Mutoscope Repair/Restoration

[SavannahLion]

Not an arcade game, but I thought some of you might be interested. This is a side project so time isn't a real concern.

This came from a local museum. Donated to them by a local who took it out of his car and said, "it's yours. It's broken. It's free." Then drove away.



Charlie Chaplin looks awfully pissed...

I saw it on the floor shoved into a pocket display and after a short conversation, I offered to try and repair it for free. Now, before any of you get into, "that's dumb." Yeah, you're probably right, but this guy was a very good friend of my dad, going all the way back to the Olympics when they were both on the U.S. team. Ever see Grumpy Old Men? Yeah, it's like that.

So I loaded it up into the back of my truck and brought it all the way home. For something this small, it's damn heavy.

First order of business, reduce the weight so I can work with it. It comes part in two pieces.

On a bed of carpet.


Holy crap... good thing I didn't plug this in first. The cord was exactly in this condition. Bare wire and all. Cell phone clip not part of the deal.

I did figure the cord wasn't the original. I was guessing this box came from sometime around the 1930's or so. Grounded cord and plug weren't exactly the standard then. Makes sense since cords from this era tended to fray if they were silk woven or crack if they were the rubber type.


The two holes in the center line up perfectly with the crack in the wood. I thought this meant this was worked on previously and new holes offset tapped. To my surprise, there are NO corresponding center-line holes under the box.

This means this isn't the original stand.... interesting.... Not shown in the pictures is that this thing has at least one original lock (stage right allowing access to the internal guts) and a coinbox lock which I believe is not original. I was given a set of keys, but they're for an entirely different machine.


Take a shot of the plate (the only other identifier is on the viewer, and a number stamped into the door).

Didn't take long to find some relevant, albeit of minimum content, links.
Wikipedia has a blurb on the company.

A Google image search turns up some interesting soft porn and pictures.

Someone photographs the exact machine in the wild, different colors and the locks have obviously been replaced, however there is ZILCH about it. The search continues.

Another collection of photos, but no description.

OK, let's try a new search. Let's Google Mutoscope Repair

OK...

This shows it's a small S-Model. Just as I suspected, the stand is different, taller even.
$2,500!?! $125 for the replacement gear?? How many cabs do you think I can build for that kind of money. 

More good pics, but no information.

My Search-Fu is exhausted. I'll try searching different terms later. My current problem is getting inside the machine. I would really appreciate a forum or something with guys who work on these types of machines... anyone?

If my guess is right and the coin box lock isn't original, out comes the drill and a new lock from somewhere. If the lock is original (as I suspect the maintenance door to be), I'd rather not ruin the lock. I have plenty of time to get in the box.

[yotsuya]

I've very intrigued!

[SavannahLion]

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 Hamilton
Bud 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. 

[SavannahLion]

Stuck at home today with a sick kid and finishing up the lame drywall job (I hope it passes inspection).

I checked out the reel again. Sadly, I found that it's not just the first five frames with the Mutoscope patent information (no copyright), I realized the last two or three frames of the film is ruined beyond repair. The 10 or so preceding frames of the film are also damaged (torn almost in half) but apparently repairable. I figure if I can get a scrap of Kozo paper and some rice starch glue. If you have no idea how it's done, here is one such page that describes the process.

I'm not sure if I'll bother with a repair like that on the reel. It requires vast amounts of patience as some paper repairs can span days or weeks just in the preparation alone. But new reels are around $900 and old stock is likely just as damaged. Another way would be to take the entire reel apart. frame by frame, scan them in, then reprint onto similar card stock and rebuild the reel. If I can get the metal parts, I would feel better about doing the whole thing. That would be a long project, might as well solder 1.5 million 0603 LED's by hand. Let's set that aside, shall we?

So I was looking at the cash box and looked over the keys again. For some strange reason I tried the key again and... it worked! What the hell?? It's like the damn USB port and the fourth dimension. Cash box has some rust, so that's going to get its own treatment. The no way is cashbox lock original. Looks like a round peg in a square hole from the inside.

I tried the side lock key and it worked too. Ah well, at least I boned up on my lock picking skills. 

The mechanics seem to work well. There's about a dollar's worth of dimes and a dime sized washer in the bottom and in the cash box and I fed one to the machine. Interesting mech. Rotating the handle turns a paddle that free wheels without the dime. The dime acts as a clutch (is that the right term) that stops the paddle and moves the motion into clutch to engage a worm gear (the funny lever on the left). Once the worm is engaged, the penny is released and drops into the coin box. The worm gear turns the main wheel (the reel), and engages a switch to power the scary light (more on that later). If you stop turning the crank or reverse it, the worm gear automatically disengages and, I assume, the light is turned off. Turn it the right way and the worm gear is re-enaged.

The light is damn scary. Looks like a bad rework. A long twisted and bent piece of metal and a small block of formica or bakelite as the insulator is the mount. A copper spring screwed into the block is soldered to the outer jacket of a bare socket. A pair of dirt old fabric jacketed wire is soldered to the spring and to the socket base. One leads directly to the 120v line, the other leads to what I assume, is a hidden switch behind the gears which has a wire going to the 120v. A careful scan of the wire shows several points of bare metal where the jacket has worn away or simply just rotted. The white wire "hack" job looks like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. It's no wonder this just fell apart. I also found splashes of solder inside. Damn ---uvula---.

There's no question I can't let this go back to the museum in this condition. Keep the crazy 120v line or rebuild a new circuit and use a step down to a more reasonable voltage. Should run cooler too. I'm tempted to convert to LED, but that's not a good idea here. Maybe CCL, but I better look into how CCL's work before I do a conversion.

The reel doesn't stay in place because the linchpin is gone. Might be another plate to hold it in place, like a giant washer, not sure about that yet. There is also a linchpin or two missing from a brass "paddle" that flips the pages. If the stupid ---uvula--- who got into this last time actually bothered with putting the linchpins back after doing the ---smurfy--- rewire, the reel would probably be in better shape.

[SavannahLion]

Oops.... CCL's are actually CCFL. Out of the question.

[yotsuya]

Awesome read! Thanks for sharing!