8mm Forum: Antique Slide Projector

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Topic: Antique Slide Projector

Pasquale DAlessio
Film God

Posts: 3523
From: Bristol,RI, USA
Registered: May 2010

posted October 22, 2013 12:04 PM

Who can tell me more info on this and it's value please? There is also a box of slides with it.

Thsnks

PatD

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted October 22, 2013 12:33 PM

Pat, it looks to me like a Magic Lantern. Are the slides on glass? Depending on the maker it could be worth anything up to £1,000; certainly I would say a few hundred, it looks very nice. My grandfather was born 1874 and watched Magic Lantern shows before the coming of cinema. I think the shows were given by travelling showmen (fairgrounds), the same people gave shows when movies came out in the 1890s.
Check this page out Pat

http://www.mwclassic.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Cine__Pre_Cinema__Magic_Lantern_42.html

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Pasquale DAlessio
Film God

Posts: 3523
From: Bristol,RI, USA
Registered: May 2010

posted October 22, 2013 02:49 PM

So I guess you have to rub it to turn it on? [Big Grin]

Thanks for the info.

PatD

[ October 25, 2013, 03:10 AM: Message edited by: Pasquale DAlessio ]

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted October 22, 2013 03:58 PM

Looks like it has been electrified. From what I remember of stories handed down they were originally illuminated by candle.

I don't know when they stopped making them, but I have seen glass slides with images from WW1. I have about half a dozen slides by a man named George Washington Wilson, they are of an historical nature, which was the reason I bought them.

http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/benefits.html

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted October 25, 2013 02:44 AM

With the large ventilation area it is very doubtful if this up-market lantern used a candle for a light source. It is much more likely to have had a lump of lime being fed from a mixture of two gases, oxygen and acetylene.

My grandfather also had a magic lantern and I can just remember it. Two gas cylinders were attached via valves and rubber tubing to the jet which played on the lime to give an intense white light. The lime slowly burnt away and was mounted on a small turntable which could be turned to bring into use a new unburnt patch.

In my cinema we had stage shows and used our two carbon arc spotlights, and all the years after the demise of the lime the spots were still referred to affectionally as limes.

As regards value, it's a single lens lantern and would not be worth a lot, those with two, and even three lenses are much more sought after.

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Maurice

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Lindsay Morris
Film Handler

Posts: 87
From: Darlington, WA, Australia
Registered: Jul 2013

posted October 25, 2013 03:26 AM

Pat,

It looks like it is missing the slide carrier into which the slides are inserted and then moved across to screen. It goes in that gap between the front of the lamphouse and the rear of the lens carrier.

I have an old 35mm hand cranked projector that is also missing the same bit as on the real old machines the lamphouse could be swung across to the side to line up with a simple lens on rear of the projector head to enable the 3 1/4" glass slides to be shown.
Obviously a transition between the old Magic Lantern shows and the more up to date (then) silent movies.

The projector was made in 1922 and still works rather well but your arm gets real tired after 10 mins of cranking.

Lindsay [Smile]

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Lindsay

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