American Cinematographer - August 1990 - 40

Newman Sinclair

The

to have his camera covered with rubber.

ads from the 1920s
show their NS
Kine' Camera

KINE'

being used by
Noel

Mt.

Everest.

(NEWWIANI&"
SINCLAIR'S
PATENTS)

CAMERA
was

Realizing

that he would not be able to carry his cumbersome
camera to the
heights his climbers would go, Noel
had a twenty-inch Cooke telephoto lens made by

used for

Filming Mount Everest.

Taylor, Taylor & Hobson and a six-power finder
telescope mounted in optical axis to the camera.
For film processing Noel had constructed
silver-lined wooden development tanks, wooden
frames with pins to dry 200 feet of film at a time,
and a large light-tight photographic tent to do his
work in. To dry his processed film he needed to heat
the tent to 65 degrees so he had a special air-tight
stove manufactured. In the treeless landscape of
mountainous Tibet the only possible fuel was yak
dung (which when dried Noel likened to English
peat) but even the dung had to be brought up 60
miles from lower elevations by relay teams of Sherpas. A rotary hand blower with muslin air filters
was

cranked to circulate the

warm

air within the

tent.

Luckily there was one supply in great abun¬
dance - Noel used filtered glacier water to mix
with his chemicals.
After years of lusting to reach the world's
greatest mountain, the moment of truth had finally
arrived. Looking back on pictures of this first expe¬
dition the climbers look naively ill-prepared to take
on such a feat; dressed in Norfolk
jackets, tweed
trousers and camel hair underwear. But it

was an

of gutsy endeavors and the British still felt they
could conquer anything. In a quiet moment some
65 years later, Noel confided the unspoken thoughts
he was having when he first faced Everest up close:
"When we first saw Mt. Everest we felt imbued with
the majesty of the mountain and the difficulty of
era

Captain J. Noel, F.R.G.S., on the North Col
(23,000 ft.-) with the " N S." Kine' Camera fitted
with 20* " Cooke " Telephoto Lens.

Captain J. Noel says
"I got the 'N.S.'
right up to the top of North Col
of Mount Everest, where we had a camp at
23,000 ft.
This is a record, height for a
Kine' Camera. Probably no other camera
would ever have done it owing to their
Kine' Camera

weights compared with the 'N.S.' Camera.
Every time I use it I realise what a wonderful
piece of work it is."

Price with Hand Drive

£275,

with

Automatic Electric Drive £300.
Send

for Catalogue.

James A. Sinclair
38

& on

54, HAYMARKET.

ltd..

LONDON. S.W.1.

climbing it, and we sat on the ground and gazed at
the mountain with our mouths open. But none of
us would
say what we were thinking of, but I know
that I thought and everybody else in the expedition
thought that this is more than a human being can
do. But we never gave expression to that. "
Noel could not afford the luxury of a cam¬
era assistant but did have the
support of ten Sherpas and two mules to carry his gear and help him.
He acclimatized well to the heights but one of his
Sherpas collapsed and nearly died and two others
succumbed to mountain sickness. Noel watched

through his lens as two climbers reached 27,000 feet
they failed to return by dark he set fire to
some of his
unexposed film stock as a signal for
them to follow to safety. The climbers finally re¬
turned but with severe frostbite. Some days later an
avalanche of ice tore away from the mountain and
crashed on to the glacier below killing seven Sher¬
pas and ending the expedition.

but when

Back in London Noel assembled his film,

"Climbing Mount Everest" but could not interest
movie theaters in running it because "film experts"
noted "Without a love interest the picture will be a
certain failure". He decided to follow the lead of

Ponting and rented his

own

exhibition hall for ten

American Cinematographer - August 1990

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