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206 AMATEUR TALKING PICTURES
to take an ordinary gramophone and by some means or other devise a type of projector capable of being synchronized to it. A further provision was that the gramophone could be placed near the screen, so that adequate illusion was provided. Flexible shafts and the like, which of necessity would not extend to a greater length than 3 or 4 ft., had to be ruled out.
The third economic factor was that of subjects. For popularity it was decided that these would have to b§ of such a type that they could be placed upon the market* for a few shillings, or at least a price not greatly exceeding that of a gramophone record. This was working on the assumption that the popularity of the amateur or home talking picture should be equal to that enjoyed by the gramophone until the effects of the radio boom were felt.
On first consideration it would appear impossible to provide a projector which would be synchronized to any type of gramophone and placed at, say, 10 ft. from it without going to considerable electrical or mechanical complication. The problem was rendered more difficult because some of the gramophones likely to be synchronized were of the spring driven motor type, and some employed electric motors. Placing talking pictures on the market at a few shillings per subject seemed totally out of the question, or at least until the cost of celluloid film was considerably reduced under present day prices.
We will deal first with the question of subjects. Sound on-film was clearly out of the question, since a minimum speed of 24 pictures per second for 16 mm. film had to be adopted, and this working on sound film prices raised subjects by 50 per cent. Quite apart from this, of course, on the present-day system of sound-on-film the use of the acoustic amplification was out of the question.
Why do film subjects cost so much? The answer is that we have to project film at a speed of 16 pictures per second, but the inventor of this system asks " Why ? "
This is somewhat more difficult to answer. Until the writer had seen the new sound system in operation he would have stated offhand that 16 pictures per second was necessary to show ordinary movement. Most people would