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VARIOUS

SILENT 9.5MM  MACHINES

Cinegel Silent

Did you ever have one of those days? There was I, innocently trying to run a bit of 9.5 I'd just checked, repaired and cleaned. I thought, "What a good opportunity to try out that little Cinegel". So I did; all well, quite a bright pic I thought from the 250v 300w A1/37, tho' the projection lens leaves a bit to be desired tho' of course nothing else will actually fit. Then a sudden clonk. Funny, I thought. Stopped (First Commandment) and checked. Projector turning over OK, concluded I had joggled the projector (I was tensioning the feed reel by hand). Tried again, OK for a moment or two then big clonk and projector stops.

Nothing for it now but to take it apart. Above are the projector, then a naked rear view with the lamp housing detached, then a close-up of the claw mechanism (which looks quite a bit like a Vox claw). What had happened was that part of the condenser lens, ie one of the two elements, and the spring separating them, had fallen out into the mech. They were supposed to be held in place by a circlip affair, ie a springy bit of wire in a ring bigger than the hole, squashed to fit and so grip. Clear? The circlip was still in place, it was just not doing its job. How or why I know not, but the missing bits were still able to fall out when I re-fitted them.

So, into my trusty gander bag to find something to replace it. Remember one should never throw anything away (Second Commandment) ? Well, I keep all sorts, and found an odd bit of spring wire that turned out to be just right when bent to shape. That was the easy part. When I put the machine back together, narrowly avoiding forgetting to re-fit the drive pulley and belt, came to put the lamp back in and it wouldn't fit. I'd put the back element of the condenser in the wrong way round and it was fouling the lamp. Open it all up again, re-fit lens, then spot that I had broken off one of the lamp wires in all my fiddling. Re-solder, struggle to re-align lamp. Other end of wire breaks off. When I finally get it all back together ready to test, I found that, this time, I had not managed to avoid missing off the main pulley and belt. By the time I finally got it all working, I was a bit peeved. Not one of my better days.

This is an entirely different kind of Cinegel silent 9.5, kindly donated by David Whistler.

Here is the Rex I acquired in France; the Pathé logo on the lamphouse and the Rex badge on the front are about the only differences from the Eumigs.  (See Eumig Super in Son (ugh!) of Gallery). More badge engineering. Also a couple of pages from the instructions - rest still in progress, and in French, but added here for John Collins who has just acquired the Eumig Super version.

The Eumig PIII is apparently quite a rare 9.5 machine. There have been rumours of a notched version, which would have been a great boon. Any sightings?. Bob Andrews loaned me a somewhat foxed copy of the instructions, which I have tarted up and reproduce below.

Never seen one of these - it was stated to be a 9.5mm Emel, found on French eBay.

This is an 8mm Norris; I have the identical-looking 9.5 version, too. I found an original instruction leaflet, which I have tidied up for you.

The shape of the motor looks early.

Keystone is a name I usually associate with 16mm, but this one appears to be 9.5.That dome presumably covers a pilot light.

The second machine is one Dave Humphrey is restoring.

200B

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