Cine Film Cement and Splicers


An e-mail from 'Sean' includes a picture of a bottle of Johnsons of Hendon Universal cine film cement, used for splicing together sections of cine film, either because the film has been torn or for editing together sections of film taken at different times.

Sean says "I have just fired up my old Eumig Super 8 projector and of course had a jam and break of my old family cine film. Due to this I got out my trusty old slicing kit. I have just used this kit and the solution is still cementing beautifully!".

The Super 8mm home cine film format was introduced in 1965. Even if Sean didn't buy his cine equipment until the 1970s, this would still mean his film cement might be 45 years old !

Pictures and text describing Johnson film splicers, taken from their 1950 and 1965 catalogues, are shown at the base of the page. By 1968 they were offering splicers made by Eumig, with models for Super-8 and Standard-8 mm films. Several YouTube videos show how similar splicers were used, e.g: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcEPGYeWn1k

Sean's splicer doesn't show the Eumig nameplate and the instructions (see below) suggest it was made in Japan.

   
Below are shown Johnson splicers from the early 1950s and from 1964-65.
   

These cine film splicers (called joiners) are taken from Johnsons 1964-65 catalogue. Around this time they also started to supply splicers made by Eumig.
Two types of film cement were sold at this time:
Johnson Universal Film Cement, price 2s/6d (12.5p) for the 25cc bottle (as above).
Johnson Cinecol; a film cement specially recommended for use with all colour films and films on tri-acetate or aceto-butyrate bases, price 3s (15p) for a 25cc bottle.

To the left are shown the same splicers (joiners) within Johnsons catalogue dating from the early 1950s.
   

This page last updated: 31st December 2019