it turns out the inside lights are not attached to a flat panel. The box is hollow with 3 lines of lights on the back wall and 1 in the middle of the side walls.

A more clear version of the above image. You can see how the lighting inside reflects off the empty box. You can also see the V shape of the side light panels.

Looking at the light in all of the photos, it looks like the lights are arranged in the following patterns:

The "back" panel has a row of 5 lights down the center with 1 light at the top, bottom, and centered, and then 2 more lights evenly spaced between the ones already mentioned. It looks like there is a row of 4 lights in each corner, with those lights offset to be centered between the 5 down the center row.

The side "plain" panel has the same row of 5 lights down its center.

As for the bright V-shaped panel, it's difficult to tell if it has the same lighting down its center as that plain side panel. In the one photo there is of it (with Ian, Barbara, and Susan only at the console, where it also shows that odd corner of the box) most of the lights are off; you can still see the "off" lights against the dark strips they're mounted on, but you don't see any indication of lights on that strip down the center inside of the "V" lighted panel. The two glimpses of lights you can see could be reflections of other lights inside the box that are lit, or they could be another row of 4 lights in the corner against the tinted plexi. (If that is the case, then there could be yet another row of 4 lights in the other corner of the tinted plexi.) It's very hard to tell because those corners look solid black.

What we could "possibly" have for lighting arrangement inside the box is something like this (not working with the off corner mentioned in an earlier post):

(Os are light rows; the number indicate lights in each row; bold areas indicate solid parts of box; blue area indicates light panels - sorry, didn't have a "translucent" color; regular dotted line indicates tinted plexi)
 4          5           4          5          4
|------------------------------------------|
|O          O          O          O          O|
|---                                                          |
  /                                               |
 /                                                |
/                                                 |
|                                                O| 5
\                                                 |
 \                                                |
  \                                               |
|---                                                          |
|O                                              O|
|------------------------------------------|
 4                                              4

Sorry for the crudeness of the drawings, but it's the best I could do without getting into a graphics app. The top row of Os and two on the bottom should be right up against the dotted lines (to be mounted in the corners and on the "walls"). Also in the photos where all of the lights are on, and considering we're seeing it through tinted plexi, it looks like the inside of the box may be painted white.

So... what does everyone think? Am I close, or way off the mark on this? (Rob, you'd be the best one to correct me.) I really curious about this light cabinet because the Hartnell era is my favorite, and my son has an old cabinet I may be able to make use of for this (if I can get to him before he chucks it in the bin, and as he was talking about doing just that last week I may already be too late; but I live in hope!).

Dino.

there are 3 rows of lights on the back and only one on the side. And only one side has it. The other is the v. And according to what I have it is covered with Tx40 Emulsion & Glaze and the side V is opaque Cobex

I have no idea what those are!!!

here we go Tx40 is Peak white

Great thread. Loving all this info!

Cobex is a translucent plastic used for vac-forming. It's a brand name - not sure of its actual composition. It's the same stuff the original vac-formed roundels were made of.

I'd suggest that the tinted perspex is the same "dark tint" used in the central column - just from appearance.

C.

Quote from: rob49152 on Jul 18, 2012, 04:08 am
it turns out the inside lights are not attached to a flat panel. The box is hollow with 3 lines of lights on the back wall and 1 in the middle of the side walls.

so, just like I mentioned in the very first post then

I'm in the process of working out plans for the fault locator wall of the original Tardis set and hope to post my plans in the next few days. I will also include the scanner 'scaffold' section i.e., the clear panels in front of the fault locator. As part of this, I'll include the light boxes - what I've called the computer towers.
I agree that the light box/computer tower is ten feet tall by four feet wide but I make the depth less than three feet - somewhere between 2'6" and 2'9".
I agree that the wall of the light box nearest the fault locator has one column of fluorescent tubes (this column of fluorescent tubes is hidden by William Russel's head in the second picture), but I think the back of it (i.e., nearest to the photographic roundel wall) contains only four columns of fluorescent tubes.
The side which contains the single column of fluorescent isn't flat either, it contains a recess which 'sits' immediately behind the black transparent panel.

Sorry, should have added that the first picture is a screen capture from the pilot episode and shows the light box before the perspex cover was fitted (you'll note that there are open slots in each side which are concealed when the perspex panel is fitted.
The recess on the plain side I'm talking about is shown in this picture (which comes from the 'Daleks') - if you look carefully at the top left of the picture, you'll also see that only three of the down-lighters above the scanner are present (to save space, they only built half the Tardis set, the rest of the studio being taken up by the petrified forest and Dalek city corridors).
So, what I think has happened is that there was originally only one light box/computer tower which was shown with the Cobex side facing the main Tardis doors in the first episode and was shown the opposite way round in the Daleks.
This means that a second tower was built for 'The Edge of Destruction'.
Tony
 

Cobex side of light box from Edge of Destruction.

I'll just put this here..shhhhhh... but trust me its 3'0"

Wow! Got anymore of that? 

It does indeed look like a recess on the side with the single column of lights. As as we know things weren't always made exactly like the plans (see the Newberry plans and the Rani TARDIS plans).

It also suggests that one side of the column, that would normally have the smokey perspex should be "solid" much like the back with the recess on one side.

I followed Robs numbers before this was posted and I think the overall shape of what I came up with looks right

Thanks for posting this snippet Rob

Quote from: rob49152 on Jul 18, 2012, 06:21 am
there are 3 rows of lights on the back and only one on the side. And only one side has it. The other is the v.

After the other posts on the Hartnell console room in celation's thread and seeing the Light Tower in it again, I thought I would update my "scribble" to better reflect (no pun intended) the lighting inside it as Rob describes:

(Same as before: Os are light rows; the number indicating lights in each row; bold areas are solid sides; blue areas are the light panels; regular dotted lines are tinted plexi/perspex)
      4                  5                   4
|------------------------------------------|
|     O                  O                  O   |
|---                                               |
  /                                               |
 /                                                |
/                                                 |
|                                                O| 5
\                                                 |
 \                                                |
  \                                               |
|---                                               |
|                                                  |
|------------------------------------------|

Look any closer, again in spite of the crude drawing? (Note: I purposely left out that "indent" on the short, solid side as it appears to be in one place on Rob's snippet, and in another on photos of the actual built prop. So those desiring to build this tower can put the indent as fits their eye.)

Dino.