Details
Category: 16mm

16mm Silent

 

 

16MM SILENT

Separate pages will be created for those machines or brands on which I have more than basic information. Clisk on the links below. 

Siemens, Kodak16Silent  Zeiss  Kalee

 

Agfa

An Agfa Movector - thees projecteur I know from nuutheenk.

 

16mm-silent 16mm-silent 16mm-silent 16mm-silent

Below is an Agfa Movector Domestino. The one I have is a very sorry little thing, that was jammed when I got it. It took a lot of effort to get it apart and then I found it would not go together again, the problem, of course, being the dreaded Mazsac. I also found while I was in there that part of the drive train used rubber rollers which, as you will have guessed, have deterorated  and would be very difficult to replace. 

 

agfa domestinoa     agfaa     Agfa2     Agfa3     Agfa5     Agfa4     Agfa6

 

Ampro

Here are a couple of Ampro silents. You can see the line of devlopment to sound, if "very little change" can be called development. The only reason anyone mite buy the silent in pic 2 was in the expectation of converting to sound.

 ampro silenta     Ampro silent

However, you do not want to read me on Ampro's. What you want to do is go to a website Chris Bird led me to:-

https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/ampro-corp. This looks to be a fabulous way to learn about Ampro machines.

 

Ensign

This first projector is a 16mm-only version of a projector that will also be covered in multi-gauge when I get there, as it was available as a three-gauge model.

 ensign 16a1     ensign 16b_3     ensign 16f     Ensign 16s

Next is a machine of which the late Bill Kilgour sent me pictures, followed by some claw pix from Bill's machine and my SS16 for comparison.

Ensign Bill_K_002     Ensign Bill_K_001     Ensign     Ensign SS16_100B_009     Ensign SS16_100B_010

Kinox

 Here are some ads for Kinox. I know I have some somewhere but I can't find the pix at present.

kinoxad     kinox n0001a     kinox n0002b     kinox n0005d

Miscellaneous (1)


keystone leafleta     keystone leaflet2c    Kalee NP3_ad     Kalee NP33     Kalee NP3a

Keystone seems to have been a fairly proific maker, but more in the States than here, I think. Kalee were of course a major player in the 35mm market. This 16mm model seems to have been pretty much a direct clone of a Victor machine.

 

Devry2     devry2x2     Devry3     Devry4

Another of those elusive DeVry machines, including in pic 2 an optimistic eBay posting of a vet battered bit of tat.

 

 

 

 

Details
Category: 16mm

16mm

16MM

Click Here for various 16mm sound projectors, as I find stuff. Further links there to pages about specific makes, which cover both sound and silent machines

Click Here for various 16mm silent machines

Here is some advice on buying 2nd hand 16mm. Not sure these pages will necessatily be legibabble when opened, so there is a pdf as well.

16misc0001     16misc0002     16misc0003     16misc0004     16misc0005     16misc0006     Buying_2nd_hand_16.pdf

 

Some time ago, I put info about my PJ Long Play unit in What's New (see below). Now I find Patrick Moules has put stuff in Flickers and hav some better pix, so I have swiped copies.

img647     img648a     img650b

Here are pix of my PJ unit. This is basically a major restoration project, not least because some idiot has given it a rough overcoat of paint. 

LPUnit1     LPUnit2     LPUnit3     LPUnit4     LPUnit5     LPUnit6     LPUnit7

As far as I can tell, all the parts are present (the projector of course is not part of the unit,which is designed for use with a variety of machines). The motor for the take-up works OK, but I cannot quite see how it's meant to operate. In the configeration shown here, the weight of the motor presses its spindle into direct contact with the large pulley, which is obviously not right. Then there is the question of spool size. The top spool here is a 6000', but that size will not fit on the take-up, which has just a 2000' in these pix. From this I conclude the apparatus was designed to work with 4000' spools, which I don't got. 

The record deck is electric, but I haven't been able to figure out how to connect a power supply, so I can't guarantee it works. I was a bit surprised to see a volume control, as there are no obvious amplification electronics - maybe it just works across the PA input of the projector. Incidentally, it may all be intended to run from 110v; I think the original projector was either a GBL 516 or, as here, a B&H. This one is an American Filmosound and is also available to anyone who is interested, as are a pair of 6000' spools.

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A thought that I have been pondering. Why are some16mm sound projectors so complicated, notably the Bell & Howell machines from the 620 onwards, but other machines too. Do they really need to be so heavily engineered and complex for the job they have to do? To the extent of needing special tools to do certain work on them?

Bear in mind also that 16mm was a very limited medium in professional terms. Picture was small, track was small, oddly compressed and with inevitably limited frequency range. It was just not capable of doing justice to all that engineering, nor were audiences sufficiently discerning to care - such small "improvements" as might be delivered would be lost on them. One wonders if it was a ploy to justify high prices?