Part of Ross Vitaphone Sound Projector
Part of Ross vitaphone sound projector. 35mm projector for sound on film or disc. Intermittent sprocket, 2 continuous sprockets. Sector shutter before lens, spool boxes, safety shutter, lamphouse with automatic feed carbon arc, sliding cut-out shutter. Added optical sound head with photocell. Mechanism connected by 2 universal jointed rods to Picturetone Sound System synchronizing gearbox, made by Ratcliffe Tool Co Ltd drive by electric motor, also driving turntable unit for sound on disc, all fitted on heavy metal base.
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Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one that was widely used and commercially successful. The soundtrack is not printed on the film, but issued separately on phonograph records. The discs, recorded at 331⁄3 rpm (a speed first used for this system) and typically 16 inches (41 cm) in diameter, are played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film is projected. The name "Vitaphone" is derived from the Latin and Greek words, respectively, for "living" and "sound".
- Object Number:
- 1990-5036/3504/1
- type:
- part of projector
- Image ©
- The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
