I used to do a show every year in a 1923 era building with a dimmer system very similar to this.. As with this one, much of the original wiring was still servicable, althought there were some notable exceptions, such as the multicable to one of the X-rays (overhead 4 circuit border lights).
This facility had some more modern dimmers added for additional control, although the installation of those was a bit sketchy..
I used to bring in a complete lighting system, with a touring dimmer rack of 48x2.4k dimmers, multicable, fixtures, control board, etc.. I tied in power directly off the live busses in the power room, which was full of contactors as shown in the previous series of photos.. The tie-in was done hot, using Mole lugs, as the only way of de-energizing was to kill all power to the entire floor. Unlike this installation, I had 5-6 feet of working clearance.. It was actually one of the easier tie-in's that I have done, despite it being a hot tie-in.
Mole lugs are lugs designed for the motion picture industry, that slip over a busbar, and clamp down with a bolt. It used to be common to have junction boxes with several compartments, each with a short section of bussbar, onto which the mole lugs were clamped, similar to these:
Lugs
http://extranet.mole.com/public/index.cgi?cmd=view_category&parent=-1899-1950-1966&id=1967 Spider boxes
http://extranet.mole.com/public/ind...;parent=-1899-1950-1951-1979&id=1987 Distro boxes
http://extranet.mole.com/public/ind...t=-1899-1950-1951-1979-1988&id=12186 http://www.mole.com/backlot/pages/1000ampsled.html manufactured by Mole-Richardson, a longtime supplier of motion picture lighting equipment.
