Super Rural 2

SR 1 SR 3 BB1 BB2 Home Talkie Rural Sonore

SUPER RURAL 2

 The Super Rural is another example of the idiosyncrasy, if not downright peculiarity, of the French Pathé design team.   In fact, the more I look at it, the more it seems as if they just made it up as they went along. Left is a view of the   complete thing, much modified by a previous owner, and after work by me to try to recover some of the damage (see    Super Rural 1. I have done more since. The top spool arm extension (fully reversible!) is mine; I have seen pix of other machines with similar adaptions. Somehow, one can just get a 2000' reel on the lower arm). Nonetheless, it gives the general idea. Many of the  other shots are from a second, much more original, example I have, but which but which originally did not got a base at all. I was lucky enough to acquire one separately. The net result is the pix below are a mix of different stages of repair and hybrids, like the second machine on the first machines base, right.  

The machine is in three basic modules:- 

- a large amplifier casing, approx 10"W x 17"L x 9""H, which sets the optical centre-line of the machine well above the norm. It suggests a huge amp, as the lamp is 110v mains and there is no tranny to take up space. Sadly, the original amp had been totally (and I do mean totally) destroyed by the time I got the first machine. This casing serves as the base for:-

- the main mechanism, to the front of which attaches:-

- the spool arm module. This carries the third sprocket and the lens, and provides a direct drive by gear and shaft to the take-up spindle. I have pulled this away as far as possible from the main mech to show how it fits and the spiral gear from the mech which drives this module.

This modular approach would enable the machine to be broken down for transport, initially to the operator and then by him between locations. Pathé Rural supplied their machines in very solid wooden crates; I have crates for both Rural (Rex) and Rural Sonore.

 The lamphouse has a metal plate on the front, secured by four screws. Behind this is access to   the lamphouse, as one would expect. Mais Non! Behind the plate is solid metal! The only access to   the lamphouse is from above. The lamp is in what one could call a cassette, an arrangement I have   never seen before. Presumably, one carried a spare cassette for a quick change of a hot lamp in the middle of a show. The lamp is a standard pre-focus base and it is rather fiddly to change the one actually in the cassette. The two pix show the cassette removed and sitting on top of the lamphouse. The contacts for the lamp can be seen, also the very large mirror. All this suggests a professional machine (for professional local people), so why only limited top spool arm capacity (you can just squeeze 1600' onto the lower one)? 

The lamp cassette has a rim that rests on the top of the lamphouse, over two locating screws (visible in RH pic above). Over this again fits the odd, forward-facing lamphouse cap (no, it won't go on the other way round), the whole being secured by two knurled nuts. Below the protruding front of the cap is a small louvered grille, venting air from the fan up towards where the cap vents it down. This I do not understand. What I also do not understand is why it has taken me so many years to notice, as I only just have, that Pathcope's publicity pix  for the Super Talkie seem to show a slightly different machine - it has no lamphouse cap and has a louvered grille in the side of the lamphouse.

For the ultra-nerd, here are the two sides of a leaflet acquired at Argenteuil. The interesting point (for me!) comes on the first page. If you look closely at the two projector pix, it would appear that the solid side of the lamphouse has been replaced by a simple sliding door. This obviates the need for the cassette to hold the lamp, that I have described previously. Also interesting ( to the ultra-nerd!) is the question of date. One might have expected the change to come with the switch to 16mm, but it would appear that either the original cassette idea had a short life or there were two types running concurrently. This may well be so, as I have a 16mm Type 45 (16mm) that still uses the cassette. The page from a Pathescope Monthly clarifies not at all.

          

We now move on to one of the oddest parts of the machine, the gate. Here are close-ups of the gate closed, part open for threading (it locks open and is released by that thin lever above the gate close to the lamphouse), and swung fully out, presumably for better access for cleaning. To me, this seems like a very cramped arrangement, with lot of little fiddly bits crammed in. The horizontal distance between the rear of the top sprocket and the plane of the film is no more than 15mm (less than 0.75"), giving a very tight top loop. You can see in pic 1 below the single screw that holds the rear gate assembly in place; the only other fastening can be seen in the top view (pic 4), a knurled knob. The channel arrangement is clear in pic 2, also one can see that there are springs outside the gate channel as well as inside. Pic 3 also shows the way the mech casing has had to be shaped and cut away to let the lens get close enough to the gate. The lens barrel is Debrie size, but I have not yet been able to make a Debrie lens go far enough back to focus. There is evidence also of twiddles to deal with unexpected problems, eg the strip of metal below the second sprocket and the pin below the gate both, presumably, to stop the film getting where it shouldn't.