Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

12 REEL and SLIDE Marvels of Animated Diagrams and Their Ever Widening Uses By Jam Handy (A talk delivered before the General Session of the Reconstruction Congress of War Service Committees, Chambers of Commerce Officers and War Councillors, Atlantic City, December 6, 1918, introducing an exhibition of animated technical drawings made for government use in instructing recruits in the operation of modern arms, and others of similar character. Showing motion pictures of operating interiors and unseen forces.) ) THE Department of Labor announces its opinion that the motion picture shortened the war by at least two months. Most of us are familiar with the public use of the cinema by the Agricultural Department, by the Committee on Public Information, and in the Liberty Loan drives. But now that the curtain of censorship has been lifted, it is permitted to reveal to the American business man the strides that have been made privately in the motion picture as a means of instruction and demonstration, under the stimulus of the army's demand. Most of us have known the motion picture merely as a toy, as a means of amusement; and it has no more than occasionally occurred to us how effectively it might be used as a medium of instruction, aided by lightning lucidity to the least intelligent, conclusive and convincing to the intellect, as well as powerful in emotional appeal. The fact is before us to be recognized, that the motion picture is a new means of mass communication, far greater in its scope than the printing press, for words are artificial and require learning, while pictures have universal meaning, to child and savage and savant alike. That seeing is believing is an adage. "I see" is synonymous with "I understand." When Edison invented the cinematograph, the tangle dating from Babel was undone. But it is not merely illiteracy and the confusion of languages that we brush aside with the motion picture; we also fill deficiencies in vision ; so that the least perceptive minds and the blankest brained come before the screen on a level, in many respects, with the most imaginative. As all know, this war has been largely a war of machinery, with its ultimate ideal a flame projector or rapid firer in almost every fighter's hand. Depth bombs, steam shovels and machine guns must be understood and operated almost in myriads. So the need for men was too great to be supplied by mechanical geniuses alone. When the draft contingents came to the camps and colleges, the government faced the task of making competent operatives out of the rawest material. Complex mechanisms — costly — must be comprehended and used effectively by recruits like the lone mountaineers of Kentucky and the herders of Wyoming. Bray Experimented With Diagrams At that time1 one of the inventors of the animated cartoons, J. R. Bray, was experimenting with motion pictured mechanical drawings. He had already obtained patents on processes which made it possible to put draftsman's sketches in movement and was beginning to market such pictures for the instruction of salesmen and for use in industrial schools. Later than we could have wished, it occurred to him to suggest their use by the government. He immedi a t e 1 y placed the facili i ^ — *— ■ ties of his studios at the service of the army. Lieutenant J. F. Leventhal and Mr. Max Fleisher, technical experts of his staff, were placed in charge of the work. Films were made of some of the simpler mechanisms and the results were so gratifying to the officers detailed that plans were quickly made on a broad scale. Very soon a student group in an officers' training camp was taken into a hall equipped for projection, to be shown "moving X-rays" of the hand grenade, the operating interior of the machine gun and cross sections of cannon in the act of firing. From that time on steps were swift. Finally the rapid exposition, uniformly intelligible, of the most complex electrical mechanisms, was achieved, including picturizations of many things never before seen except in the mind's eye.. In the farthest present development these pictures begin with an ordinary xterior photograph which fades into an exposed interior and changes into a skeleton cross section. One unit at a time is built up. Each part is shown separately, first still and then in operation. Any part unneeded for a moment is eliminated, to beb rought back when again to be permitted attention. Each part functions independently or in association. Photographic reality alternates on the screen with the technical drawings, one fades into the other. Electrical forces are visualized for the unimaginative. Explosions are delayed until they are viewed as a progression, seen through theopen side of the gun. All standard possible faults of operation were exposed, and their results, however dire, shown plainly and repeatedly without danger. Once filmed, disaster and destruction were repeatedly produced within a hall, without preparation, without expense, without damage. Darkness except on the screen excluded all distraction. Subjects were displayed and removed from the canvas at will. After Free Exhibitions There was no difficulty of crowding or craning. Everybody could see what was being exhibited; no one could see anything else. By such means it takes little time to turn raw recruits into expert operators of the most expensive and delicate machines of modern warfare. Before intricate instruments are touched, they are perfectly understood in theory. Men of simple minds and small vocabularies and many languages come immediately to "see how it works." From that point it is a short step to the proficiency that comes with manual familiarity. Many who are lost by the spoken lecture can spell out a few words at a time on the screen. And the visual impression is lasting. "The eye remembers while the ear forgets." The motion picture industry is frankly proud of Mr. Bray, as of Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and other stars who helped the Liberty Loan. Now the fifth largest industry in the United States, it does not wish to be considered only as an entertainer for leisure hours. It wants to be recognized as an industrial utility, eager for usefulness in all fields of life, ready to add to human effectiveness as well as to human happiness. And because we are frankly proud, also anxious to be better known and further useful, we shall be glad to exhibit the Bray military and naval pictures before any business gathering at any time at any place (and without charge, of course). We are not permitted to show any of the secret war devices, but these interior operation pictures of the depth bomb, torpedo, electric gun, aero gas engine, trench motor and others may be had upon application to the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry or to the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. From Essanay's Canadian Government series Department of Interior Plans Pictures to Show in Schools Herbert Kaufman, director of publicity of the Department of the Interior, is the originator of a of furthering American propaganda at home. Mr. Kaufman has in mind a co-operative system whereby 2,000.000 teachers in the public schools of America will inform their pupils what is considered good propaganda in films. The scheme will be operated in conjunction with the U. S. Bureau of Education. The films which Mr. Kaufman will use are designed to make the newly arrived foreigner realize his duty and do it.