Educational film magazine; (19-)

Covering Industrial Motion Pictures of Educational Value Edited by LEON A BLOCK "THE PORCELAIN LAMP" THE Porcelain Lamp is an unusually interesiing educational drama in five reels visualising the his- tory of land travel from the early days of Egyptian civilization to modern times. The ^'ory is told by «n engineer, Grayson Whitney, who is a collector of curioii, to a group of friends, about an old porcelain lamp which is part of his collection. He explains that it was formerly owned by Anton Daimler, a Frenchman, who discovered that gasoline could be used as a liquid fuel. Whitney gives his guests a short history of Daimler and his struggle with poverty. One night as the Frenchman worked by the light of the lamp he fell asleep from exhaustion and dreamed that Mercury, the god of travel, appeared and showed him the achievements of the past in land transportation and a vision of the future. The picturization of this vision is interesting and of real educational value, as pack animals and various types of carrying devices and vehicles are shown in historical sequence. The sled used by Egyptians to transport large blocks of stone for the Pyramids; the Indian travois; the development of the wheel; the jinriksha of Japan; horse - drawn vehicles; and all the early power-produc- ing machines, including the gun powder, gas, and steam engines. When t h e sleeper awakened the room was dark, for the kerosene had burned out of the lamp; and in his confusion he picked up the wrong bottle to refill it, touched a light to the wick, and the lamp exploded. He had accidentally filled it with an unused by-product of kerosene called gasoline. By this accident he discovered a new liquid fuel and even- tually invented a one cylinder engine, the forerunner of the gasoline motor of today. The film story then cuts back to Whitney telling his guests about the evolution of the motor industry from the Daimier invention to the modern automobile. Elarly models of the horseless carriage and the first automobiles with solid tires are shown. Some delightful comedy is intro- duced by scenes of the experiences of automobilists twenty years ago. Various stages in the development of the motor car and many types of modem cars are depicted. By means' of animated mechanigraphs the operation of the motor is explained; the tire pump, the vacuum feed tank, the intake and outlet manifolds, and the piston action are stripped of their outer casings and shown in operation with explan- atory labels. The Porcelain Lamp is an educational picture which will interest mature or ju- venile optiences. The titles are descriptive and the continuity of the story carefully de- veloped. Herbert Hyman of the Cole Motor Car Com- pany is rsponsible the scenario, Don Carlos Ellis did the re- search work, and the film was produced by the Har- ry Levey Service Corp- oration of New York. PILLARS OF THE SKY P T^HIS scene from "The Porcelain Lamp", showing a Chinaman and a primitive wlieelbarrow, ifl one of the linlcs in tlie evolution of modern transportation, the story of wliich makc!< up tlie Aim. The picture is of an educational and historical character and was produced for the Cole Motor Car Company by the Harry Levey Service Corporation. It had its premiere showing at the Strand Theater, \cw Vnrk. (in January 12 last, under the sponsorship of the NaMoiiii Automobile C'lmml)er of Commerce. ILLARS of the Sky is one of a series of six west- ern pictures, featur- ing the gathering, treating, manufac- turing, and distri- bution of northern iwhJte cedar polies, western red cedar poles, and Mount Ranier fir crossarms, produced under the direction of Charles W. Barrel 1 for the Western Electric Com- pany. It is a one reel scenic of Mount Rainer and the gigantic fir trees of the northwest, which were well grown when Charlemagne ruled middle Europe. Many of them are 230 feet high and six feet in diameter. The film shows graphically the risks taken by lumberjacks in cutting down these big trees. In many cases they climb to 180 feet, in order to saw off the tree top. One of the niost interesting scenes shows the method of drag- ging tlie trees to the edge of the forest by stout steel cables. The progress of the trip from the forest by rail and water to the mill ]>ond and the work of the big saws in the lumber mill make one realize how much labor and risk of human life is necessary to produce the crossarms and conduits of the telephone system. 24