8mm Forum: 300 Watts Considered Sufficient

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on December 05, 2013, 03:31 AM:

Pre-war British sound projectors were usually fitted with a 300 watt lamp. I was reminded of this today when checking a newly purchased print of a Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1932 "The Wayward Canary". The print was quite light in density which was necessary in the 30s and early 40s for projectors which had low output lamps. The date code of LL revealed it was a GB print of 1940.

This could have only originally come from one source, the GeBescope Film Library. Their 1941 catalogue lists 24 Disney cartoons including this, number B.110. The hire fee was 5/- plus 20% Purchase Tax for one day, private use only, it was not available for public exhibition.

I suddenly realised that I might once have paid 3d to see this very print. In the 40s my school showed educational films each week for which a charge was made, the highlight of the show was a Walt Disney cartoon.

The headmaster's pride and joy was a superb projector which was housed in a polished wood cabinet (blimp) case. It had a maltese cross mechanism and was called a "SP Wundatone". Made in the UK by Sales Producers Equipments Ltd it had a 300 watt, 100 volt lamp. Even in a partially darkened classroom I recall that the picture was quite adequate on an 8 feet white screen.

On the last day of term before each Christmas we had a proper feature film. I still have memories of "49th Parallel", "The Scarlet Pimpernel", and still my all-time favourite, "Oh! Mr Porter".

[ December 05, 2013, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: Maurice Leakey ]

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on December 05, 2013, 01:10 PM:

Great memories, Maurice. Thanks for sharing them.

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on December 06, 2013, 12:10 PM:

Maurice
That reminds me of my childhood when great Christmas parties were held by my fathers workplace (Ammunition storage shelters in Salcey forest,Buckinghamshire)soon after the war. The highlight was a 16mm filmshow put on by a company called Mobile Movies I think and consisted of L&H shorts, Westerns, cartoons etc. Absolute magic to me and I spent more time looking at the projectors than watching the film. We also had a chap put on similar film shows in the village hall and it was a really great event to look forward to, before the days of television of course. What happy days

Posted by Ken Finch (Member # 2768) on December 13, 2013, 10:41 AM:

Hi Maurice, funny you should mention the Wundertone. I have the "bare bones" of one which I rescued many years ago when I was teaching at Wrotham School in Kent. It had originaly belonged to a music teacher a Mr Rush, who had died. Unfortunately it had been vandalised and the amplifier and optics had been "recycled by the Science department. I intended to just clean it up as an exhibition piece as it is not really worth restoring to working order. Also the wooden case had partly disintegrated with woodworm. Its an interesting museum piece as it has a maltese cross type intermittent mechanism. Very unusual for 16mm. Ken Finch.

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