Home

To today's enthusiasts, with full color, wide-screen images and full surround sound available in the home, these rather simple little projectors with their dimly lit half metre wide, silent image, must seem to be nothing much more that a toy.

Released in the early 1920s when radio still in its infancy and the only other forms of in-home entertainment was the gramophone or the piano, the Pathé Baby (sometimes referred to as the Home Movie) presented a means of having motion pictures in the home at an affordable price. If the promotional material and reviews from the time are any guide, the Pathé Baby - Home Movie projector was a popular item - selling over 20,000 units within the first few months.

Sub-standard gauge film and projectors were not new in the 1920s; a variety of film sizes had been tried and mostly fallen by the wayside in the preceding years. Only Pathé's 28 mm gauge (1912) had made any impact, basically because it was supported by a large range of films that could be hired or bought outright.

Pathé's 9.5 mm system was introduced in 1922, at first just the projector and a fairly large range of films were offered - the camera came later.

The films were captive in small metal cassettes, of about 40 mm in diameter, each holding about 30 feet of film. At the “normal” Pathé Baby silent hand turned speed of about 14 frames per second, the run time of each film would have been about 80 seconds - but there was a twist - the Notched Title System.

This involved a special mechanism in the projector, which detected a notch cut in the side of the film. When detected, the projector declutched the claw assembly, which stopped the film in the gate, showing just the single frame. The system was used for all titles, as well as any static scenes in the film. The operator kept winding the crank handle and after about 7 turns, the equivalent of 14 frames, the claw would re-engage and the film would start to advance again. If it was deemed that the title or scene contained too much information to be read in the time the claw was declutched, then not to worry, the title would be printed on the next frame as well, and another notch inserted to stop the film a second time.

One of the films in my collection is a tour of the Louvre Museum in Paris, which of course contains many scenes of paintings - well you guessed it, there are many notches in that film and my guess is that it runs for close to 8 minutes - not bad for 30 feet of film.

The second generation of the Pathé Baby projectors were designed to take the larger 60 foot enclosed cassettes, and at a later time again, Pathé introduced 300 foot “Super” reels, also with notched titles and at the same time their “Super Attachment” to enable these little machines to hold the 300 foot reels. Motors and a variety of other extras became available during their lifetime.

You might be wondering why the film could be stopped in the gate and not go up in smoke - well the Baby had a very modest lamp - it was 20 volts at 6 watts - hardly a high power machine. The small lamp and modest condenser system did not hit the film with much heat, so it could be left stationary for long periods without damage.

The Pathé 9.5 mm Notched Film System - An article from a past edition of REEL DEALS

Illustrations: Author's collection.

In the 1930s Pathé introduced a number of other projectors - the Lux was the only additional machine they produced which had automatic de clutching and re-engaging for notched titles. This machine was motorized and incorporated an 80 volt 40 watt lamp. When the machine stopped to show a single frame, a heat absorbing gauze shutter dropped into the light path and although the image became duller, the film was safe from overheating.

Pathe continued to utilise the notch system in later model projectors, these models would stop when a notched title was encountered - but required the operator to re-engage the mechanism manually.

All of the films were printed down from Pathe's 35 mm cinema releases; the quality was generally very good, with sharp steady images. Notched films offer some interesting viewing, many of the films depict life as it was in the first 20 years of the last century, and many were never re-released with running titles or on other home formats.

The only down side to collecting notched films is that many people could not resist the temptation to increase the light output of the projector by the fitting of larger wattage lamps - the effect of course was that many notched title films have been 'cooked', resulting in warping of the film base or at worse the entire title frame burnt beyond recognition

There are many Pathé Baby projectors in existence, as they were marketed in their various forms with ongoing improvements until they were eventually withdrawn for the Pathé catalogue in 1935. Estimates put the number produced at 300,000.

The Pathé Lux (Latin for light) is a much rarer machine, due to its higher initial price and the short time it was on the market. The first version used an unstable zinc alloy for its gate assembly - these occasionally turn up - they are fine as a display item but useless for projection. The much rarer, second version incorporated a nickel plated, pressed brass gate and are a nice machine to own and will enable the projection of notched films at their best.

Above: Film path - Pathé Baby projector

Heavy line - First notch and corresponding frame.

Thin line – Second notch and corresponding frame.

The Pathé Baby from above – showing the notch title mechanism.

Pathé enclosed film cassettes L: 60 ft. R: 30 ft.

Above: The Pathé Baby projector

Home Page