Hi peeps
Looking at the Sir Francis photos I uploaded in the past, I hit this:
🔗88707[linkphoto]88707[/linkphoto][/link]

Look at the lighting arrangement!

An old Youle headset was modified to take a 12V vehicle fog light bulb and a further connection to a hand spotlamp with an 120 watt bulb round my neck on a length of cord. The whole powered by a 12V lead acid motor cycle battery in a shoulder pack.
Switching was by ordinary car dash toggles out of a scrap Jag and the battery covered by a stainless cover made out of 2 Oldham battery tops with corresponding sides cut off and then riveted together.
And the thing worked without problems, even coping with the water of Sir Francis.

I was using this long before the days of multi LED setups. The old days!

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Before this I was using flash bulbs. Much lighter and more compact.

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I like the warm lighting effect.

Luxury!

I used flash powder rolled between the thighs of a Yorkshire mucky lass!

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Come on you experimenters and lectric messers, someone must have put together a real Heath Robinson system.

:lol:

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I have just taken to the dump the lamp I made when we were trying to film with a DV tape camera.

It was a large plastic case with 3no. 12v lead acid batteries and 6no. 50w Halogen capsule lamps in a sort of mesh cage on the front wired to a toggle switch on the back.

I made my nephew carry it around various mines, it got immersed at one point and generated impressive billows of steam when switched on afterwards but continued to work.

I have just taken to the dump the lamp I made when we were trying to film with a DV tape camera.

It was a large plastic case with 3no. 12v lead acid batteries and 6no. 50w Halogen capsule lamps in a sort of mesh cage on the front wired to a toggle switch on the back.

I made my nephew carry it around various mines, it got immersed at one point and generated impressive billows of steam when switched on afterwards but continued to work.

I love it!
:lol:

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A mate of mine was into super-8 cine filming, he mounted a pair of car sealed beam headlamp units on the top of the uprights of an ex-wd backpack frame so they shone over his shoulders, the lower part of the frame carried a number of Oldham lead-acids wired together to provide power. He managed some good results, unfortunately now lost 😞.

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http://www.ubss.org.uk/resources/proceedings/vol18/UBSS_Proc_18_3_415-421.pdf 

Dave

http://www.ubss.org.uk/resources/proceedings/vol18/UBSS_Proc_18_3_415-421.pdf 

Dave

A good read Dave.

I hope something has been done since "transferred to VHS in 1984". Ideally, the films should be placed in a proper archive who have the appropriate film storage facilities.

A mate of mine was into super-8 cine filming, he mounted a pair of car sealed beam headlamp units on the top of the uprights of an ex-wd backpack frame so they shone over his shoulders, the lower part of the frame carried a number of Oldham lead-acids wired together to provide power. He managed some good results, unfortunately now lost 😞.

I also helped a friend make a super-8 cine film underground. We used a range of motor cycle bulbs running over voltage using a car battery, carried around in a canvas bag. The length of shot was sometimes limited by how hot the wires got. Results were fine, and I got some photos with my SLR of the filming in progress. I will try to find the few I took, using the available light. The results have survived, but I was only ever given a VHS copy of the original, now converted to digital.

I was impressed with the use of oxy/hydrogen 'Limelight' by Mr Burrows for setting up his excellent images.

http://min-eng.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/an-appreciation-of-jc-burrow-pioneering.html 

The camera and cameraman
🔗105339[linkphoto]105339[/linkphoto][/link]

Setting out the lighting. The battery was pulled around on the frame of a shopping bag trolley, when the ground was even. Otherwise it was carried about using the bag straps.
🔗105338[linkphoto]105338[/linkphoto][/link]

Two of the lighting units. I recall the lamps may have been mounted in old biscuit or chocolate tins.
🔗105337[linkphoto]105337[/linkphoto][/link]

One of only two photos I took using the filming lights.
🔗105336[linkphoto]105336[/linkphoto][/link]

The other photo.....
🔗105335[linkphoto]105335[/linkphoto][/link]

I've a dim recollection that Sougher posted some details about how "The Underground Journey" was filmed many moons ago - can anyone else remember this and if so, on what thread?

As for the lamps, all I'll say is "poacher's lights"....

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AR said:

I've a dim recollection that Sougher posted some details about how "The Underground Journey" was filmed many moons ago

From the Report of Expedition 27/357 undertaken by Op. Mole on Sunday 25th November 1962 (Page 1990/80 of Vol. 5 of the Op. Mole Records).

'Proceeded to Holmesford Water Works to the tail of Meerbrook Sough.

Filming as we went, we were pleased to find that the water level was lower on this occasion than we had expected.

At point 3580 ft., a start was made at clearing the fall here. J.P. Oakley succeeded for a while in building the debris up in a recess on his left hand side but the water got behind this and suddenly washed it out again behind him. The water level upstream of it rose at a phenomenal speed and John hurled himself out at great speed. C.D. Fearn had the presence of mind to keep filming and it was later proved that John came out in three frames of the film.

The canoe was sunk by the tidal wave and the car batteries blew up, lights went out and for a minute or two, absolute chaos reigned. Picking ourselves up we emptied the water out of the canoe, reloaded and made our way back to the entrance, there was nothing more we could do this day.

Returning to Leawood Cottage, we had dinner and went on our various ways.'

There are some shots in Underground Journey that both baffle and astonish me every time I watch it - inspiring efforts to get the best material under the worst possible circumstances. Stunning.

At Wheal Gorland we used a Honda generator, and 110V along 300 feet of 2.5 sq mil cable, to a 500W floodlight. Filming was with a Ferguson VHS camera that sat on the shoulder. Results were watchable, but still 'noisy'. Sensors have come a long way since the early 1990s!

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As for the lamps, all I'll say is "poacher's lights"....

Yes, that is what is hanging round my neck in the Sir Francis photo, they were known universally by that name at the time.

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I personally do not have fond memories of the use of flash powder underground.
I can remember on one occasion being driven out of the High Flats, of the Gin Hill Flats, in Brownley Hill Mine, simply, because you could not see anything at due the dust, churned up, from a flash powder ignition.
Not to mention, the same stuff preventing you breathing properly.
The only time I was ever driven out of a mine!