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maggie~hamilton

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Joined
Jul 8, 2006
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Y'all "old-timers" amongst us remember those film strips we'd watch in grade school, that had the audio on -- *gasp!* L/P RECORDS?!

The teacher would load the film strip into the little gray wrinkle-finish film strip projector with a frame-advance button at the end of a long cord, and then fire up the projector.

Then he would start the record. Each time there would be a merry "BLONK!" tone on the record, he'd press the button to advance to the next frame on the film strip.

Well, I am working on a project for a graphics client to restore a set of those old film strips and convert the frames into digital images. Over the years, the once-vivid color of the film strips has faded to dull-looking brownish, maroonish hues. Part of the big challenge in this project, along with cleaning up all the dings and scratches, is restoring the original bright coloring.

I have really gotten off on a nostalgic trip working on these film strips. I can hear the merry whir of the projector's cooling fan, smell the slightly musty scent of the leatherette cases of the phonograph and projector, and see the lint particles dancing in the beam of the projector's light as we students pushed in front of one another to make hand-animals (and the occasional naughty gesture!) on the screen before the show began.

Here's the first frame that I have completed restoration of. See if viewing it doesn't take you right back to 4th Grade in Mr. Warner's history class!

10-3-2007-20-03-52--maggie~hamilton.jpg
 
It wasn't THAT long ago, Ms. Hamilton!

That's a beautiful image! By the time I was in school, most of the filmstrips had cassette tapes for audio tracks, and our new-fangled projectors mostly had automatic tone detectors which would automatically advance the film when the circuit detected the 'beep.'

We did have a few projectors with built-in phonographs, but they didn't often get used.

And yes, I was an A/V geek, thank you.

-kevin
 
Have You Ever Worked with...?

I remember, *in our middle through high school's library,* working with these combination cassette player/film strip projector units designed for individual or small groups of students with single or multiple headphone connection jacks. In fact, my favorite kinds of cassettes to listen to were these sports tapes of football, baseball, basketball, etc. Long before OJ's downfall, I even remember enjoying a film strip about him. Since my eyesight was already getting bad, most of the time, I did not bother to load the films, except when viewing with one or more other fellow students.--Laundry Shark
 
Let's not forget the washer related strips, either!

Swestoyz happens to have a set of Maytag strips with 16" records that are a hoot. One of them was a 12" LP IIRC so we were able to play it along with the movie. Now that I think about it, "hey Ben, still got that projector!?" -Cory
 
Dukane Machines - Vintage A/V Equipment!

I was an A/V assistant/geek squad person too! Many of these devices had the record player mounted on the back of the filmstrip projector. I remember one of the first ones that had a 10" turntable that you had to pull off the side of the machine and mount it on the spindle. The later ones had a 5" or 7" turntable already mounted. The filmstrip could be either automatically advanced using an inaudible beep or you could manually advance it yourself with the beep sound intact! It also came with a remote control with a push button for advancing the filmstrip frames. Still later Dukanes had a cassette deck on the back of the machine instead of the record player. For the real way back machine, I remember advancing the frames on just a filmstrip projector (Viewlex) and having a classroom record player (Califone or Newcomb) play the record with the audible beep. I also remember one of the nuns at my catholic grade school playing Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album on one of these Dukane machines while looking at some slides on a Kodak Carousel slide projector (another technology that's fading away)! OK, I'm showing my age! What a cool memory!
 
YES I REMEMBER THOSE FILMSTRIP MACHINES!!In some classes we took turns operating the projector and the record player with it for the sound-lots of budding "projectionists" in those classes.Yes those great old Newcomb and Caliphone record players-and the ones I used in those schools had TUBES in them-the smell of the warm tubes under the TT motorboard brings back memories-Would love to run into one of those old machines.somewhere I had a fimlstrip projector-in all of the moves I went thru guess it got lost-was A "Viewlex" unit.I have one filmstrip-the history and care of our flag-the sound is on a cassette instead of a record.Also on the Caliphone players-the big Caliphone "C" over the speaker grill.Nice machines-and sounded so nice-classroom hi-fi!
 
Ah, the smell of it

Yes, it was the warmth from the tubes in the phonograph and the powerful lamp in the projector, that warmed up the housings of these machines and put off that wonderful scent that I can still smell so clearly! The projector was contained in a tall rectangular case, both sides of which you would unhook and remove so you didn't have to actually remove the projector from the base of the cabinet. There was a little "foot" on the front of the case that you could move up and down to position the image on the screen. (I can even remember the distinctive scent of the screen -- now how strange is that?!)

btw I guess I am in "Antique Row" vis a vis this equipment since the projector in our school did not have an attached phonograph. What they had was a phonograph in a gray leatherette cabinet - there was a large speaker box (with a single big speaker) attached vertically to the back of the case that you could remove and place at a distance. When the speaker was attached to the case and the cover was on top of the turntable, the cabinet made an "L-shape." That's about all I remember about it, except that the leatherette was gray and looked like the same leatherette on a Model XXX Electrolux, and that the turntable was covered with a brown fuzzy surface.
 
Projector case - a clarification -- the case had those metal "eyelet" types of clasps to hold it on -- they were on the left side of the cabinet. You'd flip open the clasps, then open the top and right side of the cabinet which was one piece, then open the left side, a separate panel. They were held in place by those same sort of "pin-and-slot" things that record player lid and speaker also had. Some old manual typewriters had these as well.

Does this make sense? Not too good at describing it, I know, since I was not an A/V geek but I sure was a Mimeo geek! All the teachers loved me because I was happy to run off their handouts for them. We've probably talked about that here before but I don't remember -- remember us students "huffing" the purple-ink handouts, getting a slight buzz from the methanol "spirit fluid" used to produce the prints? When the paper was fresh from the duplicator and still moist, it smelled the best. I guess you could say my first drug of choice was ditto fluid!
 
The tubes in the equipment did give the strange but nice smell as the equipment was run.same with the tubes in home type TV's and Hi-fis,and radios.Esp those in wood cabinets-the tubes warmth made the wooden smell.any of the projection screens I have had or used had a Vinyl odor.what most were made of.When I used my McIntosh amps-these need caps-the tubes made a warm odor-since there was no wood cabinet.I still have the amps--part of using the tubed gear-not only the sound but the SMELL?Never heard tube using audiophiles mention this.I too remember the duplicators and the duplicator fluid.Bet with todays safety standards the machines could no longer be used-much less be run by kids-the new safety regs spoil it for eveyrone!What baby boomer hasn't at least cranked out a few copies on the spirit duplicator machine?Now I have seen duplicators have a hard time being given away.There is a neat thrift shop out my way that has a couple HUGE duplicators and he can't give them away.they were given to the store owner by a church in the area.He has a REALLY old Victor 16MM projector I have my eyes on-its VERY old.Comes in two cases-the projector and the amp,speaker.The speaker part has a very long cable so it can be put near the screen.the cable matches the projectors "throw distance".The store had a newer model of Caliphone record player-not the tubed one with the big "C" I am looking for.also remember as a child-on the weekends we went to a place that had Square dances-the square dance DJ-caller had the largest and coolest tubed record player-mixer I had ever seen.It had two large speakers (this was a Newcomb)and it was stereo.You could see the tubes softly glowing under the TT amp unit.He plugged his microphone into the amp unit.As the square dance record was playing-he made the square dance calls.Was fun-and I loved listening to the music played thru that machine-Truely a real portable record playing Hi-Fi.Would love one of those.And another thing-the red and green "jewel" pilot lights on the unit.SS units just don't have it-the clean smooth sound and lastly-the tube and warm cabinet "odor"
 
Anyone remember the reading comprehension tests? We had a filmstrip projector that would flash a sentence on the screen and automatically black it out and advance to the next sentence. The speed could be adjusted. After viewing, we took a test to see if we had been able to read all of the sentences - kind of a speed reading type thing.

I have an old Dukane projector/turntable that works and I also have a Jam Handy Explainette with a case of Frigidaire filmstrips and 16" records. The Explainette makes a loud humming sound when turned on so I guess a capacitor or tube is bad.
 
Very nice work - BEEP!

I have four sets of Frigidaire filmstrips and 16" records that go with them. Everything from selling window air conditioners to a beautiful 1947 presentation on how the Unimatic washer is made. I would love to convert these to digital, how are you doing this Charles? Converting the audio to digital with the large records presents a bit of a challenge, but a simple microphone and player would probably work OK. I bought a Magnavox "Illustrovox" player and projector combo on ebay that was used for these sets, but the projector has no bulb and I've not had time to research and find another.
 
"I would love to convert these to digital, how are you doing this Charles?"

---

I'm using a high-resolution flatbed scanner with a transparency adapter. I scanned the film strips, one frame at a time, zoomed up in size to 7" x 10" and a resolution (actual) of 2400dpi. That's the easy part.

The hard part is then cleaning up and color-correcting the frames. This is very tedious and meticulous work. When I go in today, I'll attach a couple of "before and after" samples as I proceed with this project.

The film strips will be produced as video DVDs with accompanying full-color print versions. I am doing all the scanning and the prepress work for the print versions. Then a video specialist will create the DVD, integrating the scans into his animated production.

btw, if y'all want to see some of what I do for this client, check out the BUCKLEBEAR web site. There's lots of fun stuff there!

http://www.bucklebear.com
 
I think Jamison Handy would be pleased.

Nice job -- I would have thought that a lot of the work would involve filling in scratches and cleaning up spices. These old strips (and also movies) certainly do fade with age and poor storage.

I'm glad to see projects like this (and of course archive.org) that are preserving these gems. It's true that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

-kevin
 
As a middle school librarian, I can't tell you how many of those film strips and cassettes I've reluctantly thrown in the trash over the course of 15 years. You'd have to look HARD these days to find an AV repair person who'd know how to repair an old DuKane filmstrip projector or worse, an old Wollensak reel-to-reel tape player! I, like a lot of us, was the "AV nerd" at my school... Come to think of it, at age 42, I'm still the damned "AV nerd" at my school, only now it's all computerized and digitized.

As a matter of fact, the brand new school I opened a few months ago doesn't have the FIRST TV or overhead projector in it..all AV watching is carried out through classroom PC's and ceiling mounted video projectors and "Smart" boards. The technology budget (alone) for this school was 1.3 million dollars!
 
Luckily, not much goes wrong with filmstrip projectors.

Of course, the cassette decks are another matter. Belts and rollers and dirty heads and guides can all cause endless headaches.

Filmstrips are nice, but I always prefer 16mm film. We didn't use a lot of TV when I was in school, but we did watch quite a few movies.

Wollensaks were great machines to use, but they are a pain to repair.

-kevin

(btw Dave: you're 43 now. Time keeps on slipping into the future.)
 
My compliments to you on your spectacular work! In my former career, I was a graphic artist, from the old wax and phototypesetting days, so I can well appreciate what you do! I still dabble with Photoshop and the video stuff, but it's finding the time. Now I'm trying my hand at digitizing sewing machine embroidery designs.

It's funny how smells can affect us. What I thought of when I saw this thread about the projectors was the huge opaque projector our grade school had. A large black box with, if I recall, about a 5 inch lens on the front and a fan that sounded like a jet engine. It scared the heck out of me the first time the teacher turned it on. And on more than one occasion it did start to smoke. Even when it was not about to catch fire, it had that hot metallic, ozone smell to it.
 
Overhead Projectors are cool!

Hear at my church (I'm down here now, just having finished choir rehearsal), we still have - and use - a couple of overhead projectors, sometimes during the service but mostly for Church School classes.

But at the same time, the pastor is a real techno-geek and has all sorts of computer-driven projectors to display PowerPoint presentations and the like. It's fun stuff but it sure seems to take him a long time fuzting around to get it all set up and tweaked whenever he wants to use it.

And speaking of projectors, how many of y'all had a MAGNAJECTOR when you were kids?! I got one for Christmas one year and burned out light bulb after light bulb displaying my favorite comic strips and stuff on my bedroom wall!

I still have one stuck away in a closet somewhere, that I found at a yard sale one day - mint condition in the box, paid two dollars for it!

10-4-2007-23-14-40--maggie~hamilton.jpg
 
Focus the projector please!

I still remember in school being the A/V geek that was fascinated by the 16mm projectors too. Anyone remember the Kodak Pageant? A classic projector with the belts on the take up and supply reel arms. I'm sure some of you threaded the films on this projector! I know I did when the teachers didn't know how to thread the projector! How about the old Bell & Howell manual and auto loads? When I was in high school in the mid 70's the projector that was all the rage was the green Eiki ST-O (I think) 16mm projector. Our high school purchased 3 of these projectors then the next year they purchased 21 of the blue RT model auto loads. I remember many faculty members having trouble rewinding the films because you had to keep the forward/reverse switch in the forward position and flip the lever by the first sprocket gear up for the rewind. Apparently this caused a drag on the take up reel that would wind the film nice and even back on the supply reel. Many times I had to wind and rewind films because faculty members had rewound the film on the reel the wrong way! I also remember finding film spilled all over the floor because someone didn't fasten the take up reel properly and it fell off in the projection booth! Boy, was that a mess to straighten out! How many times did you have that chattering sound when the projector lost the film loop just to stop the projector and reset it? In my current position as media services coordinator, back in 1989 I made sure that we purchased the Eiki SL-O SlimLine 16mm projectors. We purchased four of them and they still work great! We have just a small collection of 16mm films. The physics dept. uses the 1962 classic "Time Dilation: An Experiment with Mu-Mesons" almost every semester. This never made it to video - yet. OK, I'm through but thanks for sparking these memories for me! - Mike
 
Oh yes-the reading comprehension and speed read tests-remember me and a good freind HAD to take a reading class as part of our courses-it was mandatory.During the tests the instructor set the reading machine projector at its highest speed and me and my freind were able to keep up.So the instructor let us mess around with the machine all we wanted and also use the class as a "study Hall" the instructor felt we didn't need the course.That reading machine projector was kinda fun to play around with-a modified fimstrip projector with the masking device that you could adjust its speed in masking the print projected to read.I have a 3M overhead projector I got at a yard sale some time back.The seller at the sale was a former teacher.Yes I also used opaque projectors at school-these things did run VERY hot due to their high wattage lamps shining light on the object to be projected and reflecting off the object onto the screen.You couldn't leave the item in the machine for more than a few minutes or it will BURN!I used it to project pictures from a book during a speech I did in Social studies class-that book sure got HOT for the couple minutes it was under the projector.It was a monsterous thing with the loud blower.when you put a book or other paper item in the machine-you clamped down a glass platen over it to prevent the blower's air blast from riffling the book pages.
 
Yeah, me too.

I was in the Catholic School system and yes I was the AV nerd bar none.
Viewlex, DuKane, Kodak Pageant. We had it. We also had VM open reels with the headphone extenders so 20 people could listen. Our TVs were Zenith 23" b&w metal cabinet tube sets. Phonos were Admiral suitcase units. EVERYTHING was durable.
Does anyone remember the "Language Master" machine? It had a word or phrase printed on a rectangular card with magnetic strip. You inserted into the reader and it zipped from left to right speaking one word or phrase ex: "...NOSTALGIA....NOSTALGIA...."
 
Come to think of it I have a Kodak Pagent projector-found it at the dump out here-its missing a speaker-the mechanism does run.The amp tubes do light up.I have a small collection of 16mm projectors.I have a Bell-Howell and a US Army Signal Corps Devry projector.The Devry and Bell-Howell work.I have 3 films-one on WW2 First Aid-and two others unknown.got the unknown ones from a swap shop.Will have to play them.
 
Magnajectors Rock!

Lordy, that brings back memories...had one of those as a kid, used it all the time to draw stuff...actually used it to take the tiny, tiny map in the front of the paperback "Lord of the Rings" books and blow it up to 8' x 6' so it would nearly cover one of the walls in my room...ah...thanks for that little jog down memory lane!
 

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