Amateur talking pictures and recording (1933)

Record Details:

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218 AMATEUR TALKING PICTURES almost certainly necessary, but whether or no we need employ a series of thermionic valves is another matter. The invention of the thermionic valve gave us radio and modern talking pictures, and a host of other improvements. But will the valve amplifier last ? For some years experiments have been made on "valveless" amplifiers, and a certain amount of success has been achieved in this direction. For instance, a year or so ago the "Microbox" electrical pick-up was produced in this country by Messrs. S. G. Brown. This is connected direct to a loud speaker via an accumulator and output transformer, no intermediate amplifier being employed. The results were good, although in the opinion of the writer not quite on a level with reproduction of a first class amplifier. When you consider the method of sound-on-film recording great amplification may not be required, since we have only to vary a light beam. Perhaps the carbon type microphone will eventually, either in a modification of its present form, or in entirely new design, be made to give an output high enough to operate a sound-on-film recorder direct or through a " valveless" amplifier unit. Then again there is no reason why the light used for illuminating the subjects might not be utilized for marking the sound track. Of course, there are scores of objections to this, but it is quite possible that in the future they will be overcome, and that the recording device employed for sound-on-film work will contain neither amplifier nor recorder lamp as we know them to-day.