Bob's Searchlight Page
Now you will really think
I am crazy.
I restored a W.W.II Carbon Arc Searchlight!
Growing up in Los Angeles,
I have seen Carbon Arc Searchlights light up the sky for years at
Hollywood Bowl Concerts, grand openings of supermarkets, movie premiers,
and other functions. They worked very well for outdoor advertising.
Few people realize that
Carbon Arc Searchlights are all over 60 years old. Ten thousand were
made, mostly ending up in Europe for W.W. II. One guess puts the surviving
number at about 2500 worldwide. They were built by the General
Electric and Sperry Gyroscope for the U.S. Military as Anti-Aircraft
Searchlight Units. Their original purpose was to aide World War II anti-aircraft
gunnery crews in spotting enemy aircraft during night-time air attacks.
These lights have not been built since 1944. They were no longer
useful to the military after the war having been replaced by the invention
of radar. As far as I know, my light is the only fully restored light
in the country that will work with a Distant Electronic Control unit as
it was designed to do during the war.
My SEARCHLIGHT OPERATORS FORUM
http://www.geocities.com/bobz299/searchlight.htm
Would you like to rent my searchlight for your event?
Go to my web site at...
http://www.geocities.com/bobz299/victory.html
Click
HERE to see the steps it took to restore my 1942-A General Electric
Searchlight
1942
'Battle Of Los Angeles
OTHER RESTORED SEARCHLIGHTS
The unit below was restored by Jim Mulligan.
After seeing Jim's restored light on the internet,
and in person,
I knew this was a project I wanted to do. Jim
was a BIG help in getting my light together.
John D. Atkin Sr and John D. Jr restored this
1941-A Sperry searchlight, and a 1942 GE generator. The photo below
shows how the light and generator had been modified so that the generator
and light had been integrated into one trailer frame. These units
were originally made up of two separate frames each having their own set
of wheels like the unit pictured above. One frame for the generator,
and one frame for the rotating light. The searchlight would be rolled
on to the back of a truck, and the generator would be towed.
This unit is typical of the single trailer modification
for easier transport
The Atkins later found the original frame parts, and
after a lot of hard work, restored this light and generator back to it's
original military configuration shown below
RESTORATION WEB SITES TO VISIT
See Bob Meza's Restored 1942 GE Searchlight & Generator
http://www.geocities.com/mepurina/gotit2.html
See Jim Mulligan's Restored 1942 GE Searchlight &
Generator http://www.skylighters.org/photos/mulligan/
http://www.skylighters.org/photos/plaque/plaque.html
See John D. Atkin IV's Restored 1941A Sperry
searchlight with a 1942 GE generator
http://www.skylighters.org/photos/restorations/sperry.html
Peter Munn an electrial engineer
in New Zealand restored a 1942 GE light in 2006. See some photos of his
restoration
http://www.harvest.com/searchlight.htm
Fort Mac Arthur San Pedro California
Searchlight Restoration Project
http://www.ftmac.org/GElight.htm
Skylighters 225th AAA Searchlight Battalion from WWII
http://www.skylighters.org/mainmenu.html
Larry Rodkey's Sperry Searchlight of Arroyo Grande,
California
Larry uses his light for opening big movies at his
movie theaters
Eric van der Voort in Hawaii sent me a photo
of his GE light.
Dave Wrinkle's GE light in Maumelle, Arkansas
This light has been in Dave's family for over 40 years.
They used in conjunction with their radio station
business
Paul Williams Searchlights of North Carolina, LLC
Restored this beautiful Sperry in a bright Yellow
Mike Kalz of New Ulm, Minnesota
Did a wonderful job restoring this beautiful GE light
and Sperry Generator
A work of art with a lot of added touches. Look
at the diamond plating!
A Tribute to Floyd Olsen
Floyd Olsen, a Korean war Vet, is the owner of Valley
Skylights, the largest Carbon Arc Searchlight company on the west coast.
Floyd is the KING of searchlights here in Los Angeles with over 30 lights!
He has been in the Carbon Arc Searchlight business for over 45 years, and
the owner of Valley Skylights since the mid 1960's. It was Floyd's
lights I saw as a kid growing up here in the Los Angeles area, that stimulated
my interest in searchlights. While other searchlight companies
sold off their big lights for the cheap little Skytracker type, Floyd kept
his fleet of carbon arcs going, and the tradition of the Hollywood Carbon
Arc Searchlights alive in Los Angeles. His lights have been in many
movies such as "1941", "Charlie's Angeles", and many others. Floyd
is a great guy, and really loved his lights! He just retired in 2006!
Tribute to Jack Doerr
Jack Doerr and his son Jack Doerr Jr were probably the
men that started the searchlight advertising industry when they lived in
Los Angeles back in 1935 using 24 inch movie studio carbon arc spotlights.
They only had 5 lights and rented them out for special events. After
W.W. II, the military was going to scrap some of their anti aircraft
searchlights. Jack bought some of these Searchlights which started the
use of Military Searchlights for Outdoor Advertising. They moved
to Detroit after the war, and had a very successful Searchlight Advertising
Company with over 50 General Electric lights. Jack Jr had to close
the business in the mid 1970' after daylight savings time was introduced
and ruined the business .
Tribute to Sunray's William Stewart
William Stewart had 20 years in the adverting business.
Before WWII he ran sound trucks advertising in the LA area. During
the war he worked as a machinist at Tison Brothers where he met John Tison,
then partnered with him to start SUNRAY. If you look at the Pick
and Save photo, you will see atruck mounted light and generator that dad
built to make it easier to get the equipment to the job, and allowed two
lights to be dispatched at once. SUNRAY had 3 truck mounted units!
Want to buy a searchlight of your own?
Click HERE!
This site is maintained by
Bob Meza
Any questions, email me here