The Major Equipment Co Ltd

[vbm]

Great, nice to see old kit still working, incidently all the pics in the major catalogue show them the other way up (lamp base up), not sure if running them base down will have any impact, but I suspect if you had a gel in they may overheat as the heat escapes through the "chimney" around the lampholder

 

Best

 

Tony

 

Thanks, I don't think this will be a problem, they get used briefly, a couple of times in the show, at much less than 100% level, without gel!

 

vbm

[tony g]

Another dating fact that may be of interest, the 1965 catalogue shows it with bakelite lock off knobs, I have two major spots with aluminium lock offs, quite nice shape with "major" in the middle of the knob, they stopped using the aluminium knobs in 1960, so if yours are ally they are pre 1960

 

Another couple of Major titbits, Major were a leading manufacturer of neon signs in the 30's being responsible for many iconic cinema signs, they also made fluorecent lights and supplied the same to london underground, they introduced a long life, starterless, energy efficient fluorecent in the early 70's called the ecolux, long before eco became a buzzword. Interestingly the companies parent Major Equipment Inc. are still alive and kicking in the US as a firm of stage engineers having sold lighting out to Berkey Photographic and Times Square Lighting many years ago.

[torrox850]

Hi BRers...

 

Can anybody tell me anything about the (I suspect, long-defunct) theatrical lighting manufacturers "The Major Equipment Co Ltd", based in London NW10?

 

Thanks, vbm.

 

Hi Fellow Members,

 

I used to work at Major Equipment Co. Ltd of Gorst Road NW10 back in the early '60s. I joined them straight from school at 15 and I was there from 1960 to 62. I was employed in the following departments: Assembly, stores and the illuminated sign drawing office.

 

Feel free to debrief me at any time. :)

 

Regards,

 

John

[timmeh2]

Hi

 

Great picture, certainly bought back a memory or two. I think we had some at my old school, definitely remember the goldy-coloured ones, they were never used and when we rewired the theatre and replaced them with Preludes (deep joy) and CCT fresnels they had about 3 inches of dust on them.

 

All the best

Timmeh

[Junior8]

Major became Westwood Major in the 70's before finally disappearing in the 80's around the time Furse dissapeared (became a part of CCT), both makers aimed at the education market, with major serving some cinemas. Odeon had major equipment until the Rank Organisation (owners of Odeon) brought Strand on 1967, this can't of done Majors busines

 

In 1972 there was also some sort of tie up with an outfit called Thespak or something like it in Stroud (Glos) branded as Thespak Major. I was offered a student holiday job there but didn't take it...

 

Major were a big player in the schools market with some councils using them exclusively.

 

 

[Whiskers]

Major became Westwood Major in the 70's before finally disappearing in the 80's around the time Furse dissapeared (became a part of CCT), both makers aimed at the education market, with major serving some cinemas. Odeon had major equipment until the Rank Organisation (owners of Odeon) brought Strand on 1967, this can't of done Majors busines

 

In 1972 there was also some sort of tie up with an outfit called Thespak or something like it in Stroud (Glos) branded as Thespak Major. I was offered a student holiday job there but didn't take it...

 

Major were a big player in the schools market with some councils using them exclusively.

 

 

 

It was known as "The Thespak Major Consortium" Thespak made electronic dimming, larger systems used a plug in modular system, however the dimmers were not reliable, designer and possibly MD was Leo Bennett who had been involved with Strand's MINI 1 dimmers. I think they also represented a european luminaire maker perhaps ADB and promoted a very stylish TH zoom profile with a single side trunion, only trouble was you had to take off the top half of the very stylish case to get at the shutters or fit an iris, the case was about two foot long and a bit of a handful if you were up a ladder

 

[delicolor]

Just to add another snippet to the Major story, they set up in the UK circa 1931, after having imported lighting from Major America for the first couple of Paramount Movie Palace jobs. They also imported 10 scene preset systems from Frank Adams as the Major FA system, also sometimes known as Berkeley boards as Berkeley Electrical did the installs. I once visited a school in the Barbican which had a Major Saturable Reactor board in the style of a Strand JP system with floor standing vertical panel. I also met a chap called Greg Moger in the early 90s who had a small lighting business in Cinderford, he had been the last factory manager for Major before it closed down.

[Junior8]

Major 10 scene preset illustrated in Williams RG technique of Stage Lighting Pitman 1947 page 81 the ten presets seem to be set by selecting a switch for each way/scene which links that way to the dimmer. On the next page is a two preset by Blackburn Starling & Co in the Empire Leicester Square. I'll scan both when I have time.