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Theatrical lighting
Introduction
Artful lighting design achieves many things at once; it illuminates the actors
and scenery, creates contrast between foreground and background, indicates time
of day and weather conditions, implies moods; it even allows the director to focus
the audience's attention subliminally, perhaps on a particular prop or artiste, by
subtle shifts in highlights. Te create this intricate light-picture it is often
necessary to control the brightness (and sometimes colour) of a large number of
lamps, perhaps many hundreds, with considerable finesse of timing and level
throughout a fluid progression of 'scenes' or 'cue states' during the show. Art
must be the master and technology the servant, but technology is often very much
in evidence in theatre lighting. Many sophisticated electromechanical and
electronic systems have been designed over the years to enable one or two
operators to carry out all these functions smoothly and repeatably, at great
expense in many cases. Until we have a chance to reveal these monsters, take a
look at the other end of the spectrum of lighting switchboards.

Basic theatre lighting controls

Slider dimmer stage lighting boards

Stages such as those in schools and village halls could not justify complex and
costly equipment to operate their small number of lamps on an infrequent basis,
yet required the facility to switch or dim perhaps a dozen circuits of low wattage.
For these applications most of the stage lighting manufacturers offered a simple
switchboard built around individual resistance dimmers which could be assigned
to circuits as required by a plug-and-socket patch arrangement. The dimmer
sliders were operated directly by hand, without the benefit of levers and shafts to
lock them together. This made the simultaneous dimming of many channels
cumbersome and often demanded great ingenuity and dexterity. Wooden sticks
could be used to push multiple sliders at once (as shown in one of Strand
Electric's brochures!) or extra hands might be drafted in to operate individual
dimmer handles for the more complicated cues. The advantage was simply
economy; so long as the fixed wiring was there, dimmers could be bought or
hired and added to the board using only a screwdriver.
 Slider dimmer

The dimmers used on these boards were built in the simplest possible way,
using resistance wire wound onto asbestos or slate formers over which the sliding
contact runs. Unlike conventional wirewound variable resistors, lighting dimmers
put more resistance into circuit per inch of travel near the bottom of the range
than near the top. This enables a smooth fade with steady movement of the
handle and in certain designs (termed variable-load dimmers) allows for
flexibility in circuit wattage, which is nevertheless restricted to +/- 33% of the
dimmer's nominal rating. Standard variable-load dimmers would suit 500 to
1000 watt lighting loads (e.g. one pair of spots with T1 lamps) but alternative
ratings were available. The grading of the resistance requires either multiple
formers which come into play in stages over the course of the handle travel, or
sections wound with different gauges of wire jointed along the length of the
former. The latter method, although widely used, was very troublesome. The
medium gauge sections, which ran hottest, would sometimes sag and the turns
would get crossed over and broken, while the finer wire at the bottom of the
travel was prone to breakage and wearing through along the track where the
sliding contact runs. In contrast, dimmers used on professional stages were
constructed with individual resistance coils numbering perhaps 100, connected
to brass studs over which the wiper arm would run, making for a smoother and
much more robust dimmer albeit a larger and costlier one.

The switch configuration was generally standardised between manufacturers; if

only one row of switches was provided each switch served to bypass the dimmer
socket for that channel. This allowed more circuits to be on (at full) than the
number of dimmers would otherwise permit. For example, a dimmer at zero
could be plugged in, used to bring a circuit to full and then bypassed with the
switch, after which it could be unplugged and used for another circuit while the
first remained in use. A second row of switches was often included above the first,
allowing channels to be switched between control under the master blackout
switch, off, and independent. A group of channels could be snapped on or off with
the master switch while others maintained a background state, for example, or a
dimmed scene could be added without moving the dimmer sliders.

Strand HA20 stage lighting dimmer board

 Overhaul completed

The archetype of slider dimmer boards. This board dates from the mid 1950's
and was originally supplied by Strand Electric to a secondary school. The HA
series comprised a range of modules, including 8-circuit and 12-circuit boards in
a variety of frame styles, channel dimmers of two ratings, and optional master
dimmers. The system could be ordered to suit the requirements and budget of the
installation, with any number of dimmers up to one per channel. This unit is
assembled from two standard wall-mounting JA-type frames and boards, one of
8 circuits and one of 12, giving 20 5-amp rated circuits connected to the fixed
wiring with a maximum total load of 60A. Rewireable 'Dennis' fuses are fitted,
below which are GEC 'Mutac' switches, chosen for their silent action, and 5A
sockets by Sax. Although 6 Dimmers are present, all 500-1000W rating, there
may originally have been more. The chassis layout was designed to accommodate
one dimmer for every two circuits in a single row, which was a popular setup, a
second row being installed below these if required. The dimmers are Strand's LS
long travel type rated for 500-1000W, although later HA's used a different design
as shown on the Junior-8' units below. This board has the 'luxury' of a board
light, fitted near the centre and controlled by an extra switch. As received, the
board was in a dirty and damaged condition, with incorrect fuseholders fitted on
three channels, missing bridges, and dimmers in need of overhaul. The installer
had also managed to shear many of the terminal screws on the back of the board.
The overhaul is now completed although a few more fuse bridges have yet to be
found and slotted in.

GB-Kalee 15-way board

Preceding the HA was this type of board, probably of late 1940's manufacture,
badged in this case for the Cinema equipment manufacturers Gaumont British.
Thought to have been used at the Haberdashers' Aske's school when based in
Highgate, but actually found at the school in Elstree with no sign of having been
used there. The fuseholders are MEM Kantark Junior type, the dimmer bypass
switches GEC Mutac, and the sockets Contactum. The original dimmers were
probably LS-type mounted on a separate backboard but these were not with the
switchboard when found. What was with it, however, was the master dimmer
rated for 8kW (or 12kW briefly) housed in an expanded-mesh case and operated
with a wheel. This type of dimmer is actually identical to a channel-dimmer from
a professional stage switchboard, and the difference in complexity will be seen
when compared with a former-type dimmer. These were used with the later HA
boards as well, for which a terminal box was provided in the standard frame. The
master dimmer will need some cleaning up due to water damage (it was actually
found in a puddle after severe flooding) but the switchboard is ready to go, just a
few fuse bridges having been needed to replace missing and broken ones.

Strand Junior-8

Furse slider dimmer board

Junior-8 was the last incarnation of the slider dimmer board, produced until
electronic (triac) dimmers were sufficiently cheap to oust them in even the very
lowest budget situations. Designed to be either permanently installed or portable,
they control 8 5A channels paired on four dimmers, with the familiar GEC Mutac
switch selecting dim / off / full, all under the control of a blackout switch on the
right hand end. The patching arrangement is rather different to the boards shown
above; instead of the switches being permanently wired to the lighting circuits
and dimmers being assigned 'on the fly', the dimmers and switches are connected
internally and the circuits plugged in as required using 5A 3-pin sockets on the
front. This avoids duplication of sockets in portable applications whilst allowing a
greater number of circuits than switches. There are traps here for the unwary,
though, as the level of one circuit could be disturbed by adding or removing load
from a shared dimmer. The fusing scheme allowed circuits up to 1kW when used
individually on a dimmer but only 500W when paired to prevent overloading the
dimmer, and hence limiting the total load to 20A. The use of cartridge fuses was a
step forward in safety and convenience, particularly as the holders were of a
touch-proof design unlike most of the rewireable fuse carriers common on the
earlier boards. The dimmers are of Strand's final former-wound design which
gave a nice dimming curve but was very prone to wire breakage, arcing and
jamming. There were various optional units, such as the Master-3 which offered 3
short-time rated master dimmers to control 3 Junior-8 boards, or the Master-8
which offered one master dimmer for a Junior-8 plus two higher rated channel
dimmers. In practice these units were rarely seen; any systems requiring three
Junior-8's could probably justify a more sophisticated control system. Here at EK
we have a number of Junior-8s in various stages of disrepair. They always seem
to turn up with water damage or totally wrecked resistance formers, so a certain
amount of mix-and-match will be required to get them working! A picture of the
later Micro-8 electronic unit is shown for comparison; the functions are almost
identical to those of a Junior-8 with the welcome addition of a master fader (easy
to do electronically at little extra expense).

Furse 6-circuit primary dimmer board

Late 1950s / early 1960s lighting control from a different stable. Six circuits
with six dimmers, but without the convenience of being able to operate them all
with one stick, as they are in two rows for compactness! The upper row of toggle
switches allows channels to bypass the master blackout switch (on the right hand
side panel) or be switched off. The lower row of switches selects dim / full. One
might suppose that the plug patch for the dimmers would be redundant when
there is a dimmer for every circuit, yet it could be very handy for rearranging the
dimmers so that any channels dimming together are adjacent and can be
operated with less hands! The design of the dimmers themselves is good, with the
resistance coils being spread over three formers. This allows heavier gauge wire
to be used throughout, which along with well engineered wiper carriages and
large brushes with low copper content, lends a smooth and quiet action to the
dimmer. Maximum circuit rating 5 amps (1kW lighting load) protected by Slydlok
rewireable fuses, dimmer rating 500-1000W. The board was recovered from a
community centre stage along with some Furse lanterns during a rewire. Many of
the switches and some of the fuseholders had been replaced with incorrect types
and the dimmers were generally seized. Now in good order, complete with
original heat-resisting dimmer flex.

History of theatre lighting - links

 The Strand Lighting Archive at Exeter University

 The NEET project - vintage lighting controls and more

Further reading

 Bentham, Frederick. Sixty Years of Light Work. London: Strand Lighting,

1992.
 Ost, Geoffrey. Stage Lighting. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1954.
 Wilson, Angus. Home-Made Lighting Apparatus. London: H.F.W. Deane
& Sons.