The Curzon Community Cinema, est. 1912
 
 
 
    
 
 
 
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Curzon Collection: 35 mm Kalee GK40


Ser. No. 40770
KALEE VULCAN Arc Lamp Ser. No. 40722
Western Electric Sound Unit

KALEE GK40 35mm
Fitted with a Kalee Vulcan Carbon Arc on a Kalee 40 base. The Sound Head is Western Electric.
The GK 40 is a post WW2 projector from Kershaw and because of its smaller stature it was often found in smaller locations such as hospitals and ‘shut in’ locations.
Generally it came as a complete installation as seen here but with a sound system to customers requirements. This projector has a Ross 4.75 inch lens as standard. There is also a sound balance control fitted to the front end of the Sound Head. There is also provision for fitting a Pyrene fire extinguishing facility to the spool box fire traps and the film gate.

This model last saw service in a North London institution where it is thought it spent most of it's working days.

A straight forward 35mm head with no special features. The importance of this model is that it shows a projector which is fitted with fire protection, as most were at one time. in the days of nitrate film, as it was highly flammable it was necessary to protect the film in both spoolboxes whilst running in case there was a fire in the film path as occasionally there would be. This equipment manufactured by the Pyrene Company used CO2 gas to snuff out the fire. When a fire broke out in the picture path the extinguisher would be activated forcing the gas through nozzles below and above the spool boxes as well as internally. Unfortunately little of this apparatus can be seen in the picture.

The Kalee GK40 VULCAN arc lamp, a well known light source, could be found on many different models of Kalee projectors. It is an efficient automatically controlled feed arc lamp with DC amperage in the 45-65 range.