Now that the work on the Pathé camera is finished, I wanted to pair it with a period appropriate tripod and pan tilt head. I don’t remember where I rescued this tripod from, but I have been holding onto this antique Motion Picture Apparatus Company tripod and pan tilt head for a while, and this seemed like an ideal match for the Pathé camera. My research has not been able to tell me anything about this particular tripod, but I am pretty sure it predates the Precision Ball-Bearing Tripod that was introduced by the Motion Picture Apparatus Company in 1917. Since it has been sitting in storage for quite a while, it needs a lot of work to get the tripod and the pan tilt head cleaned up and running smoothly again. The first thing I noticed when examining the tripod was that the wood of the legs is very dry and will need to be lightly sanded and stabilized. When I took this tripod in, the axle that drives the pan axis was bent, and the crank handle for this axis was broken. Both of these things will need to be repaired. I only had time to begin taking the tripod and pan tilt head apart and do a general evaluation of the work to be done before I had to pay some attention to three big projects with deadlines. I will have some time to continue working on this tripod next week and will show you all the bits and pieces.
