It begins with an experiment by a friend’s older brother growing crystals on lumps of coal in an aquarium with a fluorescent fixture on top. To enhance the colored crystals, he put pieces of colored cellophane around the bulb above the crystals.
I was fascinated. And six years old.
Sometime later, I began using colored cellophane to trick my eyes into seeing the sky as green and other odd views of nature’s colors. I had flashlights of many colors.
While a Cub Scout, I learned of the power of a single lightning bolt and wondered if I could get free electricity for my parent’s home. I was eight at the time. My friend and I went to the roof of my house, removed the grounding braid from the lightning rod, and proceeded to run a 20AWG wire down the side of the house and through a window sill to the fuse box where I attached it to a live circuit.
A couple of months later, at night, I heard a bang and the bulb on my bedroom ceiling explodes in a flash. I heard humming all around the house and ran to the basement thinking the end of the world had come and that the Soviets had sent a missile. (Grew up during cold war times).
Again, I was fascinated, and glad I didn’t burn down the house. Appliances didn’t like it at all…
My dad promptly bought me my first electronics kit (battery powered!) and so began my life-long interest in electricity.
By my early teens I had built numerous Heathkits and was making 3 Channel “Color Organs” from plans from a magazine. I built several for friends to use on their Christmas tree lights. I loved SCRs! What else could they do?
I found plans for a simple strobe light using a small Xenon tube and a SCR. I saved some cash from my school lunch money and allowance and ordered some parts from Lafayette Electronics and anxiously awaited my order. Nearly two weeks later (snail mail) I had my collection of caps, coils, and assorted parts. After a few hours of soldering, I had it assembled into a small cardboard box covered in aluminum foil. It worked, and I was hooked!
Learning by Doing
About this time, I found some work at a local musical instrument store as a repairman of amps and assorted electronics. This, of course, led me to meet many local bands in the area. I had developed quite a reputation for fixing things when I was approached to fix some old analog dimmers. TTIs, I think. I found SCRs in them. Cool — you can control lighting levels! It wasn’t long that I joined up with several local bands doing the bar scene with crappy lighting. I set out with another friend to build our own fixtures from stove pipes and indoor 150W spot lamps. Made it all by hand, including the yokes and gel caps made from pipe caps cut out to hold gels. We even built some crude stands from plywood and 1.5-inch pipes and flanges. The fixtures were mounted in a half-inch conduit frame. Usually six “Par” cans per frame. I had about 24 long fixtures, and made six more short versions for under drum lights. I had a “light show!”
Later, I used a couple of old antenna rotors and had two “moving lights” mounted to them. These were some Par 56 type pin spots I found in an old theater dumpster.
My initial control board was a large and heavy six channel Variac board with six additional channels of SCR-based dimmers and, of course, a three channel color organ. I had built a homemade keyboard with piano-type keys and a series of toggle switches to control lights around the drummer and the newly added six strobe lights under cymbals and behind the drummer. By now, I had one large commercial strobe and quite a few smaller, non-dimmable strobes of my own design.
After reverse-engineering the larger strobe, I was able to build some more powerful and controllable strobes. Some were used with gels for stage wash.
When I found parts to make sequencers, I made a “teleportation” device with sequenced flashlight bulbs firing from head to toe in an acrylic display stood on end for an “UFO/Alien” band. The final burst was a strobe at the top. Looked convincing from a distance.
“Mondo” Strobes
Eventually, I got a job with a lighting company in New Jersey. While there, I helped build the company’s systems, repaired and modified dimmers, built custom controllers, AC distros and CM motor controls. I had great fun building some “Mondo” strobes for the B52s and others who would tour with them.
I named them. My brilliant children of Xenon had names……..
My last adventure with strobe lights came at the re-dedication to the Brooklyn Bridge. I had assembled the distros and controls to simulate a lightning burst on both sides of the bridge. When the controls from Battery Park failed to work in tests, I assembled a couple small plastic boxes with push buttons and gave them to the local union members. They about died laughing at my “Acme Lightning Bolt” controllers. After testing and explaining what to do, I watched from home the night of the event. One side did not go off. Seems someone forgot to turn on the AC distro prior to the event…
It’s been incredible watching our entertainment business equipment come such a long way from when I started. PLSN keeps me interested on what’s new in a great old-time way. A big-as_ magazine! Cool and fascinating….
Kilowatt Bonomolo, a semi-retired corporate AV tech, migrated (mostly) to the audio side of the biz. He resides in Phoenix, AZ.
