Projecting images of life

The projector in the foyer of the Heritage Centre is quite a mixture of technology, but typical of that used to project movies through the forties and fifties.

The oldest part is the Peerless Magnarc 'lamphouse', the back end of the projector where the light source was produced by a 'carbon arc' process. This used copper-coated carbon rods with their tips close to each other. When a low-voltage DC electric current was passed through them, they would generate a continuous bright 'spark' between their tips, just like an arc-welding machine. Each pair of rods would only last about 20 minutes, which was one reason why movies came in a number of reels, to be used alternately between the pair of projectors in a normal projection box.

The circular spout at the top of the lamphouse was connected to a flue to vent away the fumes and the excess heat. The little window on the side has dark glass, so that the projectionist could watch the arc without being blinded.

The Peerless Magnarc lamphouses were made by the Strong Electric Corp of Omaha, Nebraska, USA. This version is an early one, and was probably made sometime between 1936 and around 1946.

The next section forward is the projector, which held the film reels, the film transport mechanism, the heads for reading the sound track, and the lens housing. This one is a Kalee Model 19, a very popular projector made in Leeds, England. This one was made prior to 1943, because that year the business was bought by film production Gaumont-British and renamed Gaumont Kalee.

The 'Varamorph' lens at the front of this projector is not the original, but a special one produced from 1957 for The Rank Organisation to show 'anamorphic' wide-screen movies. Rank owned the optical manufacturing company Taylor, Taylor & Hobson which made the lens, and had already owned the Gaumont-Kalee company since 1947. Wide-screen lenses for showing Cinemascope and Vistavision films had been around since 1954, but the Varamorph provided a better end result when showing these movies.

Anyone who grew up in Kilcullen through the late forties/early fifties, and regularly played in the river at the back of what is today the Town Hall Theatre, will remember picking up discarded carbon rod stubs in the area.

I also recall helping the projectionist as a youngster (my father Jim Byrne then owned the cinema operation), sometimes changing the carbon rods, and also rewinding a used film reel while he operated the other projector.

Brian Byrne.