Miracle battery

[kenmore1978]

I still can't believe it, but I have an Eveready Energizer AAA battery that just died 2 days ago that's been powering an LCD clock since NINETEEN EIGHTY-SIX! I can't ever remember changing it. Called Energizer Holdings (current company) to try and determine the age of the battery but not only did they not have any info, the customer service rep didn't even know when ownership passed from Union Carbide to Ralston Purina (1986). I did a little researchon the Web, and found out the dates. Ralston then spun off Energier Holdings as a separate company in 1999. I'm absolutely amazed. That battery should have died from Old Age even if it was NEVER used (Energizer claims about a 7 year shelf life) How the hell did it last so long actually being in USE?!

 

[scott55405]

That is amazing, although the batteries in my 1989 VCR's remote lasted about 13 or 14 years. I didn't change them until after we moved to this house, and that was in 2002. The VCR itself only lasted about a year longer than the batteries did, LOL.

 

[cehalstead]

long life battery

....the battery in my garage door opener remote is 12 yrs old, and is used at least four times a day.......

 

[DADoES]

I've run into a couple fluorescent light bulbs that ran for many years. Oh, and the incandescent bulbs in the theater auditoriums last a very long time, due to the dimmer system restricting the voltage to them.

 

[tolivac]

Yes, can go along with the cinema lighting-the bulbs are dimmed most of the time--Only turned up when the "Cleaning crew" is cleaning the auditorium between shows.The dimmer is even tied into the projector and automation-I watch the credits run through-then watch the film tail leader go thru the projector-and then the house lights go full up!On the flourescent bulbs-they last longest if left on all the time and not shut off frequently.Frequent starts shorten their lives.

 

[DADoES]

Rex, yup, I know all about that, I've worked at a theater for 20 years. We have fluorescent lights for cleaning, but the goofy janitorial crew usually turns on EVERYthing. I've lost track of it, but I'm suspecting that at least a couple of the auditorium 75-watters are still original from 1984.

 

[tolivac]

DADoES:I haven't worked in a theater-but I am fascinated by them. I look up a Website Film-Tech.com and they have chatroom and links about the exhibition industry. After reading the site-noticed it is somewhat similar to the radio-TV broadcast industry that I work in.I work in a non-commerical site now.Worked a commercial station for 18 years.Both are "Mass Media" and "MAss Entertainment" type places.there is a Carmike cinema in my area and I go to it regularly.I am the only one that watches the credits and watches thru the projector port to watch the projector as well at the end of the show.Noticed the auditorium lights went up after the tail leader went thru the Christie projector. Would like to tour their booth.In a way the transmitter site I work at is like a multiscreen cinema. Instead of multiple screens and projectors I have multiple transmitters and shows.The theater is automated(projectionist just threads the film and cleans the projectors)The automation starts them.Would like to do the tech maintenance for them.Did the theater you worked at have the automation that the new ones have?-or was it a "change-over" house-those are SO COOL!You play the films "out of the can" instead of splicing them together on a film platter device.

 

[DADoES]

Rex,

Actually, it has been longer than 20 years. More like 26 years. I started as projectionist at a one-screen in my little hometown. If you can believe it, running carbon-arc lamps and 2000' reels, and of course mono sound! This was fall of 1978. I remember the first time I ran the place myself, when the owner's father died, was on a Sunday in early 1979, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (the remake with Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams). Projector changeover every 20 mins, 6 changeovers for a 2-hr picture. Everything manual, from dimming the lights to bringing up the sound and picture. Then we got xenon lamps and 6000' reels (one changeover), then a platter. 4-channel stereo came in somewhere along the way.

I've been with the 3-screen in the town where I live now since 1984, technically two weeks before opening day which was 4/13/1984. Opening pictures were "Friday the 13th Part IV," "Romancing the Stone," and "Footloose." Always have run platters there. Started as projectionist, quickly moved to management, then took a full-time job in a different business in November 1998, but have stayed on doing the theater's bookkeeping. I've done just about everything possible, from counting the cash to cleaning up vomit to running the films. Honestly, I'm ashamed of the presentation there now. I'm from the 'old school' of running a ship-shape presentation for the audience's pleasure. Now they just don't care and totally ignore my expert tips. Messy techniques, scratched films. Bleah!

 

[kenmore1978]

garage opener battery

Is it a standard alkaline battery? Those are supposed to have a shelf life of about 7 years, and obviously shorter if powering something, so that's why I'm so amazed. I think lithium and mercury batteries lasted longer

 

[Cybrvanr]

We have an old-time movie house here in Richmond that has been functioning since it's opening in 1929. Many of the fixtures have their ORIGINAL bulbs in them that were installed at that time. Some of the fixtures in fact cannot be reached for re-lamping, so it's a good thing that the lamps have not gone out in them! The dimmer system in this theater is a resistive dimmer system too, not a solid-state system, so the typical "filament buzzing" issues don't exists, and probably attribute to the longer life of the bulbs too.

Take a look at the place, it's a real beauty!!!

http://members.tripod.com/~g_cowardin/byrd/

 

[jasonl]

We have a one-screener

The last one in New Orleans. The Prytania. It's not a huge beautiful one like the Byrd but it's definitely old

http://www.theprytania.com

 

[jasonl]

Drive-ins

My favorites are the drive-ins. I went to Shankweillers DI in Pennsylvania last year and it was totally wonderful. It's the oldest operating DI in the country. They still do the manual changeovers. The sound is crystal clear through the traditional mono speakers or in stereo through the car radio. They usually show a double feature with an intermission reel.

Very neato but very sad that DI's are really on their way out.

 

[tolivac]

Jason: It is sad the DI's are on the way out.I remember one in Yankton,SD that was really cool. Perfect entertainment on a colledge budget.I was in colledge at the time. Watched an All night "James Bond" festival there-had to stay the whole night to watch the movie I wanted to see.(Goldfinger)Was fun.I think there are some groups that are trying to save older DI theaters and even have new ones built.The film studios don't like them though.The studios feel the "hardtop" theaters do better in exhibiting their films.
Steve: I have driven by the Byrd-but haven't been inside-would like to get to know that place-You are right about the resistive dimmers and lamp life-the reistence dimmers don't distort the AC waveform like solid state ones do- causing the filament buzz and shortening the lamps life from the filament vibration.also autotransformer and saturable core dimmers are good as well and more efficient than resistive ones.
DADoES:Sounds like in your cinema expereince you have done it all.In a way theaters and radio station mangers are sort of alike. In the radio stations when I operated the transmitters and studios I try to put on the best presentation as you did.To them they don't care.In fact one station manger I dealt with was more concerned about the mess in my shop than the FM transmitter off the air!!to you and I a Dark screen and dead air were the things that you got on right now.Yes,I had to do the nasty cleanups at the station as well-after the DJ's they don't learn that the toilet is not a garbage disposer and there was a disposal in the DJ lounge in the sink.I let that jock COOK when his AC quit one hot summer day!Not to mention the one that kept reclosing the remote FM transmitter overload resets on a shorted tube-cuasing me to rebuild the PA stage of that Tx.Another loved to squeak his chair causing the AM transmitter to overload-oiled his chair the next day.I gave up on commercial radio much like you did with the theater.