Page 10 - RD_2022-09

The films offered were all reduction prints
from 35mm originals from the vast Pathé film
library. The subject matter ranged from
documentaries and world travel to short
comedies.

The films incorporated a rather unique feature;
instead of the usual multi-frame titles, which
would use up a foot or more of valuable film,
the film was halted in the gate and a single
Pathé Baby film cassettes. Left 60 ft and right 30 ft. frame displayed of the title. (See separate
The film was held captive in the cassette, with the article in this issue).
end of the film attached to the centre hub. When
projected. the film was taken up in the glass- By the mid-1920s, the 30 ft cassettes with their
fronted chamber below the mechanism. On short running time were proving to be
completion of screening, the film was rewound inadequate for many of the films now being
back into the cassette by means of the built in supplied from the Pathé library. Many of the
rewind handle at the top of the machine. titles were now being released as multi-part
films. Pathé had introduced 60 ft cassettes,
To today's home cine enthusiasts, with full giving twice the running time, but these were
color, wide-screen images, these rather simple still inadequate, so in the late 1920s, they
little projectors with their dimly lit half-metre introduced what they called “Super Reels”.
wide, silent image, must seem to be nothing These were open reels holding 300-400 feet of
much more that a toy. film. Even so, Pathé persisted with their
notched title arrangement on many of these
However, history tells us that in the early longer films.
1920s, radio was still in its infancy and the
only other forms of in-home entertainment Super Attachment and Motor
was the gramophone or the piano, the Pathé
Baby provided a means of having motion pic- The larger open reels required a new
tures in the home at an affordable price. If the arrangement for screening, so Pathe produced
promotional material and reviews from the what they called a “super attachment”. This
time are any guide, the Pathé Baby projector consisted of a pair of arms, which fitted to the
was a popular item - selling over 20,000 units existing body of the projector. The feed arm
within the first few months. screwed to the top housing of the projection
head, while the take up arm was attached to the
rear of the base containing the dropper
resistance. Some modification to the existing
The Projector take-up chamber was needed to incorporate a
spring belt to drive the take-up.
The projector was a well engineered little
machine. It incorporated a 32 mm f 3.5 lens As the projector didn’t incorporate either a
and was available with a wide variety of feed or take-up sprocket, a simple form of
lamps and power options. The basic machine breaking was incorporated in the arms.
utilised a small 20 volt lamp, running off 110
volt mains via a dropping resistance housed in
the base of the machine. An external
additional resistance was available for 240 volt
operation, as well as a number of other options
for areas without mains power.

10 REEL DEALS December 2022