Bell & Howell 35mm Slide Cube Projector

Bell & Howell’s cube system could store hundreds of slides in a compact space—but it was prone to jams. If your slides are in cubes, we can scan them—just follow the orientation steps below.

The concept was sold through the 1980s. Slides were stacked loose inside clear plastic cubes (up to ~44 slides per cube). Storage boxes held sixteen cubes—the same footprint as a Kodak 140 Carousel—so you could store roughly 640 slides in the space that held 140 Carousel slides.

Bell & Howell slide cube storage box — Slide cube storage box (holds 16 cubes)

How the projector advanced slides

Open the cube’s sliding door and seat the cube on the projector. Each advance dropped a single slide onto a circular rotating plate with a slide-sized recess. After projection, slides fell into the collection chamber below. When a cube was empty, a lever lifted slides back into the cube for removal and the next cube could be loaded.

Why the system had issues

Jams at the rotating plate: warped or damaged mounts could catch.
Limited reverse: you couldn’t go back more than one slide—others had already dropped.
Fragile hardware: cube doors/covers were easy to break.

How to prep cube-stored slides for scanning

Landscape orientation: Place all slides so the long edge is horizontal. We’ll rotate images in Photoshop as needed.
First slide on top: When you open the cube door, the top slide should be the first slide to scan. Keep the rest oriented the same way.
“This side toward screen” faces up: Typically the logo/text side faces the screen; we’ll assume that for scanning unless you tell us otherwise.

Top slide in cube is the first to scan — Top slide = first slide to scan

Open the cube door; the top slide should be first. Keep all slides oriented identically.

Correct side toward screen and toward top of cube — Correct “toward screen” side up

The “this side toward screen” (often the logo side) should face the screen and be toward the top of the cube.

Incorrect orientation example—flip these over — Wrong way—flip these

If the slide faces are inverted vs. the screen/top, flip them so everything is consistent.

Note: We do not sell parts for Bell & Howell cube projectors. If you use our slide scanning service, you won’t need to repair a projector or replace bulbs again—your images will be preserved as digital files.

Start Your Order