The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 262 The Educational Screen AMONG THE PRODUCERS where the commercial firms — whose activities have an important bearing on progress in the visual field — are free to tell their story in their oivn words. The Educational Screen is glad to reprint here, -within nec- essary space limitations, such material as seems to have most informational and news value to our readers. Bell & Howell Camera for Expedition Sir Hubert Wilkins, noted explorer and scientist, has had the Bell & Howell Company, Chicago, pre- pare a movie camera for the purpose of making a continuous map of the regions to be traversed on a 3,000 mile airplane dash soon to be made across the south polar cap and return, passing directly over the South Pole. Single pictures will be taken automatically from the air at intervals of approxi- mately six seconds. These pictures will be later assembled into one of the most perfect map records ever made at either pole. Aerial mapping photos of Arctic regions have been made before, but the film generally has been at least nine inches wide, and it has not been feasi- ble to carry sufficient film to take enough pictures to make a continuous map covering an extended path of flight, apart from the fact that cameras big enough to accommodate the large size mapping film are cumbersome and heavy. The movie camera prepared for Sir Hubert, com- plete with film magazine, electric motor, and suf- ficient film, will weigh scarcely twenty pounds. The film itself will be 35 mm. and this will be the first time that this size film has been used for such mapping purposes. Pictures made on 9-inch film are seven inches deep; and 100 feet of this film, for example, would take only about 170 pictures, whereas 170 pictures will require only about 10 feet of the 35 mm. film. Sunny Schick Announces New 16 mm. Film Laboratory Sunny Schick, motion picture equipment broker and owner of the Atlas Film Company, announces the opening of their new DuPont Film Laboratories which will occupy new quarters in their newly constructed building at 401 W. Washington Blvd., Fort Wayne, Indiana. The plant is of the latest type in construction and its capacity is the developing of 500 rolls of movie film per month. The plant is fully equipped to handle reversing process of film as well as duplicate print- ing and enlarging. Also the development of Leica and Contax strip film and the printing of same. Mr. Schick announces that it is one of the finest plants in the middle west. All motion picture film sent into the plant will be developed and shipped out the same day, giving people in this section two day service. Mr. R. D. Kimmel. formerly of Des Moines, Iowa, is in charge of the .\tlas Film Company plant as supervisor. Historical Study Units The constructive work being done by Educational Research Studies of Hollywood in selecting fine "stills" from the vast collection amassed in connection with various movie productions of the past dozen years or more, and in organizing them for teaching purposes, has been described before in our pages. This series of "Photographic Historical Study Units" should prove exceedingly valuable teaching ma- terial. Each unit consists of a minimum of 15 pic- tures, painstakingly selected from hundreds of photo- graphs with two specific ends in mind—namely (1) to supply the maximum of informative content possible in this number of views, and (2) to insure the most perfect continuity possible. Each unit is accompanied with a concise introduction necessary to lay the proper background, with a text under each picture to ac- centuate details, broaden meaning, and correlate the picture with the others in the unit—and with a question guide designed to aid the teacher in bringing out a live and full discussion by the class. Sample questions from the guide on the two pictures reproduced here are as follows: The Pilgrims Locate those representing Elder Hrewster, Miles Standisli and John Alden. Where did the Naragansett tribe live? Why should the red man and the white man have been enemies almost from the start?