2026-03-30 The Bell & Howell Model 256 8mm Projector

 

There are several ways we could go when discussing this Bell & Howell Model 256 8mm projector. We could start with a short history of what Bell & Howell did for movies and go on with how this projector is outstanding for the time it was made. We could start with how this projector was saved from being thrown away, and then ended up in my hands. Or we could simply dive in and see where we end up!

    Bell & Howell started back in 1909 when a projectionist stopped in to a machine shop to check on something. It so happened a much younger machinist trainee was there and they met each other. The projectionist was Bell; Howell was the machinist. 

    At the time there wasn’t a standard for motion picture film, let alone equipment. Bell&Howell not only set the standard—settling on 35 mm film stock—but made a film perforator to make the film their cameras and projectors would use. Motion picture film stopped being different and the industry took off.

    Bell started getting paranoid about Howell and another man plotting against him, so he fired them both. The next day they returned and offered to buy the company. Bell accepted and the company moved on without him, although they kept his name for their company.

Anyway, back to the model 256. One of our summer coffee meetings attracted a member from way south of Edmonton. He had been at his local dump and noticed this fine machine was available for anyone to simply take away. He decided to bring the 256 to the meeting, intending to give it to anyone who wanted it.

    Turned out no-one wanted it enough to take it. Projectors belong in the category of hard to store, and perhaps worst, keep operating. I decided to take the 256 home because I already have some projector’s to keep it company. 
It provided over an hour of entertainment cleaning it up. Projector’s tend to end up in garages or attics or stashed at the back of closets gathering dust and gouges in their finishes.

    It turns out the DFC bulb is blown. Although straight replacement bulbs are available, their price is a real drawback. For those trying to get the 256 actually projecting film there are at least two work-arounds featured on the internet. You can modify a quartz-halogen lighting fixture to ft the original projection bulb’s space. Some Quartz-Halogen bulbs are so common most building supply stores have them. They last for many hours and are cheap to replace.

 

For those even more handy there are LED replacement fixtures to wire in. The LED bulb probably costs more and is harder to get but last a very long time.

There may be a belt inside the machine that powers the take-up reel and the rewind but that would require taking the machine apart, so I saving that treat for some other time.

The 256 comes with a hard plastic handle and a full metal case.

One side of the case has two metal knobs. 

    The top one advances the film through the film gate, advancing the feed and take-up sprocketed rollers. It is very handy to check operation without as much damage to potentially priceless memories as simply firing the motor up and hearing film being shredded. Don’t laugh, it happens…

    The bottom knob releases the front foot to adjust the projector’s angle to the screen. Handy if you want to fill the screen without playing with books to prop the machine up.

    Removing one half the shell you are faced with this. I was really tickled Bell&Howell managed to solve the cord storage and take-up reel problems with a single groove made in the front deck.

That groove is at the front edge. Above it is a black plastic guide for the film on its way from a front pulley to a rear pulley. If the film droops it doesn’t get scratched on the paint finish, it touches the smooth plastic instead. 

    At the right—under the aforementioned front pulley—is a film cutter. The 256 is a autoload projector that really likes a square cut leader. There are some aspects of where the cut happens exactly handled by a single locator of film sprockets stamped into the metal at the font edge. Those two larger bumps are a non damaging way to guide one side of the film square to the shear.

There are clear plastic guides to get the film threaded through the gate. 

The top guide has a label telling you to press it down when threading the film.

With the guide pressed down the film is caught by the sprocket wheels and forced in a half loop straight down through the gate and then the film is caught and guided around a second sprocket wheel. 

I am not entirely positive—I am working from information on a similar projector—that the gate—you see here in the open position—has to be open while you are using the auto threader guides to set the loops. This swing open gate is very handy for cleaning the extremely small window that masks the 8mm frame. Also note the twin claws that drag the film down a frame at a time (located in-line with the axis of the projection lens in this angle view—but in reality located below and just on one side of the aperture. 

We don’t have a image of how the shutter works, but I read somewhere each frame is advanced, shown twice and then advanced again. If the projector actually showed you each frame (at 16-frames a second) once, you would detect a flickering you would find disturbing. By advancing, stopping, showing twice you are fooled into thinking the motion is continuous.

Once the film has been passed on to the take-up reel you can shut the gate. This is when a cautious person would use that frame advance knob on the front to make sure everything is smoothly working. That lever labelled FRWD/ STILL/ REV. has to be placed in the appropriate position before switching the motor/lamp/off switch to motor.

This fuzzy image of the back of the shutter gate—from the lamp’s side—shows the lever in the “REV.” position. 

When the lever is in the “STILL” position a wire grid is placed in the path of the light from the bulb. It does make still images dimmer but it beats burning the frame in the gate!