The Cine Technician (1939)

207 T II ( ' I N I J T ]•: ( ' 1 1 N I ( ' I A S" March-April, L938 FORTY YEARS ON by E. E. BLAKE, Managing Director of Kodak Ltd. and President of the Cinema Veterans ••/'. ilfordshirt I iiin s' t>h, i i.ura/>'i Mr. Blake holding first projector, dated iNg;. In background, original playbill of entertainment. FORTY-ONE years ago I first started "handle turning" a cinema projector. It seems, and is, a Long I nne to look back over the years, yet so great was the thrill I experienced when the picture flickered on the screen thai I can to-da\ recall everything in connection with it. Although onl\ eighteen years old at the time, I was already well trained as a lantern operator; tn\ father was a professional photographer and photo dealer of long standing, m\ mother a highlv successful exhibitor at the ll.l'.S. and other exhibitions, so it was only natural that m\ elder brother, the late \Y. N. Blake (founder of the Cinema Veterans) and myself became! earl\ interested in the new invention of cinematography. Our earl) exhibitions were given in Town Ilalls. Village Schoolrooms, Clubs, etc. In those days there were absolutely no regulations prescribing the conditions under which exhibitions could be given. Our paraphernalia was Carted from place to place on n horse and trap. As we always endeavoured to get hack to our home in Bedford each night, we were often laced with a ten to fifteen mile drive home after the show. Roads were not of the kind found to-day, and usuallv rough and covered with loose flints all through the winter months. Sometimes we were snowed up and had to dig the trap out of a drift five or six feet deep. I Well reinelnher ill the winter ol 1899 L900 arriving back in Bedford at 8 a.m.. having been from II o'clock the previous night travelling tin miles through a snowstorm and just in tune to load up our cine camera and take a tiltv loot "Topical" of the Beds. Regiment leaving lor the South African War. As technicians, reader oi "The Cine-Technician" will he interested in the details ol apparatus vve used in tin days. The projector took a roll of film up to about 75 ft. in length; this was supported above the mechanism in a kind of cradle, a steel pin was slipped through the centre of the roll, which was without am reel or flanges; there were no continuous sprockets, the film being pulled down in a series of rapid jerks b\ the intermittent sprocket, which was the sole means oi propelling the film through the mechanism. The intermittent motion was given to tic film by a maltese cross actuated by a cam set in a locking ring, the intermittent sprocket being fitted on a shaft connected to the cross. The same principle is used to-day, but the cross and ring. etc. are encli in an oil bath. The shutter was behind the lens and " V shaped. After passing through the gate, the film dropped like a long ribbon into an iron box situated below the apparatus. All the films shown during an exhibition tumbled into the same iron box and were few iund the next morning. The projector was fitted with a devil ■ for showing lantern slides, which formed most of the programme. The illuminant was obtained from a "Gwyer" mixed oxy-hydro jet supplied with necessary gases 1'rom two steel cylinders, pressure being regulated by a Heard regulator affixed to the neck of cadi cylinder. The sere 211 was of linen and stretched on a bamboo frame made up of short lengths fitted into brass tubes at the joints and angle pieces at the corners. Constant practice in putting up the outfit made a fit-up for the show a very quick proceeding, and from the tune we had the gear on the floor ol a hall until the whole was fitted up and light centred was usually a matter of ahout fifteen to twenty minutes. Our camera was of French manufacture, taking a length ol oil feel of film, which had to he loaded and unloaded in a dark room or changing hag. The average length of a Him as supplied lor exhibition was from oil to 75 feet in length and of a width of 1§ in . the perforations were ven similar to those standard lo-dav , four each side of a frame. A good deal of ditticultv occurred if the joining of one film to another we attempted in order to save waits when threading up the projector, due to some makers having the perforation holes level with the frame line, whilst others had them lower down. About ten years passed before this simple matter became standardised; Continental makers stuck to their standard ami the British and U.S.A. to theirs, so things 111 this direction haven't changed much alter all! Iloie are some ol the first films shown b\ mv brother and myself round about the gay 'nineties; "Man Burning Weeds." "A Snowball bight." "Soldiers Crossing a Bridge." "Waves Breaking on the Sea Shore," "Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Procession. 1897," "Highland Dance at Balmoral," "Train Entering a Station." "Hat Manipulation or Chapeaugraphy," this showed M. Truey, a French music hall performer, who was one ol the first subjects of the brothers Lurniere, ami I think brought the first l.uniiere projector over From I'aris.