First video: Between 0:26-0:42 shows Model T engines and parts. The generator mount housing can be seen bolted to the engine blocks lying on their sides. Generator housings can also be seen overhead as they pass by. This is what Brent is probably referring to. I see this kind of mix 'n match all the time when factory films are inserted in TV documentaries by non-automotive savvy editors. One such show I saw on the History Channel jumped from 1930 scenes to '26-27 Model T engines moving down the line on a conveyer belt - and then back again. '26-27 transmission are easy to spot because of their oblong clutch and brake pedals. Oops!
In regards to the comment about the action sometimes seeming to be slightly speeded (sped?) up, this can usually be explained by the different speeds that silent and sound projectors showed the films. In the silent era, movie house projectors fed film through the sprockets at 16 or usually 18 frames per second (FPS), depending upon the speed the film had been cranked through the camera, as well as special instructions from the film company requesting a certain speed for some scene. When sound tracks on film (magnetic and optical) began to take over beginning in 1928, there was a problem making the recorded track sound natural. By increasing the projector's speed to 24 frames per second, the audio quality was improved, much as old reel-to-reel tape recorders gave better audio recorded at 15 feet per minute versus 7 1/2. Remember those days? As old silent film projectors became dinosaurs in movie theaters beginning in the early 1930's, the new generations of sound projectors normally had only one speed: 24 FPS. So, when older films made without sound were shown on sound projectors, the action speeds up by six frames per second, from 18 to 24 FPS, or about 1/3rd faster. That causes the jerky and unnatural human action we see today because sound projectors were/are used to transfer film to video, or even from film to film years ago. Some projectors do have provisions for slowing the film down to the speed they were shot, but for films duped from old negatives or copies years ago, only theater sound projectors could handle the conversion. Heck! They were just old silent movies nobody wanted anymore. Who cared if the speed was wrong? The original film masters are usually long gone (melted down over the years to retrieve the silver nitrate and other chemicals in the film = $$$$$), so the versions we see in videos like this were duped from multiple generations of copies away from the master. The quality suffers along with the awkward jerky speed of the images.
More information than you probably wanted, but when you watch silent movies on TV and they seem somehow too fast, blame it on the switch from silent projectors to sound projectors. Of course, when extra speed WAS required back in the silent era - such as during chase scenes or slapstick comedies from the Mack Sennett Studio - the camera was UNDER-cranked, which in effect made the recorded action play faster. It was SUPPOSED to be unnatural and faster than life for comedic effect. If you take nothing away from this little lecture on a Model A website, please be aware that silent movies did NOT run 1/3 faster than real life. And most were crystal clear, not faded, out of focus and scratched like we see them today. Once again, too many copies/generations away from the master explains this. And don't even get me started on why nighttime scenes in silent movies are perceived today as slipshod camera work because they appear to have been shot during the daylight hours or under studio lights. Well, they usually were. BUT - night scenes were tinted blue for theatrical release. But, that's another story that doesn't belong here, either.
Class dismissed for the day.
Marshall, Keeper of All That Is Trivial
