Oil for Philips 16mm (LYTAX)

[Gordon McLeod]

Ken that is correct about the view port used it many times. On the Cinemecanica verticals one would hold a compact mirror behind the lamp to allow one to see the convergance. The reason i mentioned it was a caution to people who have never worked with them

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Great suggestion Gordon. The older the technology the greater risk of damage through misunderstanding the engineering.

[Emiel de Jong]

I dug through some papers: Philips called this model simply FP16 indeed; there were some specific type numbers however: LCB 0016/.. suitable for arc lamp or xenon lamp house; LCB 0017/.. equipped with incandescent lamp 12v 150w ; LCB 0018/.. suitable for SPP lamp house; LCB 0019/.. equipped with 500w xenon lamp house.
The portable version of the FP16 was the EL5100 and before that there was the portable EL5000/EL5001 with a straight gate instead of a curved one. As far as I know all these models used the same "grooved-disc" intermittents, only the housing of the intermittent is slightly different in the EL5000.
About the recommended oil, going back in time:
-in a later FP16 manual they say 3672 oil.
-an earlier FP16 manual says "EL 4809=EP 90 oil".
-an EL5100 manual says also:"EL 4809 "90 EP" oil or equivalents: Shell Spirax 90 EP, Caltex Universal Thuban 90, Mobil Mobilube GX90, Esso XP Compound 90".
-an EL5000 service manual (I think from 1966) says the same and also warns to NEVER EVER use Molykote oil EL4805.
-a service sheet of 1960 says that for the EL5000 projector from now on Molykote oil M55 (=EL4805) will be used instead of EL4800.
-then a still older EL5000 manual says indeed "EL4800 graphited oil".
So I guess it is best to follow the most recent recommendation (the 3672 oil). And clearly something went wrong in the early 1960's with the Molykote oil. But why were all these different oils recommended after another, anyone has an idea? Or were there maybe differences in construction (materials?) of the intermittent?

[Stefan Scholz]

The oil is an H 46, or MG 68, both do work. And that's between SAE 15 to 20. Tellus 37 became Tellus 337, and then international standardized denomination.
Do not think about the lamphouse. It's absolute crap. When I was young, I watched 70 mm on that lamphouse on a 66 ft screen, in a Todd AO theatre. 70mm screenings were always way inferior to 35mm in our city district theatre. When I got the theatre, I knew why. Norelcos, Cine Apergons, these lamps. Changing for Isco curved field, and modern horizontal 5 kW Kinotone lamps, suddenly the image was perfect.
I did not expect anything, when I saw it on the FP 16, and was right. 20" screen width, 1.3 kW, no lux. Lens Isco 20 - 60 mm. So don't think too much about it. I know, it will get a modern lamp fitted, like on the FP 18.