What was this film machine?
February 10, 2010 10:07 AM Subscribe
What was this film viewing machine I used in the 80s?
This recent question reminded me of something I used to do in 1st grade in the early 80s. I have never seen anything like this before, and have no idea what it was called.
Our library had this little machine, about the size of a small microwave, which played short filmstrips. It had a small screen and headphones, and was designed for one person to watch. The machine was all metal, and didn't seem "modern" like the machine in that other question. The films were just a few minutes long, and I remember them being stored in canisters like the ones camera film come in. I was able to change the filmstrips myself, so it must have been a fairly simple process. I remember being told to carefully line up the sprockets so it would work right. I remember watching a few different films, but the one I recall most clearly had a bunch of teens in the early 60s smashing up an old car as part of some sort of high-school festival. All of the films seemed to be from around the same time period.
Does anyone else remember something like this? I think about it sometimes but my googling has been for naught. It would be fun to see it again.
This recent question reminded me of something I used to do in 1st grade in the early 80s. I have never seen anything like this before, and have no idea what it was called.
Our library had this little machine, about the size of a small microwave, which played short filmstrips. It had a small screen and headphones, and was designed for one person to watch. The machine was all metal, and didn't seem "modern" like the machine in that other question. The films were just a few minutes long, and I remember them being stored in canisters like the ones camera film come in. I was able to change the filmstrips myself, so it must have been a fairly simple process. I remember being told to carefully line up the sprockets so it would work right. I remember watching a few different films, but the one I recall most clearly had a bunch of teens in the early 60s smashing up an old car as part of some sort of high-school festival. All of the films seemed to be from around the same time period.
Does anyone else remember something like this? I think about it sometimes but my googling has been for naught. It would be fun to see it again.
Response by poster: No, I've used microfilm and microfiche machines since then, and this was different. It was much smaller and had sound and motion.
posted by apricot at 10:14 AM on February 10, 2010
posted by apricot at 10:14 AM on February 10, 2010
I do remember around 1975 watching 8 mm cartridge movies of the moon landings on a machine like this one [PDF] in our elementary school library, except instead of projecting on a wall, it had a self-contained viewing screen. It was simple enough to where kids could work the machine. Was that it?
posted by crapmatic at 10:14 AM on February 10, 2010
posted by crapmatic at 10:14 AM on February 10, 2010
Best answer: Something like a Labelle Commpak, or Technicolor or Fairchild film loop player? We had one of these in high school, and I remember watching a tedious film about the life of the pomatoceros worm.
posted by scruss at 10:57 AM on February 10, 2010
posted by scruss at 10:57 AM on February 10, 2010
Best answer: It could also be a Dukane viewer. They were very common in public schools in the 1970s and 80s.
posted by yellowcandy at 11:27 AM on February 10, 2010
posted by yellowcandy at 11:27 AM on February 10, 2010
I'm seconding yellowcandy. We knew them as just "filmstrip projectors". Sometimes there was a cassette tape that went with them and you had to advance the filmstrip at the beep. I remember teachers using them for groups and there were individual ones as well with the headphones. They did come in the canisters you described. The group ones had two power buttons, one for the lamp and one for the fan. You had to be sure to turn the lamp off and let the fan run a while to cool the bulb down.
posted by NoraCharles at 12:42 PM on February 10, 2010
posted by NoraCharles at 12:42 PM on February 10, 2010
Filmstrip players only showed static images. The film for that was 35mm and generally stored in film tubes. There were the cartridge-type projectors which played 8mm with built in sound but those were the ones crapmatic linked to.
posted by JJ86 at 1:28 PM on February 10, 2010
posted by JJ86 at 1:28 PM on February 10, 2010
Response by poster: Dukane is ringing a bell so I think that might be it! Those don't look quite like what I remember, but maybe my school had a different model.
Thanks, guys! I was a shy child, and hiding out in the library and watching old movies was one of my favorite things to do.
posted by apricot at 1:47 PM on February 10, 2010
Thanks, guys! I was a shy child, and hiding out in the library and watching old movies was one of my favorite things to do.
posted by apricot at 1:47 PM on February 10, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 10:11 AM on February 10, 2010