Advanced technologies may have rendered them museum pieces, but these marvels of engineering were made to last.
RCA Colour Broadcast Camera, Model TK-41C, 1954
Fearless Camera Company Panoram Dolly, c. 1940, with Houston-Fearless Cradle Head, date unknown
This camera was the first commercially produced for colour television; it was the industry standard for fifteen years. A beam-splitting prism directed the red, green and blue elements of the picture to their own three-inch-diametre image orthicon camera tubes. At 310 pounds, the weight of the camera head and viewfinder severely limited the camera’s mobility.
International Projector Corporation 35mm Simplex E-7, 1938, with RCA Photophone Soundhead, MI-9054A and Hall and Connolly Lamp, dates unknown
Western Electric Vitaphone System 35mm Universal Base Projector, 1927, with Vitaphone Soundtrack Disc for The Desert Song (1929)
The projector exhibited here was originally used at the Aldine Theatre in Philadelphia, and is one of the only surviving Vitaphone projectors that is still operational. It has both a phonograph player for soundtrack discs and an optical sound head built into the projector. The projector is set up as if it were going to screen a film using a soundtrack disc. The record player and projector as powered by the same motor, which makes it possible for the sound and image to play in synchronicity.
Nicholas Power Company 35mm Cameragraph No. 6B, with Universal Model a Soundhead, c. 1928
When talkies arrived, optical soundheads were added to existing silent film projectors, such as the Nicholas Power Company’s No. 6B. Shown here is the Model A Universal soundhead, which made licensed use of technology patented by the Jenkins and De Forest television companies.
Duplex Motion Picture Industries 35mm Step Printer, c. 1920
Manufactured in Long Island City, this step printer was an industry standard for many years. Print density could be controlled automatically.
Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York
May 13th, 2018
The Humble Fabulist 