Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1916)

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the better way is shown. Standardization of this kind is the steadyharvesting of progress. Interchangeability of parts is an important principle of standardization, but more important is this implication that a true standardization is the consensus of the best as far as that is practically attainable. To bring things to a dead level of uniformity at an arbitrarily fixed value is not standardization at all. Standardization means and implies an ideal to be realized. Ideal standards therefore involve searching investigations so that they may be based upon scientific principles rather than on empirical judgment. In many cases, even yet, tentative standards alone are possible. Standardization is at its best only when each magnitude of property or dimension is found by theory and test to be the most fit for its use. Such standardization is a continuous development, not a thing to begin with but to arrive at. Like the bark of a tree, standardization may bound progress but must not limit growth. Inflexible standards are liable to retard progress so that we must keep before us the ideal that at any time the standards must be the consensus of the best, scientifically formulated. Motion picture engineering presents a splendid field for standardization. The need is obvious, for your machines and films travel to all parts of the world, and the demands of human safety, human vision, and comfort are common to all men in all lands. An ideal picture presentation for one is an ideal for others, since human nature is much the same the world over, and since mother nature standardized the human eye ages ago. Cooperation is implied in the fact that you are organized. Stable standardization is that in which all concerned are represented and their interests regarded — engineer, maker, and user. To overlook any factor is to vitiate the standardization as time will show. It is the business of the engineer to bridge the gap between the maker and user. The user, however, is the final dictator in standardization and his satisfaction is a practical test of quality. It is wise to recognize this fact at the outset and secure the continued cooperation of the engineer, maker, and user. Much has been done in planning place, equipment, and process in your field, but as elsewhere much remains for scientific research to determine by experiment the best principles of design and operation. Where the best is not scientifically known and where interchangeability or large scale production are not controlling factors, then standardization should be freer — the performance standard being set to allow play to individual design and trial in service. Some of your standardization problems are pressing, others look to the future. Several examples may be given. You have the problem, for instance, of seating for comfort, for space economy, and for effective seeing. This standardization would, perhaps, fix the best form and size of seats, their location, the minimal seating distance from the screen, and the minimal angle of the observer's line of sight with the plane of the screen. Seating thus involves