Ampro
AMPRO
In response to a request from Patrick McCoole, I have gone into the Ampro page for a bit of updating. As before, first is a Stylist Instruction book, kindly donated by Chris Bird. I have not attempted to improve more than a couple of pages, or to try to get a pdf-writer to present all pix thre right way round. You just get a PDF plus front cover and one internal page, plus an advert. I don't know how the Educational Model, to which these Instructions refer, differs from the Stylist - not much, I think.
However, I discovered while I was looking that I also had a ready-made PDF of a repair manual for a Stylist, so yer tiz.
Dave W sent me some useful info and pictures. The following is basically his.
UK Ampros are from two sources. US built 110v machines were sold under license in the UK with a transformer. These machines used the US line-up of valves, and a 110v lamp and motor.
UK built (Simplex-Ampro) 240v machines used 240v lamp and motor, and a different valve line-up (and circuit).
Simplex-Ampro 110v machines were also built in the UK (especially the later models) and these used the US voltage. There are slight but important discrepancies in sizes and parts between US-made machines and UK-made machines.
The pics are of a Stylist Major Mk1V, which is 110v UK made. It is silver, with all metal rollers and guides. The base box is much deeper than the standard Stylist, to accommodate a vastly improved amp unit, using a 110v transformer run with a 5Z4GT rectifier. Output is 2 x 6BW6, giving 12.5 watts undistorted. The mains transformer is even mounted on a swivel platform so that fields and hum can be reduced. (I later found the leaflet).
This machine has a greatly improved gate and swing pressure plate arrangement, making cleaning much easier. Also, the film path is improved at the sound head, simplifying loading. You can see the Mag head switch (control) in the pics this lowers the head onto the film strip in a choice of two positions. This machine has the facility to record also, but this needed an external unit. The sound drum flywheel is a very heavy and finely balanced unit, which is covered on the non op side of the machine.
Dave reports the picture is very stable and loss of bottom loop can be corrected without stopping. The audio has very much better wow and flutter etc than the standard Stylists.
Robert Fergusson sent me this info about the mag sound version.
Miscellaneous adverts and projector pix.
The best thing about these Ampro machines was their sleek and stylish appearance, although brown seems a bit odd. However, I found the motor rather noisy and from what I gather the amp was a bit under-powered and I recall it being a bit crammed in. This latter point may well have been addressed in the Stylist Major, which I do not know. I also wasn't keen on the single-caseidea, with an inevitably-limited speaker in the cover.
Before the Stylist, there was another sound model, the Premier, which also appeared in a silent version, and before even that, a silent-only machine. Even then, there were sound attachments available.
This earlier sound Model had at least 2 versions, first the Imperial and then the Premier 20, both looking pretty much the same. The machine in Pic 1 may be a bit of an outlier, probably imported direct from the US and not made here. I don't know a great deal about these machines, so would appreciate any further info. This machine is, however, one of the basic reasons why you are reading this today. I saw one in the Buckingham Movie Museum and was utterly entranced by it and it was part of what made me build a much bigger collection and ultimately start this website as a sort of personal replacement for the Museum. I was so enraged and disappointed by the lack of anything else like the Museum, tho' I did introduce a section for home movie machines when I was with the PPT, when it was at Bletchley Park. I suppose this is a virtual Museum in some ways.
I have included scans from a manual I have of the circuit and wiring diagrams for the Premier, which is the one you are most likely to encounter. The scans however are pretty large, and would make my web programme choke. So I have divided the ciruit diagram into 3 horizontally and the wiring one into 2 vertically, because I was concerned that making them smaller, as I do for most pix, would render them illegible for anyone who wanted to download and enlarge them to acually use.
Here is the silent machine - you will recognise the origins of the sound machines - and an ad for a sound add-on. There appears to have even been an 8mm Ampro, called the Futurist, which I previously had on the site but which I cannot now find in my archives.
