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BELL & HOWELL G.S.A.P 16 MM.

John Fleming

Arriving at work one morning recently, I was
switching things on (room heater, tea kettle, com-
puter) when, hot on my heels, my colleague arrived
carrying a substantial looking brass-bound grey
case. (Pic. 1.) “I think you’ll find this interesting,”
he said as it was opened up. Indeed it was some-
thing out of the ordinary in the way of still or
movie cameras. First inspection confirmed it was
military, probably WW2 vintage. After a few more
minutes it became apparent it was a Gun Sight
Aiming Point (G.S.A.P) 16 mm movie camera,
which would be fitted to fighter aircraft to confirm Pic. 1. Very official-looking brass bound grey
case.
‘kills’. (Pic. 2.)

Close examination shows it accepted
standard 50-foot magazines of the type
popularized by Kodak, which are
quick and easy to load with no thread-
ing required. The compact size of the
light-tight magazines is made possible
since the take-up roll occupies the
space just vacated by the feed supply
roll… very clever. (Pic. 3.) Designed
to run on 24 volts DC attached to the
aircraft, someone had obviously done
some modifications post-war and two
wires were soldered to the supply pins
in the Cannon socket. Bit rough! I
Above: Pic. 2, All is revealed! Aircraft gun camera, 16 mm would have obtained a suitable Can-
magazine, 24 volts. non plug, but there is more here than
Below: Pic. 3. The compact daylight loading 16 mm 50 ft. meets the eye.
magazine.
The top of the camera has a homemade brass
strip screwed on, with a Whitworth ¼ inch tri-
pod screw thread evident. The original two bolts
protrude from the side of camera where it would
have been mounted inside an aircraft wing. (Pic.
4.) Apparently this camera had been put to some
other use after removal from an aircraft, and
another modification confirms this. Apart from
a normal (full of film) magazine with the cam-
era, there was a cut-down magazine fitted up
with a strip of tracing paper in the film gate
aperture. Ah! This is a ‘ground glass’ for observ-