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Pathé 28mm Safety film –

100 years old 2012

In Brief

In the early years of the motion picture, there were numerous attempts to
introduce a sub-standard film gauge for the enthusiast, most attempts
centered on the use of 17.5mm, which was slit from the standard 35mm
gauge.

There were several stumbling blocks involved: the most important was the
used of flammable nitrate film, hardly a good start for in-home use with the
common illuminant of the day being a kerosene burner. There was also the
‘chicken and the egg’ syndrome; there was nothing to watch until a film had
been made, both a camera and a projector were required, but until a
‘library’ of personal films was built up, the projector was useless.

Pathé overcome this drawback by introducing a projector along with a large
range of films for hire or purchase. The films were the easy part for Pathé –
at that time they were the largest producer of motion picture films in the
world and had a very extensive library of 35mm films which could easily be
printed down to 28mm. 28mm was deliberately chosen as it can’t be slit
from 35 mm nitrate film. A camera was produced a year or so later.

All Pathé 28mm films were printed onto diacetate safety film stock, and the
projector had a small generator which powered a small lamp, an important
selling feature with the education authorities, who saw the new medium as
an education tool.

The system was introduced under the name Pathé KOK in France in 1912.
The KOK being a shortened version of the Pathé trade mark- a cockerel.

Victor in the USA embraced 28mm and produced the Victor Safety Cinema
projector, which was a vast improvement on the low powered KOK. It is
claimed that over 10,000 projectors were produced in total and more than
20 million feet of 28mm film was printed.

World War I stopped European production of 28 mm. It continued in North
America until 1920 before ceasing entirely. Shortly after, 9.5 mm and 16
mm would take over the amateur film gauge role 28 mm had once filled.

See full article on the history of 28mm in this edition