I hate working on drywall. Even worse, I hate it when building code
requires drywall
underneath water heater stands. But the thing I hate the most above everything else? That when the

water heater leaks, you have to rip off the drywall to prevent mold from forming. Then the building inspector requires you to put it back. What asinine brain dead butt

passed this requirement?
Modern building code has two avenues of thought. One that makes sense. Building code allows for something called a water heater closet that can be installed in sensible locations around the house, like just on the other side of a wall from.. I dunno... your bathtub. The alternative is to put the damn thing into a garage on a stand in order to delay or slow down a fire. My garage, to my surprise, is partially encapsulated in thin sheet metal. Which is why I can't hang anything from the damn ceiling, there's no real joists. So a sensible builder will build the water closet and make it look nice. My dad did this in the house I grew up. A dumb

cheap

bastard will put it in the garage to save a few bucks on construction costs.
That's what I was trying to avoid in the garage tonight when I decided to work on the Mutoscope for a while.
I needed to pick the lock. So I watched a video on "How to Use Bobby Pins"
before I realized the ---smurfette--- don't know nothin'.

Alright, so I stole some bobby pins from my 14yr old... or maybe they belong to my wife.... whatever. It's funny. After you steal the girls bobby pins, they tend to stop asking why you need them and start hiding them. But voila! I found two in the bottom of the "Scrunchie" drawer... yes... we have three "woman" drawers in the bathroom. Scrunchies, those hair band things and everything else. Then there's the medicine cabinets, the weird place under the sink no one wants to use and a plastic box. Me? As long as I got my towel, I'm set.

<~~ this is the female this is the male ~~>

. Which ends up with me on the receiving end of the beatings....
So by 10PM and two bobby pins in hand, I decided to pick the lock. At first, I thought it was painted shut so I used a screw driver to gently twist the lock to see if it was stuck. To my delight it shifted just a tiny bit, enough play to tell me the paint wasn't gumming up the works at least. And what little twist I felt, felt smooth. Like the mechanics inside haven't rusted. In the end, there isn't much ofa story to tell. I sat there in the dim light and in about ten or fifteen minutes to get the feel of the lock, I had it open. Not exactly cat burglar skills, but I did have fond memories in high school with some devilish pranks.
The inside of the Mutoscope, I already removed the reel. It'll take quite a bit of time and research to figure out what's going on with the mechanism and how it all works. I strongly suspect at least one or more pieces are missing. and at least one may be damaged. The lever on the left, in the shadow, has a funny bend to it. I'll take better pictures when the sun comes out.

Extreme closeup. Yeah, I doubt that's original wiring there. I also found a small candelabra light bulb in the shape of a flame just sitting in the bottom along with a few dimes (I didn't count them up yet). Notice the lack of paper bits. Hold that thought.

The movie reel. Sadly, about 5 frames or so have been irreparably damaged because the reel wasn't locked into place properly. I suspect a piece is missing on the sprocket that locks the reel in place. I don't know yet until I study it some more. As a consolation, the damage doesn't appear to be my fault as I moved this thing about. If it was, there should be far more paper bits in the bottom of the machine. Even better, the damage appears to be limited to only the Mutoscope ownership/copyright frames. The film appears to be untouched.


It's not obvious from the picture, but the reel is worn to a degree. Not anywhere like what I've seen on the Mutoscope in San Francisco. My only other experience with the machine in the wild. I hope that some of the preservation techniques I picked up in one of my job will help here. We'll see.
A quick glance at the film, flip book style, shows no title that I can find. I didn't really look at the whole reel though. Did they ever include the title in there? Interestingly, every other "frame" is blank. I can only guess this is to cover the image when it's not in use. When I thumb the film backwards, the blank frames appear. When I thumb it the right way, the film appears. According to one fan site, the film "slips" backwards when not in use forcing the blank sheet to appear. Newer Mutoscope models have a shutter.
But I digress. It appears to be two dudes fighting over a car and some sort of chase scene. Naturally, there's a pretty gal involved. Not a major fan of old films but I have spent many a night watching old films on late night while playing with LEGOs on the floor. Saying, "... Pow! Straight to the Moon!" got me in heaps of trouble as a kid

This, however, was not a short I've ever seen on any show. Nor did I recognize the actors/actress involved. It certainly was
not Charlie Chaplin
Hhmm... Arcade eerr.... Mutoscope(?) ops probably can't always remember what's on location and if the reels are sitting in a box, they're not going to spend time trying to figure out which Marquee goes with what reel. There should be a marker of some sort?
An extreme closeup of a stamp on the sprocket. Ahha! There is!

OK.... "Subject No. 7434" That's a start. A quick search of "Mutoscope films" turned up a list at
http://www.oldtimemovies.org/portfolio.html and a downloadable XLS file.
Film No. 7434 is
HAM AND BUD "BIG GASOLINE FAKE!"Ah... OK, there's a car and a fight. That makes sense but who the hell is Ham and Bud? Sounds like two beer brands.
Again Google is my friend and turns up the following names:
Lloyd HamiltonBud Duncan... he looks a tiny bit like Charlie Chaplin, especially with that mustache.
Ahh... So how about if we can get a hold of the film itself? Let's try Youtube with the following search terms.
Hamd and Bud.. lots of hits. Let's narrow that down.
ham & bud gasoline... too restrictive
Lloyd Hamilton... much better but still no dice.
Let's try just straight up Google. Maybe the Library of Congress has a digital copy in their archives or whatever.
and....
Nothing... not even worth posting links or any interesting websites as they all point to his DVD collection or to the Youtube stuff

It's 11:30 pm and I gotta bail. Have to finish that damn drywall.
