positive rod had a core composed of the element Cerium that enhanced the Lumens per Watt produced over standard solid carbon rods.

@@BVHVVH The larger stage spots used a system like this, as your average stagehand wasn't very adept at keeping things carefully adjusted like that, especially when his primary job was keeping his spot in the right place and spread. Projectionists had similar "busy hands" concerns.

I'm betting the filters wouldn't last very long...

They were automatically adjusted

@@Dog.soldier1950 Thanks. I appreciate your answer.

@@Dog.soldier1950 They had to be, since the unit was being moved almost continually.

ANd vaporize it rapidly!

Mothra

I'll bet it would work great mounted on a good SLR!

True, but they still had there use for spotting planes, pointed at clouds to provide 'Moonlight' or just to blind there enemies. Jokes about that last bit although maybe that tactic was indeed used.

They actually show the voltage and current. They ran it from 70 to 80 volts at the generator at about 60 Amps, so the power is in the range of 4.2 to 4.8 KW, or about the same power as a construction light with 4 1125 Watt Metal Halide lamps. However the AC Halide lamps use a ballast inductor so more power is sent to the bulbs. The searchlight on the other hand uses a resistor bank to make the arc current stable. The voltage at the arc is typically between 24 to 30 Volts. At the same current this puts 1440 to 1800 Watts of power in the arc. This is about the same power a projector used for a large screen drive in movie theater.

Actually, they were very efficient... But a little too much for a reading lamp.

The Batman idea was rooted in these searchlights...

1 Solar.

Yeah, I wouldn't stand in front of it unless you want a tan...

Could have also been a satellite

Lol. It was a moth.

Haha you all were well away from the war

Pardon my ignoring, but what is a junker?

@@barberjeff67 German Aircraft manufacturer, famous for the Ju87 "Stuka" dive-bomber that was widely used during the first half of the war.

@@consuminginternalorgans thank you!

Similar german searchlights were used to track british or american bombers in WW2 during nightraids

I wonder why they never made Carbon Arc Flashlights? HIDs are great and all, but they lack the sheer Surface Brightness of a CA Lamp. If someone made a Carbon Arc Flashlight today, it would blow people's minds. Would be very inefficient though and would require a very powerful Driver and a Ballast.

I wonder how LEPs compare to this?