Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 35 mm projector over 100 years old in use in India

This is topic 35 mm projector over 100 years old in use in India in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008632

Posted by Matthew Bailey (Member # 601) on 04-10-2007, 01:41 AM:

I found this on You Tube. it's on a 35mm Pathe projector over 100 years old in use in India. It has been modified for optical sound as wellas as having other modifications done to it & is hand cranked. Search in You Tube under bioscope or bioscope projector. Not certain how old are the trailers & prints being shown but if the owners get a hold of any trailers or prints with DTS tracks, how can they keep the noise of DTS tracks from being heard.

Posted by Tristan Lane (Member # 1169) on 04-10-2007, 02:03 AM:

Link to the video

Probably should have been put into the random video threads.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 04-10-2007, 05:30 AM:

The units shown on more than one video on Indian traveling cinema use a Pathe projector circa 1909, hand cranked at sound speed to a soundhead. Both the soundhead, amplifier, lamphouse are battery operated. Note the theme that new technology [dlp]

is hurting their business.
I had a Pathe in my former projector collection and I can see it could last 100 years with a little TLC [Cool]

Posted by Bastiaan Fleerkate (Member # 3826) on 04-10-2007, 03:43 PM:

Warner Bros. Projection Booth Italia

From 100 years ago to the modern times... try to fit this into the box on the bike. How would interlocking look when those guys try it? I think they would succeed... [thumbsup]

Posted by Demetris Thoupis (Member # 833) on 04-10-2007, 05:46 PM:

I think the way they use the platter arm as a loop accumulator is very clever!

Posted by Bastiaan Fleerkate (Member # 3826) on 04-10-2007, 06:09 PM:

I think they saw the Interlock 101 video! That's impressive and smart!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-10-2007, 06:41 PM:

quote:
I think the way they use the platter arm as a loop accumulator is very clever!

..that's an old CHRISTIE AW3 trick - in using that rewind arm as the accumulator. For both of the 21 and 14 screen complexes that I used to work in that had interlock, we did that same trick...never had interlock roller hardware hangin on the walls or ceilings..

Hm...did you see on that first CINE V-5 with that oscillating upper loop..that didn't look too good...few other machines had chatty intermittent assemblies....

V-5's can run a lot quieter than these were doing....

Posted by Bastiaan Fleerkate (Member # 3826) on 04-10-2007, 07:05 PM:

Also the way the projectionist first neatly has the leader off the ground and then just throws it on the floor makes me wonder what he was thinking at that moment... it's a nice booth though... Vic5's all over the place...

O, and let's not forget the air horn when the projectors start... ALL ABOARD!

Posted by Alex Grueneberg (Member # 2652) on 04-10-2007, 07:32 PM:

Wow both movies are pretty impressive. The second one just made me really wish we had automatic turrets. That alone is pretty spiffy. [Roll Eyes]

Thats some sexy red leader as well..

Posted by Jon Miller (Member # 163) on 04-10-2007, 11:00 PM:

...and some not-so-sexy opaque yellow splices. Rates down there with the leader thrown on the floor while threading. [thumbsdown]

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 04-11-2007, 08:13 AM:

I think the yellow splice was to show "start" for interlock situation. The red leader is nice if it is the plastic type; the painted type leader, especially red, leaves crud in the film trap.

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 04-11-2007, 03:30 PM:

I was moved by the family's dedication to their Prakash Traveling Cinema, which they kept going even though it was unprofitable. One might expect modern children to be unimpressed, but the excitement generated by the cinema's arrival proves there's magic still in machinery and moving images.

Edison persisted in favoring peep-show presentation over screen projection until his competition forced him to switch. Nathanial Hawthorne wrote a story about a traveling showman who carried a magic lantern peep-show on his back, showing children scenes of the world, in the earliest colonial days in the U.S. And the Prakash peep-show show still excites children with anticipation of magic.

Though I've been out of the booth for years, I felt the smell of the film and lubricants, and the heat and noise of the projectors, platters and sound tracks in the Warners' Village Cinema.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 04-11-2007, 05:28 PM:

Our educational film library in 16mm had two special leaders on every film in the collection. The "HEADS" leaders were green in color and were plasic material with a "tooth". They were to clean the film path of the automatic threading machines before the actual film went through. This was an easy way for the inspector to tell if the film was rewound when the can was opened and without lifting out the reel or unwinding any of the film.

A RED leader of the same material was placed on the foot of each print. It cleaned out the film path and also told the inspector that the film was "tails out".

Teachers and school AV Techs were supplied with reels of the same size as those in the collection so that the last showing could be left tail out on the takeup reel and shipped in the can back to the library where it was machine inspected and rewound in a single pass through the machine.

Damage to the collection was remarkably reduced by the addition of these leaders and much time was saved in the inspection process by indetifying heads out prints.

Each reel was sealed with an adhesive paper label by the inspector so if the seal was unbroken, the reel had not been run.

(At the Temple, we attached seals to our outgoing reels that were imprinted, "Projected with pride by members of IATSE Local #35")

KEN

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 04-11-2007, 05:45 PM:

"Protect A Print" film leaders had the rough side for "cleaning"...they where not bad [Smile]

I was talking about the reclaimed leader that has a painted surface [puke]

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 04-11-2007, 08:15 PM:

I wonder if anyone will ever see a 100 year old digital projector in regular use.

Posted by Bastiaan Fleerkate (Member # 3826) on 04-12-2007, 04:19 AM:

quote: Mark J. Marshall
I wonder if anyone will ever see a 100 year old digital projector in regular use.

The shortest answer is......NO......

They will find new ways to project or to show movies every decade. I think foldable OLED screens and other types of screens will be used in the future. These screens are space saving (you don't need a projector) and they consume much less power than a 2kw lamp in a digital projector...

I think digital projectors also don't have a life span over 100 years... electronics never have...

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 04-12-2007, 11:29 AM:

D Sinema is currently working on getting TWO years before obsolescence. Louis

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-13-2007, 07:47 AM:

Does anyone make an LED reader conversion kit for that model of projector?

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 04-13-2007, 10:00 AM:

Not really required due to the DTS reader [Smile]

If you see the soundhead in the video, it has a sound drum....more modern than some cinemas in New England [Big Grin]