Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Information on the age of an X-L.

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Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 07-14-2002, 11:18 PM:

I was curious about how old our pair or Simplex X-L's and Sh-1000 soundheads were and was wondering if anyone has a source to look up what year they were manufactured by the serial and model numbers.
X-L: Model PR1004 Serials; 6262 and 6264
Sh-1000: Serials; 2398 and 2448

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Adam Fraser
www.pinestheatre.com

Posted by Bill Mantz (Member # 754) on 07-14-2002, 11:26 PM:

Just contact John Eickhof he has giving all the dates of all of Simplex equiment.
jeickhof@nteequip.com

Bill Mantz

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Posted by Dick Prather (Member # 1136) on 07-15-2002, 02:39 AM:

I have several serial lists including the one from John.
Both your XL's are 1954
Both your SH-1000's are 1941

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 07-15-2002, 11:19 AM:

Thank you for helping out my curiosity. That means that the SH-1000's have been running here since we opened in '41.

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Adam Fraser www.pinestheatre.com

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-15-2002, 07:46 PM:

How about the age of these beasts:

Simplex 35 (I have no idea what the difference in an XL is)
Model PR1014

#A: 14791
#B: 14826
#C: 14827
#D: 14825
#E: 14818
#F: 14817

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 07-15-2002, 08:21 PM:

I always thought X-L denotes the Extra Large intermittant sprocket,
which has something like 32 teeth instead of the usual 24, which gives a more secure and stable pull-down, with less wear and tear on the film.

I remember them as easy to thread, with plenty room for hands and fingers, unlike the cramped E-7s with their crummy release lever.

Gerard

..........................................................

"Is that a sprocket in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

Posted by Dick Prather (Member # 1136) on 07-17-2002, 01:04 AM:

Joe,
My serial lists do not go that far. Based on the many rebuilds I have done they are probably late 60's. They should be gray hammertone in color and are early versions of that color. There is no major differance between a Simplex 35 and XL. XL's were painted krinkle black with a gray gear side. Yours are probably white on the gear side. The newer ones tend not to fit as well when you put them back together and there are some minor casting changes. Maybe someone else has a list for the newer serial numbers. Pat Moore??

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-19-2002, 10:03 AM:

"I always thought X-L denotes the Extra Large intermittant sprocket,
which has something like 32 teeth instead of the usual 24, which gives a more secure and stable pull-down, with less wear and tear on the film."
The Xl uses the standard 16 tooth intermitent sprocket. THe upper and lower sprockets are larger

THe Xl was to be Xtra Light from the conical shutter

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-19-2002, 11:07 AM:

Gordon said: "THe Xl was to be Xtra Light from the conical shutter".

That's "Xtra Light" as in screen luminance, not weight.

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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

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-20-2002, 11:36 PM:

XL is the Roman numeral for '40 (1940), the year it was designed. Due to war restrictions and delays, it didn't make it to the market until, finally, in the early 1950s.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-21-2002, 01:32 AM:

War restricted the release of a MOVIE PROJECTOR???

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 07-21-2002, 02:35 AM:

I believe that most non-war related manufacturing was suspended during that time.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-21-2002, 03:11 AM:

Why? How would manufacturing a projector inhibit a war?

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-21-2002, 10:54 AM:

Manufactureing projectors requires precision machine facilities that were required for manufactureing munitions and aircraft parts.
Motiograph was very heavily involved.
The importance of entertainment was recognized by the government and each manufacturer was allowed to still produce limited spare parts and the need for traing films some company's produced projection equipment for the armed forces under the JAN specifications

Due to the shortages of copper they introduced "Victory Carbons" that had a much thinner copper coating From what I understand they were fairly miserable to burn ( I have a sealed box of them) and they were labled with the quantity of copper dripping that the box would provide that had to be turned in

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 07-21-2002, 11:12 AM:

My SH1000 is serial number 5343. Which year?
Josh

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"Film is made of silver, video is made of rust"
'nuf said

Posted by Dick Prather (Member # 1136) on 07-22-2002, 04:47 AM:

Josh,
Your SH-1000 was manufactured in 1946.

I ran Victory carbons in the 60's. We found a case of them (7's&8's) and decided to try them. After drying them out they burned fine. We found they would not take full current like the regular carbons would. Some projectors were made during the war for wartime use only. Century made a few projectors for gunnery trainers. E-7 also shows a couple of hundred made during the war. Most theatres being built before the war started but not completed were still able to complete their orders. One theatre here had new E-7's instaled in late 1942.

I looked in a XL promotional book dated 1-50 from NTS and found no referance for "extra lite" anywhere. The only cute phrase was "The Simplex XL EXCELS because" and listed several points. I was told by an old timer that the XL was designed during WWII and with the large sprockets, conical Shutter, and oil bath had a lot of ideas from Europe. Test models were in the field a year or so after the war, demos in NTS offices sometime in 1949 and regular sales starting in 1950. 1950 was the last production year for the Super and E-7.

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 04-21-2008, 12:27 PM:

It has been 2100 days since the last post.

Posted by Ottilie Young (Member # 4195) on 04-21-2008, 12:27 PM:

Hi:

I'm wondering the age of our projectors:

Simplex XL PR1004; 2338 & 2341
Simplex 35 5 star soundhead: 13772 S & 13776

Thanks,

Ottilie

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 04-21-2008, 08:11 PM:

Simplex was the prime contractor for the Norden bomb-sight (& other war devices). If you ever see one (Air & Space Museum) it is immediately obvious.

No projectors because they were making other things. Louis

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 04-22-2008, 10:04 AM:

I have a couple of old theater exhibitor magazines somewhere around here from the early 1940's. Inside there are advertisements from Simplex and Motiograph about how projector manufacturing had been suspended for WWII, but assuring exhibitors that adaquate spare parts would be available for their machines.
Union Carbide also had an advertisment alerting theater owners that flashlight batteries (for ushers' flashlights) were in short supply since most were going to the military, but that they could help things by recycling used cells with their local battery distributer.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 04-22-2008, 01:50 PM:

Joe:

In addition to what Gordon said most projector manufacturing was curtailed because the metal was needed for the war effort. I remember as a young teen collecting metal and rubber to turn in at a collection center. FWIW the XL first hit the market in '49.