Abandoned Projector

Smith. Uh, I'm the former general manager with Carmite Cinemas. I've been a projectionist for over uh 23 and a2 years. Uh, currently retired from my job in EMS and just uh enjoying a huge treat being able to see something uh this old um this ancient. Uh this is a carbon arc uh projector. Um what they did back in the day is um it would have a a carbon um rod which you could actually still see some of the carbon rod right here. Uh there's a negative and a positive end. it would uh create basically a uh light that would be thrown onto the u the screen or um I don't know back then if they actually use a screen or not but um ancient enough that um as the carbon would burn to create the light it would have to be adjusted uh because the carbon um would slowly shrink over time and that's what these are. uh these will be able to bring in closer or uh depending on the size if it's a brand new carbon stick um it would be a little bit further apart. Um eventually they did away with uh the carbon arcs and went to xenon bulbs which um most of the pro projectors used um up until several years ago when everything switched to digital. Um also uh it's likely that uh during the time of uh this projector's use that um nitrate film was used. And uh if anybody's seen the movie Glorious Bastards, um nitrate film uh is highly combustible. I was explaining uh earlier that um this combination right here would basically be like using gasoline and an open flame. Um it's likely too that um probably sometime in the 70s or 80s. Uh it's just a guess that um they would have stopped using this projector. But um for people that are cophiles that collect equipment um this would be a real nice showpiece or even um if this is kept on the premises would be nice to have um in a in a lobby setting. So as people are walking in, you know, maybe kids that were here in the 30s and 40s uh will realize that this is what they were watching their films on.