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what happened in any of the material I have volt mains supplies via a large dropping resistor
collected). of 6 amperes rating. The machine could be used
on either AC or DC 110 volt supplies. (Fig 3). I
Shortly afterwards, a civil engineer in the USA,
have one of these machines, Serial No.574 and
Willard Beach Cook registered the Pathescope
it is far superior in all respects to the KOK. (If
trademark in America in 1913. At first he
the Editor agrees my machines could be the
assembled the Pathe KOK from imported kits of
subject of another article).
parts but soon started selling machines of all
American manufacture incorporating ideas of
his own. The first of these new KOK machines
was called 'The Popular’ which was a KOK
fitted with a 12 volt 2 ampere lamp fed via a
dropping resistor from the 110 volt mains
supply, but it was still hand- cranked. By 1918
there was one hundred of the ‘Popular’ model
in use in the schools in New York City. (Ref 6).
Next came a Motor Model for use with
alternating current. This had a small single-
phase induction motor, which replaced the
original direct current generator, but because it
was not self-starting the operator had to crank
the projector up to speed when the motor then
took over. The fourth model was a Motor
Model for direct current. This utilised the DC
generator fitted to the original KOK Hand
Model as a motor driven from the 110 volt DC
supply mains via a rheostat. In the event of no
power one merely rearranged the connections
via a plug and socket arrangement, installed a 6-
volt, 0.7-ampere lamp and hand-cranked Fig 3. Victor Safety Cinema projector - 1917
obtaining a dim picture with the DC generator
once again feeding the smaller lamp. (Ref 10). Alexander Victor had also been concerned
While all of this was happening, the prolific about the fire hazard of 35mm nitrate film and
American inventor Alexander F. Victor, well in 1918 he presented a paper to the Society of
known for his earlier involvement with various Motion Picture Engineers in which he urged the
devices for projecting pictures starred to take an adoption of 28mm safety film by the SMPE as a
interest and became the champion of the 28mm new standard. This was agreed and eventually
cause in the USA. A short biography with a list such a standard was produced by the American
of sixty-one US patents concerned with motion Standards Association. The adoption of the
pictures issued to Victor and his interest in Safety Standard and Pathecope films by the
28mm is to be found in Ref 11 and very SMPE was a vast stride forward by the industry.
interesting reading it is. In 1917 he designed The new Safety Standard Film and the French
and built the Victor Safety Cinema, a motorised Pathescope 28mm film met with the specific
projector of classic layout with a 28-32 volt qualification of the Underwriters'
lamp rated at 165 watts; this was fed from 110- Laboratories and National Association of Fire