Amazingly, the small width of 9.5mm film enabled the addition of an optical sound track. In 1938 pathéscope UK released 9.5mm sound films for the amateur. These are now becoming quite rare and are much sought after.

Here are some samples of 9.5mm sound frames. These are clips from "Charing Cross Road" (1935)  starring John Mills and June Clyde.

The frame above shows the  variable area sound track along the left-hand side. Note that the picture is slightly cropped to accommodate the sound track and so makes a nearly square aspect ratio. Later prints were optically reduced to maintain the 4:3 aspect ratio. Note that the right-hand side is also slightly cropped.
 

In the frame above, the centre perforation is clearly visible.

To view a quicktime movie clip of  "Charing Cross Road"  select from:

15fps version (1.9Mb)
10 fps version (1.3Mb)
Low Resolution Version(805kb)
 

Technical notes:
The above clips were generated as follows:

1. Film projected onto a 2 foot wide screen using a Pathé Pax projector.
2. Video recorded using a CCD camera to BetaMax.(PAL)
2. BetaMax dubbed to VHS (PAL)
3. VHS Digitised into a video editing system using Targa 2000 card.
4. Title edited over song.
5. Quicktime Movie exported using Animation Codec
6. MAC Quicktime converted to PC self-contained file.

The original 9.5mm print was derived from a 35mm positive, beam split into three 9.5mm images side by side on a 35mm negative.

Positive prints were struck from these, then split into three 9.5mm prints.

Updated 20 November 1999