Exhibitor's Trade Review (Sep-Nov 1921)

1416 MODERN STUDIOS AND LABORATORIES Volume 10. Number 20. Cameraman's Department CONDUCTED BY PELL MITCHELL Miller Gets 200 Exposures a Second Tiry Miller, head Rothacker cameraman, has established another world's record— in rapid picture taking. The 8 to 1 ultra-rapid camera makes 128 exposures per second. Miller has scored a 12 to 1 picture, or over 200 exposures per second. Bell & Howell Company says this is the fastest picture ever made with an ordinary camera. Recently in an iron mine Miller photographed the film of the lowest depth on record by the U. S. Bureau of Mines. Shortly before that he obtained the first close-up of boiling metal in a steel furnace. Engineers came to William H. Strafford, Rothacker practical picture director, with a problem in metal testing. They wanted to see what happened during the tests and when the metal gave way under the strain. Miller and Strafford had a camera geared up to 8 to 1, the ordinary ultrarapid speed. But that was too slow. The engineers figured on papers that the camera would have to speed up to 12 to 1, just Tiry Miller fifty per cent faster than the usual slow motion camera. With the aid of Bell & Howell engineers the feat was eventually accomplished. Miller relates: "We finally ran the film from sprocket wheel to shuttle and from shuttle to sprocket wheel through specially made chutes to prevent the beating of the film during the terrific speed and to prevent jerking of the film in the shuttle." In a statement, J. H. McNabb, Bell & Howell general manager, said: "The work of accommodating our regular professional camera for the reception of the ultra-speed attachment to take pictures at better than 200 exposures per second presented quite an engineering problem, and only through the ingenuity of Albert S. Howell was this attachment worked out so that pictures could be made in the highly satisfactory manner in which the Rothacker cameraman obtained them. "When the Rothacker cameraman first came to us with the problem that they required between ten to twelve times the normal speed, we were very skeptical of being able to accomplish it with our ultraspeed mechanism, due to the fact that our engineering department designed and perfected the mechanism for the taking of pictures at only eight times normal speed. However, it was not long before our experimental laboratories produced the special chutes, which eliminated all loop strain to which the film is subjected at this extremely high rate of speed. "The results have certainly exceeded our expectations, because it seems almost inconceivable that an ordinary motion picture camera could be geared up to this extreme rate of speed and take pictures that are so perfect as to be classed in quality with the performance of the camera operating at the normal speed of sixteen pictures per second. It looks very much like accomplishing something that borders on the fringe of impossibility, and I believe that this feat may be claimed as the world's record in the taking of ultra-speed pictures with an ordinary motion picture camera. We are not saying that pictures have not been taken at a greater speed than this, because special cameras have been built for the exclusive taking of ultra-speed pictures, when the mechanism was constructed with special reference to the speed and duty to be imposed upon the travel of the film, etc. ; but we do claim that it is the first camera that has been equipped with an ultra speed attachment that has taken pictures at a speed of over 200 exposures per second without damaging the mechanism or injuring the camera in any respect. The fact that Miller's camera to-day, after taking over 10,000 feet of negative at extremely high rate of speed, is as good as Akeley Out Carl E. Akeley, widely known in the scientific field as a hunter, naturalist and explorer, and in the motion picture field as inventor of the Akeley Camera, is on an expedition in co-operation with the American Museum of Natural History, New York, to penetrate into the untraveled and unknown reaches of the African Congo forest to study and photograph the gorilla. He arrived in the Congo last week. Akeley has taken three Akeley Cameras with many special lenses for telephoto work, as well as special lenses for work in dense jungles where there is very little light. He also has designed a special stereoscopic motion picture camera for his special study. It was on his trip while trying to get any of the new cameras which are now being turned out by our factory is a very nigh testimony of the material and work manship which are incorporated in the manufacture of our instrument. "Some conception may be had of the speed of travel of the various mechanisms in the ultra-speed attachment to the camera, when considering that the main shutter shaft travels at a speed of approximately 12,000 revolutions per minute, which means that the peripheral speed of the shutter is about three and one-half miles per minute. The fact that a mechanism can travel at this enormous speed without injury to any of the working parts, or, in fact, without the mechanism flying to pieces, is most remarkable; and in explanation of it we must say that this is another feat of our engineering department and experimental laboratories in devising a running balance for these parts, so that the camera would reflect no undue vibration. To do this, some very elaborate tools were constructed, which permitted the balancing of the shutter at ultra-high running speed, in fact, the shutter shaft and cam of the camera were balanced while running at a speed upwards of 12,000 r.p.m., and this accounts for the fact that there is no vibration in the camera while operating the ultraspeed attachment and that the operation of it is performed by one man without the assistance of any one steadying or holding the camera or the tripod. Without this fine degree of balancing, it would be impossible to attain the speed of 12,000 r.p.m. with any instrument without causing so much vibration as to make it impossible to crank or without having a specially built support to hold the mechanism on the ground. Consider, on the other hand, that the pictures Miller made were with the ordinary tripod, the ordinary camera, and without any assistance. "I have seen the results of Mr. Miller's work and I must say that I have never seen anything to compare with them anywhere. The photography was as clear, sharp, and steady as that of any normal speed work ever screened. I think the Rothacker organization should be complimented on producing such a high quality of work at what would ordinarily be considered an impossibility with a normal operating camera." for Gorillas motion pictures out of the ordinary and of subjects not easily obtained that he was completely stumped by the limitations of the Stereo type motion picture camera which he had, and being an inventor of no little ability conceived the new and basic principles of the present "Akeley" which he is now taking. Not only will he hunt and preserve the skins and skeletons of the gorillas for the Museum, but he will take plaster casts of the face and hands and of the body before and after skinning. In these pictures Akeley will endeavor to show the daily life of a family, if possible, or single ones caught at opportune moments in their daily routine. No one knows just how or where they (Continued on page 1418)