[LargeFormat] James Millen flash

[LNphoto]

On Saturday, December 6, 2003, at 04:38  PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:

>
>>
>   James Millan was an employee of the National Radio
> Company, another name from the distant past, but well known
> to radio amateurs. At some time in the early 1930's he left
> and started his own company making electronic components.
> Millan parts were very well known in amateur radio circles.
>   I have no idea what happened to the company or how
> recently it existed. I don't know anything about the flash
> unit.
>
> ---
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
> dickburk@ix.netcom.com
>

richard,
thanks for the lead.  I did some surfing until the wee hours, found a 
couple of sites about James Millen, the James Millen Mfg Co. and the 
James Millen Society.   Their expert thinks that it's not so much of a 
James Millen flash, but that they probably made the flash tube lock 
assembly for someone else.

A post at the Graflex.org site came up with someone else who has a 
Heiland Research flash identical to this, so there's a clue.

On the electronic side, one person suggested that a modern tube of the 
same length would have the same specs as this one. I have to wonder if 
tube diameter might be a factor as well because, compared to my 400ws 
Norman, and worse, my 1200ws WL Ultra, this is a Very long tube.  The 
mystery vacuum tube at the bottom end has been identified as an OA5 
thyrotron. So now I have to look that one up in the tube directory. I 
remember articles written about flash units, usually studio flash, 
using "thyrotron circuitry" could be harmful to flash contacts as they 
pushed a lot of current through the tripping circuit.  Does anybody 
else remember such stuff?


Les Newcomer