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This topic comprises 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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Author
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Topic: Brenkert History
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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler
Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 10-30-2001 12:57 AM
Hey Aaron, Speaking of old rare projectors, I was at an old single screen theatre in Texas a few years ago, the theatre cwas built in 1926, they have Brenkart now, been using since the 40's....upon leaving I saw what looked like a Super Simplex, I commented on it, the owner of the theatre said.." no son that's a Century projector, was put installed 1n 1929 we use it until we purchase these machine a few years later"...when I looked again...yes indeed it said Century on the door...told me the head still turns freely.....whoooaaa weeee I didn't know Century was around that early in time !!!
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Michael Pace
Film Handler
Posts: 64
From: Dalby, Queensland, Australia
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 10-30-2001 06:04 AM
We have been using Shell Tellus 46 oil in our Simplex projectors for several years and have not had any concerns at all.The oil is a hydraulic type. Not knowing what is available in the USA would make substitution interesting. I have also used the same oil in Cinemaccanica Vic8's. It is a fairly thin oil which seems to find any leaky seals. We have also considered Shell Tellus 26 which is a little thicker in density but have never bothered to try to obtain it. Regards Michael
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 04-07-2015 01:03 PM
I was most pleasantly surprised to receive an inquiry from Karl Brenkert IV, great-grandson of the Brenkert Light Projection Company, inquiring about the Robert Sprague Manuscript.
He's eager to learn the history of his family's heritage, and to communicate it to his young son (Karl Brenkert V?) Today I sent him my copy of the MS, #18 of 20 distributed. Karl IV is now a member of Film-tech.
Reading this thread gave me a thrill, reliving memories.
Many thanks to Josh for starting this thread, and to Film-tech admins for keeping it!
[This is the second unexpected link I've received from these
forums. The first was from the grandson of the brother of a film director who was married to my wife's sister. He googled the name of the director, found a comment I made years ago, with the result that members of the family met for the first time in Buenos Aires.]
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Karl Brenkert
Film Handler
Posts: 2
From: Charleston, SC, USA
Registered: Feb 2015
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posted 04-07-2015 11:17 PM
Hi guys,
Gerard has been kind enough to help me learn more about the company and the industry. I've been going through old editions of the trade journals and collecting advertisements and articles about the Brenkert Light Projection Company. The time period and the speed of innovation and change is totally fascinating to me and my wife is worried that I've become obsessed, lol.
So, I'm a marine biologist, btw, I know nothing about projectors or projection other than old family stories. I was absolutely delighted to find this old Film-Tech forum in a google search. I was amazed that there were still projectors in use, let alone a community that was interested in knowing more about the company history.
So, in the last few months, I've discovered quite a bit. The Brenkert company was a leader in innovation from the 1920-1940s. They started in 1908 (Karl was 14 and never finished 8th grade) and incorporated in 1911. This a mere 15 years after Edison unveiled the White City of electric lights at the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago.
BLPC was based in Detroit, which seems to me a lot like the Silicon Valley of American manufacturing. The Packard Motor Company opened the most modern factory in the world on E. Grand Blvd in 1903. Ford introduced the Model "T" in 1908. built their first assembly-line plant in Highland Park in 1909. The BLPC opened their factory on E Grand Blvd sometime in the early 1920's. They were always very very proud of Detroit. It was a big part of how they viewed themselves and their business.
BLPC made slide projectors, steropticons, and spot lights in the 1910's (sold to strip clubs, the family says). They made color wheels and slides and other miscellaneous equipment for stage lighting and sold mostly through catalogs. Are they still termed magic lanterns at this point? BLPC covered the span of industry from magic lanterns through modern film.
In 1921, they introduced the "F" model of what they called a Brenopticon. Model "F-3" came out in 1924 and "F-6" in 1927. The well known Master Brenograph model "F-7" was introduced in 1928, just about the time theater construction was exploding before the Great Depression hit.
As you guys obviously know, theaters in the 20s and 30s were designed with orchestra pits and full stages for silent movies and Vaudeville shows. In 1927, BLPC updated their Model C-3 spot light with the Model C-14 Spot-flood. It's the spot light with the wires across the top for controlling the lens and color slides and iris.(Please help me here, I have no idea how they worked.) There is a gorgeously restored model C-15 spot flood on display at the Center Stage in Richmond, Va. When you look at photos of the projection rooms in the old theaters like the Fox Atlanta, or Grauman's Chinese or the State Theater in London, you see the Brenograph and often the spot-floods, too.
BLPC Director of Engineering John Kurlander has a couple of articles in the Trans of SMPE in 1926 and 1927 about the use of the effects machines and the spot-flood. The latter is the first article ever published on the science of the spotlight. (As a scientist, I was fascinated to discover that the DISCUSSION section of today's scientific literature is descendant of actual discussion, with people calling "BS" and Kurlander defending himself.) It seems Kurlander was with Brenkert until 1932 when he left for Westinghouse.
Brenkerts issued their first high-intensity model "A" arc lamp in May 1930. They introduced other models, but then hit it big in 1935 with model "N" the Enarc. In my limited understanding of the technology, I'm guessing that the advance was some sort of mechanism for automating the feeding of the carbons as they burned?
The next step to projectors was inevitable. This is taken from the letter Karl Jr. sent to Robert Sprague:
quote:
In the 1930's, to really compete, a dealer had to offer a complete system, including projector, light source, sound system, reels and base. General Precision Equipment Co. was the only company that manufactured the complete line. Motiograph, RCA, and BLPC combined to offer the competition. Karl [Sr.] said that Motiograph without warning dropped BLPC about 1936 and left BLPC without a projector. At that time, BLPC decided that they had to offer their own complete projector system or they would be forced out of business. Thus was born the BX80. Design started in late 1937 and production was about a year later. RCA provided the sound system.
None of the drawings had a project name so that no one would know that BLPC was going to manufacture a projector. Thus, not only did innovations like counter-rotating blades and automatic oiling cause a small revolution in the design of projectors but the whole project came as a complete surprise and shocked the industry which had to follow suit.
BLPC continued to produce the 80 (and the single shutter 40) until 1942, when they converted to manufacturing parts for the war. In 1945, Karl Jr. had graduated from Univ of Michigan with an engineering degree but he decided that he did not want to run the factory, so the business was sold to RCA with management remaining in place. RCA shut down production of all other stage lighting products. Projectors were made at the Brenkert factory until 1946 when the production was moved to an RCA factory in Detroit.
The BX60 was introduced in 1948 on the 40th anniversary of the company founding and the BX100 was introduced in 1950. Karl Sr. retired in 1951 and died in 1956, the same year the huge 40 acre Packard plant closed it's doors just down E. Grand Blvd. The Brenkert factory was eventually sold for pennies on the dollar in the 1960s and the land was eventually claimed under imminent domain and used for a Cadillac assembly plant in the 1980s.
So, I've gleaned most of this from advertising, please correct me where I'm wrong. A history through advertising was enlightening. The early ads recommend you cable "Brenkert-Detroit" for more information on their products. The telephone was not yet in widespread use! I've got another ad for Brenkert projection slides that sits above an ad for phonograph needles for your talkies and they both sit next to an article announcing the first test of the cathode ray television. Pretty cool stuff.
Sorry to be so long.
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