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Hi all, I just bought this bizarre 35 mm portable projector. I looked on the internet to find information on it, but only came up with digital storage devices, nothing on this projector. I could really use an instruction manual for this. And what this was used for. Any information on this would be great. Thank you, Rick
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I'm going to go waaaay out on a limb here- - but I once saw a device like this that was used to train
land-based anti-aircraft gunners on learning to distinguish between friend or foe aircraft when you
only had a second or less to distinguish which was which.
Think of this: The only glimpse of an aircraft a that ground level gunner might get during a night battle
is when it was lit up for only a second or two by shells exploding nearby, or by 'flash burst shells' which
lit the sky for a few seconds. So, the instructor would have some 35mm fillm-strips with (still) images
of enemy and friendly aircraft. These would be briefly flashed on the screen for about 1sec or perhaps
a fraction thereof. The student had a multiple choice answer sheet where they would checkoff the type
of aircraft they thought they briefly saw. Sometimes this was simply a multiple choice text-based answer
sheet, or more elaborate ones might have small reproductions of the same aircraft image that was briefly
flashed on screen, and the student would have to put a check mark on the same image they thought they
saw. The purpose was not only to identify "whose' aircraft it was, but also the type. (Such as being able to
distinguish between an lightly armed reconnaissance aircraft, that was just taking surveillance photos,
and a bomber that might be heading off to a bombing mission)
Again, - I'm not 100% sure that's what you've got, but I saw a similar system in the 1970's
that was used for a purpose like I described above. That would be my guess of what you've got.
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Made in Chicago and portable, my first guess would be DeVry. Maybe a special wartime corporation to service the military (USN in this case)?Comment
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UPDATE: I did a little online research and I also consulted with a guy I know who is a semi-expert in
Naval operations from WWII and beyond. (He was actually IN the USN at one point and worked as
a ship's electrician, and he currently spends much of his spare time on weekends, doing volunteer
work on the USS Jeremiah O'Brien, one of the last fully restored and functioning WWII "Liberty Ships"
docked here In San Francisco.) [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Jeremiah_O%27Brien ]
>He confirmed that my assumptions about what the device is and what it was used for were
correct. It was "used to train sailors (and soldiers) in 'rapid ship and aircraft identification' ".
Slightly different versions of this projector were made for both the US Navy, and the US Army. DeVry
was one of several manufacturers who had a contract to build them. (This is very similar to the US
Military's 16MM JAN Projectors, which were manufactured in slightly different versions for the Army
& Navy, by both DeVry, Bell & Howell, and a couple of other manufacturers. - - But they were basically
the same projector. The Navy JAN versions were painted 'battleship grey' & were built and lubricated
and had mechanisms that were sealed to stand up to the harsh, damp & salt-air conditions one
would find aboard a ship. The Army's versions (at least in WWII) were painted "Army Green" - -and
were built to survive being bounced around in Jeeps & other transport vehicles, and even dropped by
air, esp during the Vietnam era. At some point, I think in the late 50's or early 60's the JAN's were all
manufactured in that 'battleship grey-ish" color for both the Army & Navy. )
BONUS PICTURE
Here's an actual filmstrip (in the original container!) that would have been used in your Flash
Projector-thingy, that I found on e-bay. ( Jim Sez: "sooner or later everything shows up on e-bay")
FLASH-FILM.jpg
> If anyone here is ever in SF, a trip to see & tour the USS Jeremiah O'brien, and the
nearby WWII submarine USS Pampinito is really a fascinating way to kill a couple of
hours, and well worth the time spent. Link to the J O'B ship is in one of the paragraphs
above, and here's one for the PAMPINITO https://maritime.org/uss-pampanito/
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Jim is right on the money! MPE was an industrial audio-visual manufacturer amongst dozens in the industrial city of Chicago, very little information remains on the company. It was not affiliated with DeVry however, and made a variety of products mainly in the 1930s through the 1950s. Victor mfg in Davenport IA was the pioneer in suitcase 35mm projectors, MPE made the flash (basically a time delayed stop motion projector) as well as early gunnery visual identity trainers that employed 16 and 35mm film and resembled early tv sets with a large opaque glass screen the images were projected on, I donated one to the local county museum, it used shorts lengths of 35mm film with the various images of 'friend or foe' aircraft as still pictures and the screen glass was 28" wide by 28" high and it had a multiple mirror set to make the image large, the oak cabinet stood 4 feet high by 3 ft wide by 3 ft deep! a primitive ye useful device designed for individual use, your machine was designed for classroom, briefing room or group use, a neat old relic! if i am not mistaken, it uses a vacuum tube delay circuit for setting time between exposures.Comment
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