Pathescope
In Britain, 9.5 mm film, projectors and cameras were distributed by Pathescope Ltd. During the years leading up to the Second World War, and for some years after the war, the gauge was used by enthusiasts who wanted to make home movies and to show commercially made films at home. Pathescope produced a large number of home versions of significant films, including Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop cartoons, classic features such as Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail,and comedies by such well-known stars as Laurel and Hardy and Chaplin. A notable element in the Pathescope catalogue was pre-war German mountain films by such directors as G. W. Pabst and Leni Riefenstahl. Classics such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Dupont's Vaudeville attracted many film collectors.
Film for home cinematography was usually supplied in rolls approximately 30 feet (9 m) long and enclosed in a "charger" or magazine, but spool loading (50 ft/15 m or 100 ft/30 m) was also available. Pre-war the most popular film was Ortho reversal costing only about 23p per charger. After the war Panchromatic film became more usual, and around 1953 even Kodachrome I became available, though it took weeks to get it processed in Paris. Pathescope Colour Film (actually made by Ferrania) was introduced in the 1950s. A number of cameras and projectors were produced, the more successful including the Pathescope H camera and Gem projector. Optical sound was introduced for 9.5 mm in 1938, but efforts to produce a library of sound films were interrupted by the War. The optical track resulted in a rather square frame format for the picture.
After the war, the 9.5 mm gauge suffered strong competition from Kodak's 8 mm film, which was introduced in 1932. Notwithstanding the far poorer resolution of the 8 mm frame, which could hold only about a quarter of the information of the 9.5 mm or 16 mm frame, 8 mm was taken up by a wider public, partly because of the commercial power of its sponsors and the much lower cost of Kodachrome processed in England. Pathescope found itself struggling to hold its place in the market, and in 1959 there was a workers' buy-out and name change to Pathescope (Great Britain) Ltd., with links to French Pathe being broken. The new company produced a well-made 9.5 mm Prince camera made in England by Smiths Industries and a low-powered Princess projector, but the gauge was already doomed as a popular format, and in 1960 the firm went into liquidation. Nevertheless, the gauge has been kept alive by a dedicated group of enthusiasts who have used methods such as re-perforating 16 mm film to provide continued supplies of material.
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