9.5MM M.E. IMPROVED

Grahame N's Web Pages

M.E. IMPROVED
9.5MM
CINE PROJECTOR

from Grahame L. Newnham B.Sc.

Roox Products,
Beech, Alton, Hants, UK

(Supplier of parts/plans)

At last, the mystery of the 9.5mm cine projector drawing seems to have been solved - by an item sold on UK ebay in February 2018 by a vendor in Bournemouth. The asking price of £95 rather put me off, but these days anything 9.5mm seems to fetch a great deal of money! Luckily there were four photographs which I have 'pinched' to use below.

From the plans and photos we can see that the 'M.E. Improved' was a 9.5mm cine projector kit derived from a supplier based near Alton, Hampshire, Southern England, UK. I guess the main castings and other components were supplied, with the customer perhaps assembling and finishing or making some of the other parts. The plan mentions that the design was by 'Kinemette'. As the date on the drawing is 1948, we can surmise that this machine would be from the late 1940s or early 1950s. I wonder just how many are still out there?

We can see that the projector had sprocket feed and take-up, taking up to 400 foot / 120 metre spools. The large base housed the electic drive motor and a transformer for the 50 watt lamp. A handle was fitted for manual drive. We can see that the lamp relied on natural draught cooling, so really no higher wattage lamp could be used. I recall that the Triplico machine (hardly more than a kit itself) also used a 50 watt lamp.

The body of the machine seems to be hinged onto the large base, providing a means of picture height adjustment. The lens has a helical mount for focussing. Spring belts provide the drive for take-up and feed spools, suggesting that power rewind was possible. The extra conversion parts means that it was intended to also run 16mm films.

Instruction (or construction!) booklet for the M.E. Improved 9.5mm kit cine projector

16mm conversion parts - with one sprocket missing

A page of the detailed plans

I would be grateful for any extra details or information about the M.E. Improved 9.5mm kit cine projector!

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Created 23Feb2018 .......... Last updated: 23 February 2018 ............ 95gearmeimproved.htm ............ © Grahame L. Newnham's web pages MMXV111