The Evolution of Arc Broadside Lighting Equipment

Peter Mole

From the earliest days of artificial lighting the broadside type of unit has been a fundamental lighting tool. Regardless of the light-source used in such lamps—whether mercury-vapor tubes, carbon arcs, or incandescent filament globes—the broadside is a lamp of the floodlight type, designed to emit a relatively wide flood of soft, moderately powerful illumination. It has withstood innumerable changes in lighting and photographic technic, including the introduction and acceptance of spotlighting, the change from orthochromatic to panchromatic film. the changes from silent to talking pictures and from arc to incandescent light-sources, and the present growing popularity of natural-color photography. — The paper traces the evolution of arc broadsides only, and comment upon the design and performance of the early units. The evolution of the broadside is followed through successive improvements in silent-picture usage; its decline at the introduction of sound and Mazda lighting; through the relatively recent rebirth of arc lighting due to the requirements of modern natural-color photography; and the most recently introduced units of this type which are replacing equipment designed less than jive years ago at the introduction of the three-color Technicolor process. Comparison is made between the early, intermediate, and modern units as regards color distribution, light distribution. steadiness and length of burning period, indicating that though less public attention has been given to these types than to the more familiar spotlighting units, the broadside has kept pace with advances in lighting and equipment design.

Print ISSN
Published
1939-04
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J16560