Have you ever heard of the old lighting company Hall and Connolly, Inc? They made spotlights – reflector-less carbon arc spotlights, that were huge and, well, new then, old now! Hall and Connolly, Inc, from what I can find through research, became part of the Sperry Corporation and the Sperry Corporation’s holdings at some point in the WAY early 1900’s. The Sperry Corporation made big wartime spotlights and other World War II-era gear.
The IATSE #354 website had some awesome information on these spots, including a manual! I posted the pics of the manual pages after the gallery, check them out!
Check out this Hall and Connolly spotlight – Rick Hutton from InLight Gobos restored this puppy (Spot #322) from dilapidated rustiness to a state of beauty:
This is what it looked like before:
Look through this gallery of shots – click on a thumbnail, a gallery view will open, and you’ll be able to see them all full-sized!
Hall and Connolly Spotlight Manual pages:
Thanks Rick for letting me shoot the spot, and thanks to IATSE #354 for the pics of the manual!
Thanks for posting! I’ve run across this followspot a couple of times. A few in working condition & a couple rusting away. I love the string operation of the color filters!
Kudos to Rick Hutton on restoring the unit! Would love to see it and operate it.
Wonderful restoration. I thought the old carbon arc lamps in storage at Boardwalk Hall were old. Your restoration is something even older. Perhaps someday someone will restore one of the Boardwalk Hall followspots. They operated on 125 Amps at about 45 volts. Like the like this restored one, the old Boardwalk Hall followspots do not have reflectors.
Thanks for putting this online, I had no idea that Rick Hutton had restored one. I haven’t run an H&C for 35 years. For operators accustomed to the carbons on Super Troupers…this unit dwarfs them. The larger carbon (the horizontal) is 1.125″ diameter and about 22″ long; and requires a jaw-like feed mechanism to rotate that carbon to keep a consistent burn.
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