Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1934)

November 10, 1934 MOTION PICTURE HERALD German TriErgon InventorsTheir Lives and Litigations Being the first and exclusive story of three men whose genius brought them only a broken friendship By JOACHIM K. RUTENBERG Berlin Correspondent The story of the Tri-Ergon sound patents does not begin with WiUiam Fox. There is another, more dramatic and more important chapter. But it lacks the glamour and embraces none of the fantasy that was recently attached by American newspapers to their presentation on page one of "William Fox — the Hans Vogt 'Hero' of Tri-Ergon." Victory in two preliminary court skirmishes with the motion picture industry in this country may have brought Or. jo Engl to William Fox fanciful dreams of receiving millions in royalties for the use of Tri-Ergon's "flywheel" and double printing processes, but to the inventors— Hans Vogt, Joseph MassoUe and Jo Engl — the devices brought nothing more than a bare existence during their development, and virtually nothing afterward. So pronounced was the failure of these three young German inventors to realize commercially on their labors that their disappointment caused them to dissolve a long friendship and association. And today they work alone. The Three Inventors The prelude to the Tri-Ergon drama opens on the last decade of the last century: Hans Vogt, a professional engineer now residing at Garystrasse 10, Berlin-Dahlem in Germany, was born shortly after the end of the summer of 1890, on September 25, in the old town of Wurlitz in Oberfranken, Bavaria. At 6 he was hustled off to a grade school, from which he was graduated in 1905. Immediately thereafter he served an apprenticeship with a German locksmith. In the years 1908 and 1909 young Vogt worked his mechanical mind overtime in various German machine shops, the while he burned the proverbial midnight oil advancing his knowledge of technical things and their solutions. In 1910, when he was but 20, Hans invented a tricky toy for which he was given a patent. At about this time the thing to do — under compulsion — was to serve a term in the mili tary and he selected the navy, serving for three years as a telegraphist. On off hours he read technical books and some of the classics almost constantly. One of his marked characteristics, which became noticeable long before he reached maturity, was a fondness for active participation in the Fatherland's movement for juvenile development. Early in 1913 Hans Vogt was mustered out of the German Navy and he immediately sought a position to further his scientific leaning. -A. large German machine plant engaged him in an unimportant technical capacity and he worked there industriously until the World War began in mid-1914. Meanwhile he married Gisela Schwarz. His work in the airship division of the navy during the war, developing important communication devices, won him a commission. A glimpse at his private living quarters both in the navy and in his home in Berlin indicated that young Vogt had an early realization of the possibilities of the talking film. As early as 1912 he could be found puttering around sound-film technics. One month to the day following the Armistice in November of 1918, Hans Vogt was at work on his theories concerning the talking picture. With him were Joseph Massolle, his companion during the War, and Jo Engl, a young and aspiring scientist who had hailed from Vogt's native Bavaria. Several developments were completed by the summer of 1923, and the trio then spent the next three years in unsuccessful attempts to commercialize them. Always they were dogged by financial shortcomings and stockholders' dissatisfaction. In 1926 Mr. Vogt set out on his own to engage in independent technical research in his own little laboratory in Berlin. In recent years he has, in addition, served as technical advisor to the Allgemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft interests in Berlin and also to the large Klangfilm sound equipment factory. His principal concern these days is the condenser, the loud speaker and the use of iron throughout for high-frequency coils. Such coils are nov/ built with an iron core around which copper wires are wound. A natural interest in the sciences and in the advancement of the talking picture has kept pace down through the years with his studies of a philosophical and sociological nature. Joseph Massolle, the second Tri-Ergonite, was born on a windy morning in 1889, some 18 months earlier than the birth of Hans Vogt. The town of Bielefeld, in Westfalia, Germany, was his birthplace. Young Massolle had already made noticeable progress as a student scientist when he enlisted for service in the World War in 1918. Shortly after his enlistment he met Hans Vogt and there subsequently developed a sturdy friendship. Mr. Massolle likewise was assigned by the navy to work on the development of wireless telegraphy, several phases of which he was accredited with perfecting. There was much of Massolle and Vogt effort in the wireless sta tions erected along the German border and coastline to guide the courses of the German dirigibles on their way to bombing expeditions over England, France and Belgium. Upon the termination of hostilities, Joseph Massolle struck out with Vogt and Engl on the talking picture development. The three worked together until 1925, when Massolle joined Tobis Film in Berlin in a technical capacity. He is still with Tobis. Dr. Jo Engl was named Joseph when he was born on August 8th, 1893, in Munich. He expressed an early preference in school for physics and for a study of natural sciences, which subjects he pursued through the University of Gottingen and the University of Berlin. Some of his first advanced instruction was given him by Professor Roentgen, who discovered the X-ray. In 1916 young Engl got his doctor's degree at Gottingen. At. about this time Jo Engl started to work on the construction of cathode ray valves and on Roentgen valves. He conducted explorations into the discharge of electrical energy, which he made in the great German factories of Siemens and Halske. Mr. Engl did not participate in the World War, but at its end he met Vogt and Massolle and proceeded with them to work on various sound processes. Engl Confers with fox When the tri-cornered partnership was dissolved in 1925, Dr. Engl opened a private technical laboratory in Berlin to continue his work on natural science, at Bismarckstrasse 97, Charlottenburg-Berlin. Since 1927 he has been, in addition, lecturing at the University of Berlin on the technical problems of the motion picture, ■specializing on sub-standard film. Several trips have been made by Dr. Engl to New York to confer with William Fox on Tri-Ergon matters. German scientists today place the development of the German sound system in three divisions. (r) The inventions of Ernst Ruhmer in 190! in connection with the principle of photographic sound recording on film tracks. (2) The invention of the amplifying valve by Robert von Lleben (1905), bringing Inertlaless control of electric currents. (3) The work of Hans Vogt, Joseph Massolle and Dr. Jo Engl from 1918 to 1925. Vogt, Engl and Massolle started their work in the winter of 1918-19, when they opened a private "Laboratory for Kinematograph" at Babelsberger 49, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, where for three years they labored behind locked doors on fundamental sound experiments. Their small savings were soon exhausted and the financial aid of friends was enlisted, the inventors and stockholders forming Tri-Ergon, .\.G. The economic situation in Germany was daily becoming more acute and it was with considerable difficulty that they managed working models. In the first three years 170 patent specifications were filed by the trio with the Deutsches Reichs-Patent Office, which subsequently granted patents to 150 of the various devices and processes. The most important of these devices, (.Cor.tiiiucd on follorving page)