Karillon2

Look Back at Lighting ------ Service Trading Co

Just could not leave this company out. Service trading of Bridgman Rd, Chiswick, London and 9 Little Newport St, London. I remember well buying heaps of stuff from this company, they advertised in Electronics magazines selling components. When disco lighting started making money, they advertised effects and projectors for sale. First off the mark was of course the oil wheel, and then the projectors. They also offered cheap motors for the diy element. I must mention Mr McDonald who gave lots of advice and was generally very helpful. The first wheels were obviously from Philip Brunker, and so were the first projectors (bubblelite i think), though at the time where they came from was a mystery (opti was not yet formed - see the optikinetics page). Service trading offered liquid wheels in different colours and in two densities. Light density colours for the small mains 100w bulb low light output projectors, and 'normal' dense colours for the larger QI projectors. The company continued selling an ever increasing range of effects and equipment, right up to the 80's.



Here we see a range of effects in a catalog from Light Fantastic Ltd. You will notice some of the effects are familiar, but there are a few that do not appear to be from the usual sources (opti or Pluto). Maybe they were custom effects comissioned?? This catalog is from around 1977 but many of the cassette and 6" effects had been around well before this.


Shown above. A typical advert from an Electronics Mag dated 1974. The projector sold is now the better Hanimex 100 modified for oil wheels. Note the prices (and postage price). When first available in 1969 £4.00 was the price for an oil wheel.		Here we see effect wheels offered from Illusion (Meteor??). Note the picture liquids. I have not come accross any with these graphics yet.

Service Trading was where you went for the 400w UV lamp and the strobe kits were excelent, giving much needed effects at an affordable price, especially for those of us with a soldering iron and lots of patience.
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