Lansing 15 for International Projector Corp

Found this at a garage sale this weekend. The International Projector Corp, badge on this field coil 15 inch woofer says model LU-1010. But it looks a lot like the Lansing Manufacturing 15SX that Steve Schell has posted pictures of in the past:
http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...49&postcount=9

Or is it the Altec version?
http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...943/page10.jpg

How do you tell the difference?
The number "885" is stamped on the edge of the front pole plate.

Anybody else see Lansing products bearing the International Projector brand?

Found this info about International Projector Corp. on the web:
International Projector Corp./GPL Division/Simplex Projector Co.
88-96 Gold Street
New York City (1925-1946)
55 La France Avenue
Broomfield, NJ (1946-1960)
Pleasantville, NY (1960-1970s)
Paramus, NJ (1970s-1983)
Product: "Simplex" brand projectors and amplifiers
History: *founded in 1925, out of the merger of three competing projector manufacturers, and located at 90 Gold Street in
New York City (the three original manufacturers were Precision Machine Co., which had been making "Simplex"
projectors since 1909; Nicholas Power Co.; and Acme Motion Picture Projector Co.)
*moved to Broomfield, NJ in January 1946
*bought in 1960 by the GPL Division of General Precision, Inc.; manufacturing was moved from Broomfield, NJ to
Pleasantville, NY
*the Simplex brand eventually became independent in the 1970s, as Simplex Projector Co. (Paramus, NJ)
*the latter merged with Ballantyne and Strong Electric Corp. in 1983 to form Strong International

Strong International
Omaha, NE
www.strong-cinema.com
Notes: *markets projectors under the brand names "Century" and "Simplex," and projector lamphouses and platters under the
brand name "Strong"
*formed from the 1983 merger of Ballantyne, Simplex Projector Co. (which had previously been International Projector Corp.
from 1925-1960, and then the GPL Division of General Precision from 1960 until sometime in the 1970s) and Strong
Electric Corp., a maker of projector lamphouses
*bought Optical Radiation Corp. in 1993, and added ORC's "Century" line of projectors to their product line

Glen, you have struck gold again! This theatre woofer was made in the late 1930s by Lansing Manufacturing Company as an OEM supplier to IPC. It appears that LMCo. made a fair amount of this equipment for IPC at the time. I have a pair of IPC LU-1011 compression drivers that are really Lansing 285 drivers with an IPC label. Your woofer is probably identical to the Lansing 415 theatre woofer except for the badge. I have some IPC service literature that documents the systems that used these drivers.

The earliest Lansing 15" cast frame woofers used a basket with six holes; these are seen in the 15X pedestal base woofer (in my picture you linked to) and the 15XS woofer as used in the first Shearer type systems. This basket used a wide mounting flange and gasket. The eight hole basket replaced the six holer in 1937 or so, and all subsequent Lansing and Altec Lansing field coil 15" baskets are quite similar. The eight holer has the same outer diameter, but a narrower mounting flange which permitted the use of a slightly larger cone. The Lansing 415 replaced the 15XS as the basic theatre woofer, and the 815 with its heavier cone debuted in the Iconic's bass reflex cabinet in late 1937. There were several other models, including the 15H general purpose speaker with curvilinear cone and the 1565, a permanent magnet variant of the 815.

Thanks for the information about IPC..., I've never researched them. Altec Lansing continued to supply components to IPC well into the 1950s at least. There are many IPC-branded Altec 288 and 288B compression drivers and 515 woofers in circulation.

Thanks for another interesting history lesson Steve!

OK, you have piqued my curiousity. What do people do with ancient drivers? Are they collected and preserved as found, or are they restored while trying to keep them as original as possible?

Hi Phil,

Well, some of both. I try to acquire pieces of Lansing field coil gear as they become available mostly because I enjoy owning, examining and listening to them. I have also been picking up pieces here and there with specific goals for future projects in mind. Another reason is that the products of this 65-years-gone company are scattered and mostly in the ground now. I feel a need to document Jim Lansing's early work with as much evidence as possible, hoping that the collection will find its way into a museum setting someday (yeah, right). Beyond that rationalization I'm just waaaay gone as a collector, trying to find as much Lansing and early JBL stuff as possible. A friend also has a large Lansing collection, and we joke about attempting to reassemble the factory's entire output.

The old drivers can certainly be restored in most cases. Looking at the picture of Glen's woofer, the spider and voice coil could probably be salvaged and installed on a new cone. These are very good woofers, some of the best ever made, which is why overseas collectors go nuts for them. I wouldn't be surprised to see Glen's woofer fetch $1,000 on ebay, bad cone and all. I am lucky to know someone who does custom restoration of old drivers like these, drawing on a large stash of correct NOS parts. He has repaired Lansing woofers for me in the past, and they come out looking and sounding like new.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve Schell

... overseas collectors go nuts for them. I wouldn't be surprised to see Glen's woofer fetch $1,000 on ebay, bad cone and all.

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Your scaring me Steve!
I figured I'd hang this on the wall in my garage where I could admire it's innovative design and battleship like construction from time to time. I'd think of the big step forward in speaker evolution it represents and how it is the grand-daddy of so many other speakers that I own and admire.

Now I'll also be thinking of an asian guy offering me thousands of Yen for it!

Hi Glen,

Your driver is indeed an early ancestor of jillions of later Altec drivers. The baskets continued to have the same basic look until the mid 1970s, or whenever it was that they switched to the 16" frame.

If that fellow shows up with a "yen" for your driver, he'd better bring a bunch of them. At yesterday's exchange rate, USD 1,000 would be Y 116,380.

Steve,
It is nice to know that these can be restored. When pictures like Glen's appear, I often wondered if Humpty Dumpty could be put back together again. Thank you for answering my question. Your quest to collect Lansing (and similar) history is admirable.
Phil

It is more of a challenge to properly restore an early Lansing compression driver with a bad diaphragm or voice coil. Spare parts for these have not been available for decades. Reproductions of the Lansing small and large format diaphragms could certainly be made, but nobody has done so due to the limited market for them. It actually wouldn't be all that tough, as they used round wire in the voice coils and the diaphragms could be easily spun on a tool, duplicating the original process. For the present, Altec diaphragms drop right into the Lansings and can restore them to function, though they don't have quite the smooth sound of the originals with their half roll diaphragm compliance.