Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: anyone recognizes this projector?

This is topic anyone recognizes this projector? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Floris Vanhoof (Member # 10236) on 05-21-2018, 11:17 AM:

I'd like to know the brand and model of this projector.
Anyone recognizes it?

Thanks
Floris

Posted by Mike Croaro (Member # 3123) on 05-21-2018, 11:19 AM:

Yes, It's a Bell & Howell 500 series projector. Very old unit from the early 70's.

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 05-22-2018, 12:18 PM:

The supply reel is even a Bell & Howell design, 1200' capacity, from roughly the 1940s.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-22-2018, 02:27 PM:

Mid 60's is when the 500 series came out.

First versions were still tube amplifier and 1kw reflector filament lamp. Later series when the amp went SS and used a 250 quartz pre focus bulb.

I was in High School AVA during this time when these new Bell&Howell units were released, being around 1966-67.

I have two of these units. One is a 551, which is the tube and 1kw bulb and the other is a 2545 later model unit.

That old supply reel were issued with the 179, two case units.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-22-2018, 05:50 PM:

My high school science teacher would occasionally show Pink Panther cartoons on Fridays, provided everybody in the class did all their homework.

I sat in the back of the classroom, running the projector while the teacher took a nap at his desk.

That was the projector that I used to show them with.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-23-2018, 05:29 PM:

Giggle! I have precisely the same memory of my adolescence (in 1980s London), except that the projector in question was a manual thread Eiki, and I was able to master the manual threading more effectively than the teacher (so she had me do it). Those Pink Panther prints must have been made by the truckload, and some of them shipped across the Atlantic.

Is the Hell & Bowell in the picture one of the models that has the infamous crumbling worm gear? Other than that, my recollection of them is that they're pretty solid machines, but more fiddly than Eikis to keep the film path clean.