I had always assumed that it was easier for Dickson and Edison to express the gauge in millimetres because with inches, they would be hassled by fractions.

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And, hey! Let's be careful out there.

Interesting question. Maybe if I got more exposure to Canadian product, I'd have a stronger idea of how to categorize it.

IMAX often counts as cinema...I'm bad about verifying what country produced a given title...I've always assumed they were all Canadian.

For clarification: I am not referring to American movies that hopped over to Canada to take advantage of cheaper production. I assumed you were asking about bona fide Canadian movies.

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And, hey! Let's be careful out there.

A nice anecdote, but an unlikely scenario. As I mentioned, Kodak made a 2-3/4 inch wide roll film, and Edison/Dickson slit it in half to 1-3/8 inch width. Check out "The Story of Kodak" by Douglas Collins:
The Story of Kodak

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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I've been in the motion picture business for 34 yrs and was raise
in it. My late Dad began managing a movie theatre when I was a year
old in 1952. He once told me that when he entered the industry he
was informed that a movie house was a THEATRE and that a stage house
was a THEATER. That's what seems to be the accepted wisdom in our industry

Even more ironic is that our Gershwin Theatre has a bronze plaque that says it's the Gershwin Theatre, but up over the canopy entrance to the same theatre, large two foot letters proclaim it is the Gershwin Theater. And in one of the playbills for a college Mainstage Production, the location is given as the Gershwin Theatre but on the same page, it says the play is being produced by the college Theater Department! No rhyme or reason.

I was working with Anthony Daniels (C3P0) this week in a show Lucas put together with the museum: Star Wars-Magic of the Myth exhibit that runs thru May at the Brooklyn Museum. Storm Troupers on stage, and lots of slides and video material from all the films showing lots of visual tricks, augmented with talks by the heads of ILM miniatures and the CG depts -- great fun. Anyway, I heard two things from Daniels that struck me -- he refered to the projection booth as the projection "box" (as he gratiously thanked the projectionists at the end of the show - very classy). And he also pronounced aluminum as "al-you-mini-um," which to me sounded like some weird element we never discovered over here in the US.

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Paul, I've heard the term "discharge vessel" also, but I thought it was referring to the quartz envelope. I can't remember where I saw it.

I also use Cinnemeccanica projectors. In my booth I have 4
Victoria IVs and 3 Victoira 8s. I think the Mascarini swithc
is used to shut off the projector in case of a break.
Sometmes when film breaks and the projector keeps running the film will
continue to wrap around the feed sprocket. Once it builds up enough it will be high enough to raise the small rounded lever above the feed
sprocket. Once this lever raises high enough it will trigger a microswitch( I think) that will shut off the projector. They were, as
far as I know, an early version of a fail-safe.

Maybe there is someone out there who can verify this but I think I real close to being right on this one.