Tuscan Spool Mystery

[Maurice Leakey]

I am sure we all have many 16mm films on Tuscan green spools of all sizes. I bought my first 2200ft spools in 1968 when they were produced in Australia by the Australian Reel Company, presumably before being taken over by Tuscan. I still have some of these which also have a boomerang on them!

But, I have just bought a feature which arrived on 1 x 2000ft and 1 x 1600ft. I was very surprised to find that the 2000ft had the usual square hole, but on the other side the hole was round. Never before have I seen such a Tuscan. At first, because there is a Tuscan company in the USA I thought that it had come from that country as many of the US grey plastic spools have a hole configuration like that. But, no, it was marked "Made in England by Tuscan Cinematic Ltd London".

I must admit that I hate these spools, although I assume they are for some projectionists who may not know how to fit them correctly on a projector's feed arm.

Has anybody else come across these Tuscans?

[Tom Photiou]

Maurice, I have a couple of the spools with the square on one side and and the no-go round hole the other side. I can never see the point of this design, a spool that only fits on one side!! Surly there cant be anyone within the film collectors world who wouldn't know which way to put a film on a projector?
Whenever ive had a film turn up on one of these, (luckily, just a few), i always change the spool for a normal one.
Of the few i have, none are Tuscan.

[Dominique De Bast]

This system is annoying when you rewind your films with a pair of rewinders rather than with the projector. I don't like those spools, neither.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

The intention of this arrangement is to assure that the spool can/will fit ONLY one "correct" way (square side in, film perf. out, head first). Idiot - proof configuration, sort of.

But since there's nothing in the world to stop anyone from winding the film other way round - perf. side in, ccw unwinding, tail out, etc. I'm yet to see real benefit of this arrangement too.

[Maurice Leakey]

It is often said that 16mm slot loading projectors were designed for people who had no real interest in projecting and projectors, such as school teachers. If someone could lace a tape recorder by dropping the tape into a slot, then they could do the same with a 16mm projector.

As the film usually came from a film library they were often, for the same reason, sent out on spools which could only fit the correct way.

Hence, these awful spools are still with us. But, Tuscans?

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

At least here in the US.of.A, 16mm sound movies were never intended as primary a home format. It was intended for schools, churches, clubs, etc. where dumb kids, or dumber teachers were running the projectors. These reels prevented incorrect loading of the projector which would damage the soundtrack. These venues rewound on the projector so the never had a need to flip the reel around.

[David M. Leugers]

Interesting. The double square hole reels were used to be known as editing reels. Very handy when editing 16mm film. I always have them on my editing bench. I agree this square/round hole reels all seems silly to anyone even semi serious about film projection, but haven't we all seen 16mm prints where the beginning of the reel has a length where sprockets were trying to perf the sound track area side of the film?

[Dave Groves]

Christian film libraries often used these spools probably because many of the folk trusted with projection didn't know a from a bulls foot.

[Steven J. Kirk]

I saw a listing on eBay UK recently that described a Tuscan reel and can for sale as 'green.' But it was clearly turquoise blue as most are. I have seen actually green Tuscans and grey but most are blue. Is this a colour-blindness issue? Oh, and what colour are Bell and Howell 16mm machines from the seventies...

[Maurice Leakey]

....What colour are Bell and Howell 16mm machines from the seventies...

The first TQIII models were Turquoise.
The later ones I knew as Black, but my dealer of the time (Danny Pitt of Harston) insisted that were Charcoal Grey.

[Clive Carmock]

Until a few years ago Tuscan in the US would carry out a new production run of 16mm spools to special order. They used to carry 2000ft reels in stock but all others were made to order and required something like a mimimum order of 200 to justify a production run. However I don't think they offer that service any more.

[Maurice Leakey]

....Never before have I seen such a Tuscan. At first, because there is a Tuscan company in the USA I thought that it had come from that country as many of the US grey plastic spools have a hole configuration like that. But, no, it was marked "Made in England by Tuscan Cinematic Ltd London"....

Clive
As I said before, my 2000ft spool was made in England.

[Ken Finch]

Hi Maurice. Re your comment about teachers and projectors. In the "olden days" when I was a teacher. You had to have a Visual aids profiency certificate" before you could use a projector. As I had been an amateur film maker and "projectionist" from my early teens , I actually helped run the course for fellow students at my teacher training college. The rot set in when self threading projectors were introduced. The powers that be decided that it was no longer necessary!!! Much to the chagrin of the County Council Film Librarians. Just another cost cutting exercise without considering the consequences so prevelent of recent years. Ken Finch