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MY HIGHLY MODIFIED POWERS PROJECTOR

By Gary Hartley - A True Story!

My story began with a chance finding of a Powers 35mm projector head in a small
central Victorian town. I was checking out some 16 mm projectors there at the time
when I came across the Powers head, it looked awesome with it rear shutter guard and
60 mm lens barrel. I decided to acquire it for a static display, as it had been heavily
modified by Austral Argo, probably for Hoyts, when the talkies came out.

Sometime later I visited a fellow collector who just so happened to have a square top
spool box in excellent condition, although missing all the fittings, he donated it to me.
As I was about to leave he said “Oh, I think there’s an old sound head over there”. Sure
enough the sound head turned out to be a very early Raycophone from about 1930, with
a single sound sprocket. It was made especially for the Powers and fitted perfectly.
Several weeks later whilst visiting another old friend in another small town, I happened
to mention the Powers and the
Raycophone sound head. After
thinking for a moment he said I
think I may have some Powers
parts down in the shed. We went
down to a very old brick shed, it
had a dirt floor and a wide
doorway on one side. It was over
100 years old and was about 20
x 15 feet, like an old stable. The
shed was full of old furniture.

Then another surprise, in the
middle of all of the furniture
stood to two Raycophone
projectors, C&W heads, with
square spool boxes on top. At
one end was a film trunk, like
the storage ones used in the bio
box, it held about eight or nine
2000 foot reels of nitrate film.

It was now time to start
excavating to see what lay under
and below the thick layer of
dust. One dead rabbit, several

6 REEL DEALS December 2025