Carbon Arc Projectors

[tiaXetron]

Great Very!!!!! film projector like this!

[davespeanuts]

Hope you don't mind, but I added a link to your video as I'm selling a rebuilt brenkert on EBay

item number 190626402378

[Mxsmanic]

Great video! When I was little I wanted to be a projectionist. It never came to pass but I'm still fascinated by projectors.

[philwywy]

I love the video. I just bought an old theatre that has the old projection room intact. the theatre auditorium burned down in 1981. The building is the old Paramount Theatre in Cheyenne Wyoming. it is a 4 story office building now. I would love to find someone that could tell me if the projectors can still function.

[JohnMGilbert]

@philwywy email me at jmg429@aol.com

[noisedownloader]

I wish someday My dream come true to watch both or a single movie projector at work

[bigrich3849]

Wow thats excellent!!! thanks for sharing with us youngens.

[Erling3]

Hello John - I am a projektionist from 1973 Denmark - and I was at Sondrestrom airbase (Greenland) in the 80th - and the American soldiers cinema was operated exactly like you are showing in the video. I am having a hard time explaining to new projektionist how we did it in the old days. so many thanks. I am now operating a Kinoton digital projektor:-( It takes the fun out of the trade.

[JohnMGilbert]

When you're running changeovers, you want the film tails out to check the que marks. If the que marks are missing, the film runs out and you're screwed.

[IRMacGuyver]

Sending the film out tails up? Such a lazy thing to do. Only a couple archive houses want it returned that way. Most like it Heads out the way they ship it to you.

[toemblem]

That was cool. I enjoyed that video.

[JohnMGilbert]

These are Brenkhert projectors.

[gjoubert61]

Are these projectors Simplex E-6B's? I remember the rectifiers- we had to change the tubes once in awhile. Sometimes right in the middle of a movie!

Our machines used the RCA sound change-over system. IE: ( foot pedal and sound button. The lamphouse was designed to automatically adjust the carbons to compensate for "burn" but that feature did not work so we had to just keep an eye on the carbon burn and manually adjust the carbons.

[gjoubert61]

Are these projectors Simplex E-6B's? I remember the rectifiers- we had to change the tubes once in awhile. Sometimes right in the middle of a movie!

Our machines used the RCA sound change-over system. IE: ( foot pedal and sound button on the wall). Great system!

[JohnMGilbert]

No, modern cinemas use one projector and a platter system. The Xenon lamp did away with the carbon rods and now there's no need for two machines.

[charlemagne762]

Very interesting video, thanks for posting. One question; don't modern cinemas use 2 projectors?

[JohnMGilbert]

Nitrate film was highly flamable and there is still nothing made that will extinguish it. Inside the magazine (reel doors) was a pair of rollers called "valves." The idea was that if the film caught fire, the valves would pinch the film as it burned past them, much like putting out birthday candles by pinching the flame with your fingers. It seldom worked and many theaters burned.

[Dakkiller1]

Are those projectors from the Nitrate Era?

I'm asking this question because there are metal closing reel doors. (I think they where there to give you more time to get away from a flaming Nitrate reel before they make you blind)

Even if they wern't designed for that purpose or those were from the post 1951 era. I think those metal doors are cool looking and make for a awesome dust cover. If I had one of those machines, I'll make a parody video on how to run it.

By the way, I'm 16

Even if its

[sunxxone]

Can you tell me what the manufacture of the projector and arc are.?

[sunxxone]

Very well presented . I used to be a projectionist when I was younger and I still have fascination with cinema and the technical aspects of projection.

[jkmek99]

Thanks for posting, cool video!

[rockhardndeep]

I was a projectionist at the Glymont Theater in Indian Head, MD when I was a kid in the 60's. The theater had a pair of Brenkert projectors with RCA sound heads just like the set-up in your video. I loaded those projectors probably thousands of times to the point my hands still have "muscle memory" of exactly how it felt to this day. It was great reliving those days watching your video.

[luckyponytoo]

My dad was the projectionist at a drive-in theater when I was a kid. I remember the two projectors well, including watching the carbon-arc through the dark glass window. Each of them had its own little quirks. One was flaky about the sound. One tended to overheat (I remember the film melting on a few occasions.) The theater closed in the mid 80's, but I still smile whenever I see a movie that still has the little circles scratched in the corner to mark the changeovers.

[lexmarks567]

can you just tape the film to the plastic shipping reel.

[JohnMGilbert]

If I'd wound the take-up sprocket wrong, the film would've broke.

[jix177]

Nice work, very interesting, thanks for sharing!

[bvick777]

Wow, thank you for posting this. I just typed in drive in theaters and found this, My dad spent a great part of his life being a projectionist for Martin Theaters in Chattanooga, and as a kid he used to show me how to load up the reels and do the switch over, and while the film was going, he`d have me take the one that just ended over to the rewind bench so it could be ready to go for the next showing. I miss those days of spending time with my dad doing what he loved doing.

[metalsoulofblack]

@bvick777 I know exactly what you mean! My dad ran a drive-in theater in the early 80's. I would hang out with him in the booth. At that point in my life I could run the equipment just from watching him but I have forgotten everything over the years.  Those days were very cool now that I think back.

[maxim52]

Fantastic !!!!!

[TimonofBath]

I was trained on these kind of machines with arcs aged 16 in a cinema in Somerset, England. Long gone now, of course. But a wonderful few evenings of work every week! Thank you for making this docu, makes me very happy to revisit those days.

[azhans263]

Highly entertaining!

[altetz]

Wow! Brings back memories. Last time I worked in a projection booth was late 1972 on Long Island, NY. Being a "relief" operator I got to work in many different booths using Simplex XL, Century & Brenkhert projectors and Peerless lamphouses. Each booth was unique and had there own personalities. Going in "cold" to run a show was always and exciting yet stressful event. I loved it.

Great video!

[DSM1G90]

To do a process of "perfect threading" - is to "set the intermittent" sprocket when it has just been locked. Put "Picture Start" in the trap and gate assembly at aperture, then lace on down until you see "Sound start" on the lead. This mark on the film should be straight across from the photocell giving you the 21 frame count sound advance from aperture to soundhead and you'll notice that the frameline on the mid sprocket after the intermittent sprocket will be at the 12:00 position..

[Ampex196]

Picture to sound spacing is 20 frames for 35mm comopt. In very large auditoria I'd normally lace to 19 (to compensate for the slight delay).

Yes indeed; the positive is in front (trimmed to where it's crater image fills the mirror). This applies to any 'mirror' arc lamp.

[DSM1G90]

Wow, Brenkhert BX-60 heads, RCA 9030's and Enarc lamphouses. Positive is the one that faces the mirror and burns the crater, negative burns the cone. What you do it cut a point on the front of the lead so it goes into the reel slot much easier. ..and do agree, put the lead in the takeup reel first before lacing up the film since dust and dirt works their way up the lead and into the film itself when the lead is laying on the floor. I'm an engineer -started with carbon now doing digital.

[thehibtones]

You should try loading from the bottom up so you don't get the leader dirty.

[Luckyfwd44]

The first Simplex I ran had the shutter outside the projector and in front of the lens. We "changed over" with one hand on a toggle switch for sound and the other on a slide bar covering one or other of the booth windows.

[mrbeaufort]

Great video! Brought back a lot of memories. He made one mistake however, he got the positive and negative carbon rods backwards. The positive rod is the long one inside the light housing, negative is the short one in the back.

The booth in Illinois where this was shot was fancy compared to the one I used to man back in the 70's. We didn't have any new fangled electric changeover switch. We did a simultaneous flip of the shutter levers and a separate switch for sound. Old school, baby.

[thermosalami]

Great video. But--at least on a Peerless Magnarc--the positive is the longer, thicker carbon and is the one opposite the reflector. I don't know about a Brenkert.

When we threaded, we threaded at the "8" mark as well, but 8 feet, not 8 seconds. Don't know if that was what you meant.

Nonetheless, it is great to see those old machines still running.

[bartonbuster]

I remember hanging around the projection booth at my local Virginia movie house. I think we had Simplex projectors. I remember the operator would put a quarter within the reel so he'd hear the "drop" to remind him of the reel change .... great video ...great memories Thanks !

[filmteknik]

Nice video.

IMHO you could use a few more perfs of film between lower projector sprocket and the sound drum (try threading a leader's picture start in the gate and sound start on the sound drum to see exactly how much should be there), and a good deal less between the soundhead's constant speed sprocket and holdback sprocket (it's not at all critical but looked like the film was coming close to rubbing on the front wall).

I still have a small carbon arc lamp but never use it anymore.

[amberola1b]

I`ve been a projectionist for over 30 years, and that`s the way I started when I was 18 yrs old back in 1977, with carbon arcs. What I would`nt give to run a set of them again. I miss running film the old fashoned way.

[amrtam]

That's the kind of thing I like watching on youtube! AWESOME video!!!

Thanks for showing us a bit of this tricky job! ; )

Congratulations!

[denny906]

I last used carbon arc in April 1983 at the Whittwood Theatre. They were Ashcraft Core-Light lamphouses.

[JohnMGilbert]

Yup, plastic shipping reels. Metal reels went out with tail fins on Cadillacs and customer service.

[milkme21]

@JohnMGilbert you wound the take up spocket wrong

[IRMacGuyver]

@JohnMGilbert I still get metal reels occasionally from private archives. The worst are the ones that don't even bother with reels so you have to use a split reel to get them off the shipping cores onto house reels.

[278371]

That's a great video. I loved working with those Brenkert projectors. They were so easy to use, and take care of. I learned how to do one little thing a bit differently - when it came time to extinguish the arc, I would separate the carbons to break the circuit, then open the switch, to help minimize sparking at the contacts. I've never heard of using plastic shipping reels before - we used to receive old banged-up metal reels, and load onto our good house reels during inspection.

[MANTLEBERG]

I have never used the slot..

[biografmand]

Hi There -

Great video - happy memories.

But like pegbars, I think You should turn around and let the thick carbon be the positive ;-)

Thanks for showing !

All the best

Per Hauberg

Denmark

(Running my last show with carbon arc lamps november 1974)

[strong1235]

Contrast this with the Imax projector! I have had the pleasure of running both the old 35mm carbon arc Simplexes and the new Imax system. Imax is easy, but the old carbons were more fun. Especially when the motor-generator set(DC arc supply) catches fire at 11:30 on a Friday night at the drive-in and fills the booth with smoke! Been there, done that!!

[Filmmakertom]

Hey John, brings back some old memories, cause as you know, I've operated a few of the old Simplex Peerless projectors in my time...

Tom

[JohnMGilbert]

It was one of the Santa Clause movies. I don't remember which one.

[lexmarks567]

if you don't mind me asking what movie were you showing

[pegbars]

Hi, John! Very nice video. I'm really surprised to see a pair of Brenkert Enarcs still in operation. I only know of one other pair, in New England. And the leaky BX-60 projectors bring back a lot of memories! Haha.

Just one correction to your commentary, if I may: the carbon in the rear is the negative, and the one in the front (the larger one, with the crater) is the positive. :)

Great work! Please post more.