KALEE 7 35mm
The Kalee 7 projector we have comes from the Museum of Cinema Technology and once stood in the house at Bletchley Park. It has a pedigree in that it saw service during WW2 at Station X and was used for cinema performances, along with a mate, for entertainment of the large staff employed there on top secret work and their protectors.

A basic model 7 it was produced circa 1925 as a silent machine but like most of its day was easily adapted for optical sound heads. whether it had a Vitaphone unit is not known. The projector has a front shutter. It differed from its predecessors, Kalee 5’s and 6’s in that it has reconstructed gearing and a lubrication system. It is due for restoration.

The Kalee 7 was a widely known projector and used the world over. The model was first built in 1925 by the newly formed Kalee Company of Leeds (formerly the New Century collaboration) It was first built as a silent projector and differed from earlier models in the construction of its gears and lubrication system.

Built first as a silent projector the Kalee 7 was easily adapted for the ‘talkie’ age. Seen here is the front shutter arrangement which was a feature of the model. The photophone optical sound head is shown in close-up. Whether this particular projector would also have had a sound-on-disc unit is a matter for conjecture.