Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Vintage Elementary School "Speed Reading" Film Strip Projector

This is topic Vintage Elementary School "Speed Reading" Film Strip Projector in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 07-20-2009, 02:33 PM:

I have some cloudy, horrifying memories of a special projector the Illinois teachers liked to use in the mid-1970s to torture slow-reading students. It was a variation on the familiar film strip projector most of us saw in school. This one used mostly-clear 35mm film strips with lines of text on them. The projector would show one line at a time and advance one perf at a time automatically at a variety of desired speeds (...or, I should say, at the speed that the teacher desired). The students tried to keep up, reading one line of text at a time, and then there would be a little quiz to see how well we comprehended the material. Each time we started a new exercise, the teacher would try to speed the machine up until the students A) screamed in agony, B) obviously couldn't grasp anything or C) both. They could also activate a little iris-like feature that would scroll from left to right across each line, supposedly to help us scan the text consistently as the lines flew through the machine.

My questions are: Does anyone else remember this particular torture device? What was it called? When's the last time you saw one?

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 07-20-2009, 02:58 PM:

Was that the infamous "tachistoscope"?

I only had one in our school district and it was definitely NOT teacher proof!

KEN

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 07-20-2009, 04:34 PM:

I remember that thing, don't know what it was really called, and the last time I saw one was 1975.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 07-21-2009, 01:59 AM:

Same here. 1975 was my 7th grade year, and the junior high reading teacher was using one of these. This device enabled me to tell which classmates were the slower readers...

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 07-21-2009, 02:16 AM:

I'm a little younger, and I don't remember every being subjected to such torture. However, thinking about is as an adult I'm inclined to think it's a great idea as long as it's being used with text that is reading level appropriate.

When I was in college I took a reading class that basically taught the same thing. We went through Fahrenheit 451 at roughly a minute a page. The prof would have us read about 10 pages, prompting us to turn every minute or so. Then she would quiz us to see what we retained. The purpose was to help you be able to study more efficiently. I can't say I use this on any kind of a regular basis, but I can when I need to.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 07-21-2009, 11:37 AM:

I actually read very well. It's just that when I read silently I go at the same speed as when I read aloud. And, to a lot of people, this is "slow." When I was in elementary school I hated the way they tried to push me to read faster. And, today, I fail to see my own reading pace as some kind of handicap. I'm glad it's been more than 30 years since anyone has seen one of these infernal machines.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-21-2009, 08:23 PM:

I went to a Catholic school from grade 2 thru 7 and I don't remember one of these -- maybe it was too technologically advanced at that time (middle 1960s). I do remember film-strip projectors where the teacher would play a record, and the "bell" would make the machine advance to the next frame.

We also had an infernal film-eating 16mm projector which could be counted on to bust the educational film at least once per screening. (Knowing what I know now, it was probably the film, not the machine)

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-21-2009, 08:31 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
infernal film-eating 16mm projector

Practically every 16mm AutoLoad projector ever made had the potiental habit of eating film - be it new or well used film stockage..

..if the AV Dept didn't keep the insides clean and autoload mechanisms aligned on a regular basis.

...(course, it didn't help with that much thinner acetate base stock that was used for 8 and 16mm film along with single row sprocketholes and the shuttle claw action for the intermittent assemblies)

-Monte

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 07-21-2009, 08:59 PM:

Mike,

The "bell" was a fail safe and the advance mechanism was actually cued with a 'sub audible' tone on the recording. If you did not have the automatic machine you could just advance the film to the next frame manually at the sounding of the bell.

The Tachistoscope was much more complicated than the single frame automated advance projectors. The one I serviced advanced one line at a time and had the capability to sweep across the words in each line at various speeds.

The most common problem was teachers trying to make the machine go backwards manually and screwing up the gear trains.

KEN

Posted by John Lasher (Member # 968) on 07-23-2009, 01:06 PM:

quote:

quote: Mike Blakesley
infernal film-eating 16mm projector
Practically every 16mm AutoLoad projector ever made...

I happen to own a B&H autoload model, which was apparently not well cared for by its previous owner, but has now found a good home (mine) and is learning to cope. It has only eaten film on 2 occasions:

Shredded sprocket holes
Bad splice (someone else's)

I scrubbed about 1/4" of some manner of gunk out of the gate when I first got it, then ran white leader through it until the leader came out clean. I ran a piece of scrap film through and checked for scratches.
I thread that thing manually, I only snap the auto-threader into place afterwords to double-check my loops.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-23-2009, 01:16 PM:

The thickness of 16mm film is identical to the thickness of 35mm film. The stock (emulsion+base) is the same, but is slit and perforated differently. Polyester-base stock is thinner, and the colored leader material (Protect-A-Print and similar) that shows up on many school/library prints may be a different thickness from the actual print stock; this can cause issues with some autothread mechanisms.

As for the B&H "auto-shredders," they actually work fine if you remove all of the auto-threading guides and thread them manually. It's not too hard to remove the parts, and it makes the machine substantially better. This also has the benefit of making it easy to unthread a film mid-reel, which is nearly impossible to do with the autothread mechanism intact.

Aside from the worm-gear issues with some models and the auto-shredders, the B&H 16mm projector (all manual and slotload models) is actually pretty good. They have a 3-tooth claw mechanism that is better with damaged film than the 2-tooth claw that Eiki, Elmo, and others use.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-23-2009, 01:17 PM:

In grade school up through high school, it was B&H autoloaders all the way. Don't know the model but they had an aqua-colored plastic (fiberglas?) case.

This picture seems fairly close to what I remember them looking like:

I ran them often in grade school, since the teachers seemed wary of them. It's been a long time but I can't recall any incidents with them eating film. I do recall getting films in with bad splices and such, and having to resplice using Scotch Tape since that's all we had. [Big Grin]