Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1920)

26 MOVING PICTURE AGE February, 1920 Slides Questions on Lantern Slide Sub M jects will be answered by mail if m stamped envelope is enclosed in g addressing this department. M llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll»^ lllllllll 'N O, these are not movie films. They are stills," said the manager of Underwood and Underwood, Toiiriscope department, to the query he divined in my glance, v/hich, on entering his office, I cast at the stock of familiar film rolls about his room and on his desk. One is so unused to associating rolls of film with anything but "movies" these days that it had not occurred to me that they could be used for still pictures as well. On learning my mission, Mr. Ross, the manager, very gladly showed me wdiat his company is undertaking to do along this line and explained this revolutionary invention. "You see this film, in the first place, is much wider than the movie film, being 2% inches wide. Like a movie film, however, it contains a series of pictures, but it is unlike the movie in that each picture is a distinct and separate scene. Here, for instance," picking a film roll from the pile on his desk, "is one of Yosemite Valley," and, partly unrolling it, he held it up to the light, revealing a series of beautifully colored scenes, each one only slightly smaller than an ordinary lantern sHde. "This film," he explained, "contains forty-two pictures or slides, covering a complete trip through the Yosemite Valley and arranged in the best order to give a complete conception of that wonderful region, a whole lecture series of beautiful slides on one film." H: ^ * I picked up the film roll with thumb and forefinger and remarked at its lightness. "Yes," said he, "these films are noninflammable and so may be used anywhere with absolute safety. A roll of these films, containing 100 slides, weighs only 3 ounces, and when wound on a reel only 8 ounces. You can appreciate what this is going to mean to the users of slides, when you realize that a case of 100 glass slides ready for shipment by post or express weighs 20 pounds, or forty times the weight of this roll of film ; and whereas the postage and express on the sending of glass slides is a considerable burden on the business with them, especially in doing a rental business, the postage and express averaging about 75 cents per shipment for a set of slides, this film roll I sent through the mail for only 8 or 10 cents. "Besides this, there is no handling of individual slides on the film, whereas ordinary glass slides have to be handled one by one and every handling leaves the finger marks, which, after each using, have to be rubbed off. All this labor, expense and bother is saved in using the films, and, besides, the slides cannot go in upside down, right and left reversed, or in any other way get out of order. The film can be run through the instrument as easily and conveniently as you plav a victrola record." ^ * * "That certainly will make a tremendous difference to the users of slides," I said, "but how are these films to be used? It requires an entirely different machine from the ordinary lantern, I suppose?" Here Mr. Ross turned and opened a cabinet and took out of it a little black metal apparatus, being about 10 inches in cubical dimensions. "This is the instrument, the Touriscope, that takes these films," he said. "It fits on to the ordinary lantern as an attachment. I will show you how it works." Then he walked over to a table, on which lay a Bausch & Lomb lantern. He lifted off the bellows and slipped the Touriscope attachment in its place. "This was an ordinary lantern a moment ago, which would take only glass slides. Now it is a complete Touriscope-Stereopticon, and takes both glass slides and film rolls." * * * And he proceeded to show how the apparatus was threaded with the film. We then went into the demonstration room, equipped with darkening curtains. The lights were, put out and by merely pulling back and forth a tiny lever, the film was run through, the pictures being thrown on the screen in continuous succession, while we talked, and without a slide or any oart of the film being touched. The pictures were unusual and equal to the finest slide pictures I had ever seen., "It is strikingly simple and marvelous in results," I said. "But I imagine many lantern users would find it a disadvantage not to be able to go back and show a picture again, as they may do with glass slides by merely putting any particular slide in again." "That was a question met with in the early stages of the development, but the inventor finally succeeded in overcoming it entirely, as you can readily see." By moving a little pin into "reverse" position he then instantly turned the film back and showed again a number of pictures, and also showed me how simply and quickly ♦he whole film can be rewound. "How many models were made in the development of this invention?" was my next question. "The present instrument is an evolution over several years from one distinct model to another. The simplification of the use of slides and doing away with the bulky, breakable, and inconvenient character of glass slides has been the dream of lantern users and the problem that elicited the attention of scientific men for many years. The first workable model that approached the result was the Fulton, produced about five years ago. This was followed about two years later by the Brenkert model. This latter model was remarkable, but subject to certain defects in working, which mitigated against its practical character. Last year, however, was developed the Bausch & Lomb model, which overcame most of the defects in the Brenkert, and paved the way for the Underwood model, the present one, which has been thoroughly tested out in every way and has been proved in all ways to be completely 'fool proof.' The development of this model is the result of many years of study and experiment, combined with the best advice and suggestions from stereopticon experts, to whom the company and the inventor are both indebted." ^ ^ ^ "What are the commercial possibilities of this invention?" I asked. "They are very great and it is the aim to keep the price low enough to give the widest possible distribution to the Touriscope. There are tens of thousands of lanterns in use and every lantern user will have need of this instrument, which will not only save him nearly half the cost of future slides purchased, but will save him even more in time, labor and convenience. "You see it means an end to slide breakages and thousands of dollars a year are lost in broken slides through falling and overheating in the lantern and handling in shipping. "Just yesterday." he said, "one of our regular lecture sets of glass slides come back from a customer in Pennsylvania, about 150 miles away, with 15 slides broken in the set. As these were all colored slides, worth $1.25 each, and as the rental price that we received for the use of the set was only $8.00, you can readily see what a burden such a breakage means on a rental business and what a saving when these non-breakable, non-inflammable films are used. H= * * "When mailing these film rolls you can be assured not only of their safe traveling, but also of their safe arrival, and as promptly as a letter. When you hand a set of glass slides, however, to the express man, all you can be assured of is that it has left your hands. Your customer in Albany, Harrisburg or Dayton may get it in a few days, in a few weeks or not at all, this uncertainty being increased with the distance it has to go. Your roll of film, however, may be mailed to the very ends of the earth with full assurance of its reaching its destination with all the safety and promptness of your letter." "I think people will use lanterns more, now that it will be sp much more convenient to do so," I said. "In fact, it seems to me that with this simple and convenient film plan, the lecture field will hold more attractive possibilities and many will be induced to use a lantern that heretofore lectured without one." "Here you have struck," said Mr. Ross, "upon one of the greatest influences of this invention. It is going to tremendously popularize the use of the stereopticon. People and institutions who now have lanterns and who, owing to their inconvenience, use them only occasionally, will now use them much oftener, and many people will now make use of the wonderful visualizing power of the stereopticon lantern who hitherto have not done so. They will insist upon buying one with a Touriscope equipment. "Furthermore, it will cause the lantern to be used extensively for home entertainment, for it will be as convenient to put on a reel of pictures in the Touriscope as to play a victrola record. And then people may have their own pictures put on films from their kodak recvords. What, for instance, would be more interesting than for one to have each vacation kodak record on a sini^le film with all the pictures in chronological order, as they were taken? You could entertain your friends with them at any time by means of the Touriscope and with the convenience of playing a music roll. "Then there is the advertising field. Many concerns are now using the lantern to show and advertise their products and many are using the 'movies.' The lantern will now take a much larger place in this field, because it will be so convenient for a manufacturer to send to his customers anywhere rolls of film showing his product complete and new products at regular intervals. The customer, upon receipt of the roll of film, can immediately put it on the Touriscope-Stereopticon and run it through, getting the most vivid and complete idea of that product that could possibly be given him and better in many respects than could be given him by a 'movie' film and at only a fraction of the expense. * * * "We also intend soon to put on the market an automatic advertising Touriscope model, which can be set up in shop windows, hotel lobbies, and other public places. Still another use of the Touriscope is for a news service in these films for the theaters. We are now, in fact, contemplating such a service, to be known as the Underwood Touriscope News Service. It will consist of a strip of films of twenty-four news pictures, 'stills,' sent daily to be run in the theaters all over the countrv." JOHN S. BIRD.