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Author
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Topic: Help request on identifying some kit
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 08-21-2004 03:02 AM
I don't know about the rectfier, but the lamp is very like a Peerless Magnarc, but I think there may be some slight differences. Yours doesn't seem to have the illuminated 'Peerless' sign on top, and the meter looks different.
They certainly were made under licence, most of the ones over here were made in Glasgow, by Kelvin, Baird and Bottomley, so it's quite possiible that other licences were issued as well.
Several manufacturers made xenon conversions for them, and a fair number of converted ones are still in use. The ABC chain used a lot of them on FP-20s and DP-75s when they modernised their cinemas in the '70s.
Yours look in very nice condition, have they been repainted at some time? Most were black, but I have also seen grey and silver ones. Some of the knobs and handles were a strange yellowish green colour, that looked loke something radioactive from an ald science fiction film.
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David Buckley
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 525
From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted 08-25-2004 06:01 AM
Thanks all.
I've download the manual for the Magnarc, and it looks very similar to what we have. I knew I'd seem something similar somewhere, but just couldn't place it.
And Jack, no, these are still carbons. And will be that way till hell freezes over or carbons become unobtanium, but somehow I think hell freezing will occur first :-)
Just for a giggle, these projectors have the Hi-Central magnarc clone lamphouses, Westrex 2001-E/3 projector (looks awfully like a century), Westrex 2003-C sound (also looks century), with Westar base and reels. I've searched a bit on FT and google, but cant find any references to these Westrex item numbers.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-02-2016 04:29 PM
So did you manage to get in to one of the booths on the Queen Mary, or is this a pic you found somewhere?
When I did the Queen Mary tour last summer, I noticed projection portholes at the back of both the grand stateroom and, if memory serves me correctly, the second class dining room. I did ask the guide if any projection equipment was still in them and if it would be possible to have a look, but he didn't know and didn't have a key.
If these projectors date from the 1947 refit (which, the tour guide explained, was done to convert it back from a troopship to civilian use fully, including some major upgrades, e.g. the addition of stabilizers), I'd guess Gaumont-Kalee or BTH, but don't recognize them.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-04-2016 12:46 PM
It would make sense. To my knowledge, G-K and British Thomson-Houston were the two major manufacturers of 35mm projector mechanisms in the UK at that time.
In the decade following the end of WWII, Britain was effectively broke from the costs of fighting it (indeed, the UK didn't finish paying off its lend-lease until 2006). The government, therefore, imposed Donald Trump-style import duties on all imports considered to be non-essential, plus tax breaks to encourage exports. So no British purchaser would have imported projectors in 1947 unless they absolutely had to. If you look at the British trade press from the late '40s, it's full of complaints from theater managers about how they can't afford to import spares needed to keep their neon marquees going and that sort of stuff.
At that time, Gaumont-Kalee was the manufacturing arm of the Rank Organisation, the News International of its day, which had bought out the Kershaw optical company in the early 1940s to acquire the capacity to make its own audio-visual equipment.
Incidentally, the import-tax regime persisted until Britain joined (what was then called) the European Economic Community in 1975. In the late 1960s, the Odeon chain installed Cinemecannica Vic 8s, with full 70mm kits. The reason was that the tax penalty didn't apply if the equipment you were buying was not manufactured in the UK. At that time, G-K offered the 35mm only GK-37, which Odeon didn't want, because it had acquired a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to operate, repair and maintain. Because no British manufacturer offered a 70mm projector (G-K bet the farm on VistaVision, and lost), Odeon dodged the tax by importing fully 70mm-capable Italian projectors, even though most of them never ran a single foot of 70mm print.
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