PAIGNTON PICTURE HOUSE	SAVE PAIGNTON'S HISTORIC CINEMA

SITUATED IN DEVON, ENGLAND—IT IS ONE OF THE OLDEST PURPOSE BUILT CINEMAS

The technology & Projectors This picture was taken in the projection room of Paignton Picture House in 1980, when it contained two Westrex machines, with western electric sound, and zenon lamps providing the light source. The film was loaded on to a long running tower system sited behind the projectors. As far as we know some of this equipment is still there, but after all this time could well be beyond repair.

The Paignton Picture House started with hand operated POWERS STRAIGHT EIGHT, which used a four pin intermittent system to pull the 35mm film past the arc lamp light source. Being the forerunner of moving pictures, slides were still shown, with short black and white moving films shown in between. Sound was often provided with a piano, but as films became longer with more story, a twenty one piece orchestra would play adding another dimension to the film being watched. The live sound of the orchestra would have been far superior to the first talking pictures which were to follow in the late 20s.

The next machines to arrive in 1919 were two INDOMATBLES which were motor driven with low intensity arc lamps. In these early days the electricity supply was not up to today’s standard, and often the striking and running of the arc lamp would cause major problems with other parts of Paignton town. A small film library was also in the cinema at this time and would lend films to other cinemas.

Not long after, in the early 1920s, the INDOMATBLES were replaced with two GAUMONT CHRONOs (green backs). Still being silent machines, these projectors were not around long before the next big change - the coming of sound. ERNIMAN 3, picture heads coupled with MICRAPHONIC sound on disc and WESTERN ELECTRIC SOUND using the new optical sound system which would last in one form or another right up to today. Sound had arrived. The piano and orchestra were no longer wanted; to see and hear people talking, sound effects, and all the other sounds that we hear around us every day would now be brought into the cinema and would open up the unlimited world of storytelling.