Pathéscope Kid questions

[Chris Smart]

Hello!

I'm a regular 8mm collector and shooter normally but I had the opportunity to purchase a Pathéscope Kid projector with a collection of films. I just received it in the mail and noticed the bulb is missing and the power cable connector is wooden with two round metal/brass fittings embeded in the wood. I have no idea how that would work, am I missing a part? Can bulbs still be found for these or is there an alternative one can use? Everything else seems to be in relatively good condition. This auction also included a 1st edition Pathescope Film Catalogue from 1933, an instruction manual with english on one side and Chinese on the other (bad condition), a Pathex cartridge with film that looks almost white inside, I assume its unused but exposed film. Also a neat 3inch slicer with a wood base and an interesting little vice mechanism with notches for the perforations. I've catalogued all the films it came with if anyone is interested.

Cat Number	Size of Reel	Name	Description / Title
799	2.5inch	Pathéscope	Felix the cat. The Puss for Boots (Red Text)
An10.357	2.5inch	Pathéscope	Stop thief!
An10.331	2.5inch	Pathéscope	Charlie the Watchmaker
An10.365	2.5inch	Pathéscope	For Dolly's smile
10.092	2.5inch	Pathéscope	N.2. High jinks amoung the Chinks
10.092	2.5inch	Baby Film	N.1. High jinks amoung the Chinks
493	2inch	Baby Film	Saint-Malo (Green Label)
10127	2inch	Pathéscope	Froth and Flurry (Red Text)
10.053	2inch	Baby Film	Falling Stars
10.057	2inch	Baby Film	N.1. farina in Hospital
417	2inch	Baby Film	Lerida (Green Label)
An. 802	2inch	Pathéscope	Felix the protector
10116	2inch	Pathéscope	Negretina Leads a Simple Life (Red Text)
10116	2inch	Pathéscope	Negretina Leads a Simple Life
275	2inch	Pathé Baby	Beaucitron is superstitious

[Maurice Leakey]

Chris
You may find the following attachment interesting.
Regrettably. Grahame Newnham passed away last year.
In addition to the hand turned projector, there should have been a dropping resistance unit to supply the lamp.
I would suggest that the lamps are now unobtainable as they have been obsolete for many years .

PATHE KID (pathefilm.uk)


Maurice

[Chris Smart]

Thank you for the link, Maurice. Sorry to hear about Grahame Newnham. Looks like a very detailed page on the Kid Projector. I do have the dropping resistance unit but I'm confused by the wooden plug to supply the power. Has anyone seen these before?



Grahame Newnham Quote

It looks quite straightforward to fit modern QI halogen G4 base lamps like the little 6volt 10watt M29 often used in the Pathé-Baby lamp conversions. Just remember that anything above 10watts will begin to ruin the single frames on the early 'notched' 9./5mm film prints, However there are now LED 'imitations' of this type of lamp - I am waiting to try some......

Thank you Grahame for this!

[Chris Smart]

I just spotted it in one of the images on Grahame's website

[Dominique De Bast]

I believe the lamps are the same as those used in the Pathé Baby projectors. As Maurice says, they are now rare. When they surface, they are very expensive. In the '90s, Muller in Paris had a batch of those lamps manufactured but I don't know how many and anyway they were not cheap, neither.

[Terry Sills]

The wooden plug that you show would have been plugged into an electric light socket. Back in the day there were no wall power sockets so the only power source was a light socket where a light bulb would have been. Normally these plugs would have been made of Bakelite, but wooden ones also were available.

[Maurice Leakey]

Woolworths used to sell an item known as a Heat & Light Socket. It plugged into the room light socket and had two outlets, one was always live (when the room light switch was on, of course), and the other had a sliding switch for the connection an accessory such as an electric fire.

I remember my mother ironing in the centre of the room with the light on to see what she was doing, and with her iron plugged into the switched socket.

Many early home pre-war projectors were supplied with this form of plug.


Maurice

[Dominique De Bast]

[Maurice Leakey]

Here is the Heat & Light Adapter.
Volex V410 Heat and Light switched bayonet adaptor (flameport.com)

Maurice

[Ken Finch]

Hi, Chris. The Pathescope "Kid" was ,as its name suggests was aimed at the Juvenile market. It used the same lamp as the original Pathescope Home Movie projector. It was designed to use the films contained in the 30 and 60ft cassettes with "notched " titles. A better version was later marketed called the "Imp" for improved. They were all superseded by the Pathescope Ace, which still used the same 20 volt lamp. The "electric toaster" resistance was soon replaced by a transformer. Thats the history lesson! Now what lamp to use. I suggest you scroll back through past topics and you will see that the best conversion is to use the little 12 volt 10watt Halogen bulbs and transformer. You can obtain the transformer, and lamp holder your local electrical parts shop o DIY store. Do not use any higher wattage bulb or you will damage the film. Ken Finch.

[Chris Smart]

This is fascinating. Thank you very much!