Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1922)

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100,000 Pictures per Minute By C. Francis Jenkins, THE Papers Committee has suggested that an illustrated talk jn what has been accomplished this summer to further the development of high speed photography would be interesting to the members of our Society. It was this suggestion w^hich resulted in the preparation of this paper. The rate of exposure is 1600 frames per second in most of the pictures which will.be shown you, that is, 400 feet of negative is run through the camera in four seconds of time and 16 pictures per foot impressed thereon. The negative is the regular Eastman stock and is not special in any way; the lenses used are the usual B. & L. f-3.5, mounted in a special tube. In the preferred form of camera for extreme speed there is a plurality of these lenses, and they are used wide open all the time. There is no shutter employed. Of course, the only possible way that 400 feet of film can be passed through a camera in four seconds is continuously — intermittent movement being wholly out of the question. Those who saw the crude results exhibited at the Bureau of Standards' meeting last May will remember that 100,000 pictures per minute was the goal set for the summer's work. Not only has this been accomplished, but results have been attained which are very superior to those then shown, as you will observe from the pictures which will be showm in connection wnth this paper. As will readily be suspected, a great many unforeseen difficulties arose as we attempted persistently to make motion pictures a hundred times faster than normal, but these have been overcome one by one until now the camera is set up with a rather high degree of conhdence in the result, for the point has been reached in the development of this instrument where a nearer approach to perfection will be made by the skill which comes from repeated use rather than by material change in the camera. Incidentally I might add that two shots were made at twice the speed, that is, 200 feet of film per second, but on taking out the first roll it was found that the heat generated in the film softened the gelatine to such an extent that the convolutions stuck together and the roll of film could not be unrolled. A second shot was made with the edges of the film lightly lubricated, and very creditable pictures resulted. But as the speed seems to be much higher than there is any call for at the present time, no further work along this line was attempted. However, there does not appear to be any reason for hesitation in undertaking the construction of a camera to handle film at the rate of 3500 exposures per second if need for this should be found ; I am quite confident that it can be done. Surprises continually came up in the work, for one is hardly prepared for some of the phenomena which developed ; for ex 69