The Moving Picture World (May 1908)

'■'■'■; - M^ffiirPicture World Published Every Saturday. Copyright, 1908, by The Worli Photographic Publishing Company. Mow fori Xilu4 by 1. r. Chalmers All communications should be addressed to MOVING PICTURE WORLD. P. O. BOX 460. NEW YORK CITY. THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 387 The Non-inflammable Film Vol. 2 MAY 2 No. 18 SUBSCRIPTION! $2.00 per year. Post free In the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. CANADA AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES: $2.50 per year. Advertising Kalni 02.00 per Inch; IS centa per line. Entered as second-class matter at the New York Poat Office The contents of this maganne are protected by copyright and alt infringe- ments will be prosecuted. Editorial. Our Platform Certain busybodies have long been active in spreading the rumor that this paper is owned or controlled by a certain large rental firm, and, more recently, that it was the mouthpiece of the Independents, and again that it was aspiring to become the official organ of the so-called Trust, or F. S. A. To cap the climax, a report was repeated to us that it was to go out of existence with this issue! We do not deny that pressure has been brought to bear to accomplish any or all of these ends, but we do most emphatically deny that it is yet tied to the kite tail of any ( concern in the business or any faction in the field. Since the inception of The Moving Picture World we have labored incessantly to establish a journal that would adequately represent and promote the inter- ests of a great industry that was without a representative organ until we entered the field. Neither time nor money nor energy has been stinted to attain our ends, and we measure our success by thousands of loyal subscribers and readers and the lasting good-will of our advertisers. It is highly gratifying to us to know that it is this power of usefulness that galls our enemies and prompts the desire of any one faction to enlist our services in their behalf. But intimidation, cajolery, nor the with- drawal of valued support will not tempt us. to sacrifice our principles, our honor, our freedom of speech or the privilege of being independent. The Moving Picture World may be for sale, but not ourselves, nor the trust invested in us by the people whom we serve. Our space is for sale— on its merits. We do not value patronage that is due to personal favors or hypnotic influence. We are not for nor against any man or body of men. WE ARE FOR MOVING PICTURES. When the leading factors in the business say to us that our services are no longer required;nor appreciated along these lines, we will lay down the reins. Meanwhile, all we ask is fair play, with clean and honest competition, and in whatever measure our .services are appreciated we will return full value for value received. 3 It may serve to call attention to the enterprise and use- fulness of this journal to note that the Moving Picture World was the first paper printed in the English language which contained, any information or announcement in regard to the new Cellit (non-inflammable) film. For some time we have been in correspondence with the in- ventor and those who are associated with him and we have received at various times three samples of the film, showing its various stages towards perfection. In our last issue we printed a letter from Ed. Liesegang, the head of what is perhaps the largest firm manufacturing kinematograph apparatus in Germany. Mr. Liesegang gives the new film his most unqualified endorsement and sees in it a great impetus to the moving picture industry. As promised, he has sent us a report of the lecture delivered by the inventor of the film before the Society of Science and Nature in Dusseldorf. Without quoting in extenso the remarks of the in- ventor, Dr. Eichengrun, we may briefly mention that he claims to have been experimenting for ten years with his associates, Dr. Becker and Dr. Guntrum, endeavoring to discover a combination of collodion and cellulose that would be free from the inflammable drawbacks of cellu- loid. That he did succeed in his attempts on these fines, but his product had no commercial value for the reason that its use and manufacture was very detrimental to health, it having the same effect as chloroform. Abandon- ing the experiments with nitro-cellulose and volatile sol- vents they adopted an entirely new course and after re- peated tedious experimenting succeeded in forming a homogeneous mass of seemingly incompatible substances such as gun cotton, gelatine, leather and glass. Some of the ingredients are opaque, others brittle, others explosive, but when compounded in the right proportions they pro- duce a substance "which is flexible, plastic, transparent and non-combustible. To this combination he has given the name of Cellit and the lecturer enlarges greatly on the various uses to which it is peculiarly adapted, replacing celluloid in the manufacture of toys, combs, album covers, toilet articles and insulation for electric wires, etc., etc. But we are most interested in its adaptability to moving picture films and enough of these have already been produced to demonstrate its value in this field. These films have been run through the machines in the Liesegang establish- ment and found to be the equal of celluloid in tensile strength, flexibility and transparency, and, as we men- tioned in a previous number, ten minutes exposure to the arc light failed to ignite the film, while a celluloid film flared up with three seconds exposure. If all the claims made for this new product are sub- stantiated (and from the evidence in our hands we have no reason to doubt that they will be) all other recent inventions in connection with this industry pale into in- significance. As a positive film it will be in universal demand and its use will revolutionize the construction of projecting machines. Fireproof boxes and film maga- zines will be unnecessary and the disuse of the take-up device would tend to prolong the life of a film. But for the fact that pictures have to be made at a certain rate per second to smoothly convey the idea of motion, film subjects could be made much shorter. With the new film, however, a lecturer could stop his machine and hold a single picture on the screen for special re- marks. This also suggests the possibility that Cellit will take'the place of glass'lantern slide plates with their