Page 6 - RD_2021-12

Getting a lens for the camera had me worried,
but a search through my box of old lenses
revealed an early "Butcher" enlarging lens. It
looked good and it was exactly the right
focal length, two inches.

The wooden box was made by North Coast
Joinery in Nambour using the old time skills
of Bill Beadle who re-created exactly the
difficult mitred dovetailing used by the
Lumiere Brothers. Bill used Brazilian
Mahogany to match the original colour
and grain. He made a beautiful job of the top
feed magazine which holds just 50 feet of film. Below: “Just a square box”, prior to shellac coats.
In the year that followed we fitted the parts on
to the main plate, and thanks to Rob's fine
precision engineering things went together and
worked remarkably well.
Two questions still remained: how did the top
magazine attach to the camera, and, as the
Queensland Museum's "Cinematographe" did
not have a take up magazine I needed some
information on that too.
Below: Back view with the troublesome magazine
in place and film threaded.

Above: Back view with gate open and top
magazine attachment.
Below: Front of camera with the adjustable
shutter covering the cam system.

6 REEL DEALS December 2021