Pathe Babe 9.5mm films

Published

July, 2025

A while ago we were given a box containing quite a few silent 9.5mm films for a Pathé Baby. The films were in mini cassettes and had to be removed before we could run them. PPT member Peter England carefully removed one and ran it on his 9.5mm machine and copied it to video.

The films were very short, and to save film the titles were only a couple of frames each. Where text or a still frame was wanted, a notch in the film sent the Pathé machine into still frame. This enabled the titles to be read before the projector was manually switched to run mode until the next title.

Peter’s machine, being a modern (?) 9.5mm one, did not have this pause facility. Consequently, he sent it to Dion Hanson, who put it on his video editing software and added more still title frames where required. The results are here for you to see. The film is called ‘Telephotographer’ and shows what must be the earliest fax machine called a Belinogram. No doubt named after the inventor!

PPT member Fred Fullerton has produced a version with music and commentary, which can be viewed on YouTube.

Peter tells me that as the film had been in its canister for a long time it was coiled up like a spring and took some two hours to copy. But I think the results are really good and allow us to view the film today. Only another twenty or so cassettes to go!