Just in regard to factories and were are they now:-

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Vintage-Valve-amplifier-Raycophone-MA9-Tube-amplifier-/281342083579....

Found this on Ebay.

I dont know if it would be the first unit (maybe the only unit) but interesting to see anyway.

(BTW are those1 Watt resistors in the bottom? Noob question I know)

Suppose memories for some there...
Cheers

BTW are those 1 Watt resistors in the bottom?

At least. Maybe 2 watt. Resistors back then were high voltage, hence the length.

Very cool, this would have been the non sync system for a small country hall or travelling theatre. Non sync is a cinema term for the music before the film.

Ray Allsop designed and built some very nice cinema projectors from about this same era.

Thanks GTC for the answer

Really those days there was no electronics I guess that wasn't HV lest in the domestic sense.

I arrived at the Sunset of Valves so transistors is were I cut my teeth.

Yes Damien...not something you see too often pop up and I suppose would only appeal to a real collector so thought it might be of interest, Talking of Oz companies now gone kinda a niche market item.

Funny to think that supposedly we had a movie industry before Hollywood...chips (along with others I suppose) tried to rekindle that but sadly didn't work out so well.

Anyway memory lane for some and for others a salute to what we could do here... once upon a time.

Really those days there was no electronics I guess that wasn't HV lest in the domestic sense.

Yes, compared to transistors, vacuum tubes require comparatively high voltage in order to operate. Even those designed for battery-operated sets required at least 45 volts on the anode.

If you decide to do work on valve sets, keep the thought "danger, high voltage inside" firmly in your mind.

A friend gave me some history of Raycophone & Cinesound:

"I knew Ray Allsop. Raycophone was set up in Australia to combat the astronomical prices that RCA and Western Electric charged for their equipment. Like Cinesound's Arthur Smith and Bert Cross who built the film recording equipment as Cinesound could not afford the royalties that WE and RCA charged. They built an Australian version of the Oxberry printer too which had some of the visiting Yanks bamboozled as it would do things the American Oxberry couldn't. That was very amusing. These Hollywood stuffed shirts came out to look at Cinesound and were astounded at the antique equipment that they were using and achieving such high quality with. When they saw the Cinesound "Oxberry" they thought they were being had. It was built on a lathe bed and used two old silent cameras (modified of course) With bits of Meccano and sundry other things. Heath Robinson would have been proud of it. It might have looked funny but it not only worked but it could do things the Very flash and VERY expensive Oxberry could not. Much head scratching ensued no doubt."

The Cummings & Wilson and Raycophone set up undercut the price of the RCA Photophone and Western Electric systems by over a thousand pounds. Not a trivial amount of money at the time.

The J3 Raycophones were very popular at the country halls but weren't quite big enough for the larger screens. It seems like the larger cinemas that could afford it went with the US system. Much of the equipment installed before the war lasted until the end of the cinemas life.

Is it just me or does that look like a Western Electric output transformer ($$) sitting atop that Raycophone chassis?

This popped up in my Facebook cinema group feed. Thought you might enjoy it, there's radios in there too.

Inside Raycophone Factory (1935) Sydney, NSW.

Excellent find! I have one of the console radios that are pictured at the left on the final assembly line. I bought it in South Australia on way to collecting another radio which I won on Ebay.

What an amazing clip, not just about Raycophone but all radio manufacture in that era. I did my apprenticeship as a Fitter and Machinist many years ago, although I never worked in the trade it brought back some uncomfortable memories. The supervisor grabbing components off the machine to inspect reminded me of the Apprentice Master prowling the workshop.

My father was a toolmaker at the AWA Ashfield plant so it also gives me an insight into what he did. Incredible to think those soundheads were basically hand made in the days before automation, a credit to our manufacturing capability back then.

Yeah, a bit of a bullyboy workforce back then. Rows and rows of women assembling valves, coils and condensers, sitting on uncomfortable stools and earning bugger all whilst the 'heavies' stand sternly behind looking over their shoulders earning supervisor wages.

Boys, we are certainly paying for that these days!

a bit of a bullyboy workforce back then

During Depression lathe operator better be "turning that metal off blue" or he could find himself back out on Booth Street.

I have a couple of Australian made Cummings and Wilson 35mm cinema projectors with Raycophone sound heads. They are well built machines and still work well. Until last year I used to manage and operate a single screen cinema, the Palais Theatre in Franklin, Tasmania screening 35mm film. The Palais Theatre was first operated as a cinema screening silent films in 1912. It had sound equipment installed in 1930. As from January this year I can no longer obtain any new releases on 35mm film as it has now been discontinued. The cheapest quote I obtained for a DCP licensed digital projection system was $40,000. Unfortunately it was not viable to spend that amount upgrading the projection equipment for a single screen cinema in a country town.

Unfortunately it was not viable to spend that amount upgrading the projection equipment for a single screen cinema in a country town.

The type of fact easily forgotten by the big end of town. They bring in all this wiz-bang technology and offer no way for the smaller customers to migrate to it. It's like 4K televisions. It will be 15, maybe even 20 years before we can view any 4K programming on them and by that time those who have already invested in something with features that can't be used will need to replace all those first generation units.