Those old dimmers bring back memories of high school. We had rows of the dimmers mounted on what they called a "piano board." I can remember using the thing to do plays. It took about 4 of us to run the lights, and we worked up quite a sweat (something that is not desired when around exposed knife switches) dashing around pulling levers and locking various ones into a master that was run by a motor which made a horrible racket and caused the whole board to shudder. Dealing with stuff like ghost loads, the enormous amount of heat it generated, and the total lack of safety, it was a big task to keep the lights on and in sync with what was going on on the stage. Personally, I thought that board was the neatest thing in the whole school. With its banks of levers, light bulbs, meters, knife switches, and fuses it seemed like it would fit right in a mad scientist's lab.
To my knowledge, the board is still there (at least it was in late 2003) and in use.
