Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

116 Better Theatres Section April 12, 1930 IMPOSSIBLE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 10CAL unions mean, I am sure, to be J fair, but sometimes poor judgment is used in selecting the men who form the examining board. This is brought to my attention quite frequently by applicants who present questions asked by an examining board by whom they have been rejected, which questions often are found to be ill advised. Just now one lies before me. It is contained in a letter from no matter where. I am not attacking any one or any examining board, but directing attention to the unfairness of asking questions which could not possibly be answered correctly, or if answered correctly, would probably be rejected because the examiners would not realize that their own way of putting the question was in error. Here’s a letter: “Dear Mr. Richardson: I was turned down by the examining board of local No Here is one of the questions they asked me. I put it exactly as asked. ‘Suppose you try to strike an arc and it will not strike, but you get a spark? The equipment is all in good condition. What is wrong?’ “Will you be good enough to advise me, Mr. Richardson, as to just what the right answer is to that question?” As asked there could be but one answer, and that itself would range into the impossible. Only one thing could cause such an effect if the equipment was in good condition; namely, low voltage. But it would have to be so very low that the condition would never be found on a lighting or power circuit, except at the moment it was shutting down or just coming on. But the question as it is asked is not a fair one to be used in a projectionist’s examination. If the examiners had asked, “Suppose you try to strike an arc taking current, through a rheostat, from a 110-volt circuit, and fail to get anything but a spark; or from a motor generator supplying 110-volt current, or supplying 70-volt current, with the overvoltage cut down by resistance”— then it would be better. But even that would not be a good question. In theory, if current be taken from a lighting or power circuit through a rheostat, and the rheostat develops a ground, then the condition named might be set up. But even that, in my judgment, would be an impossibility, unless the amperage be very low. Suppose, for example, we are pulling 75 amperes at the arc. Now, if a ground develop in the rheostat so that when we attempt to strike an arc we only get a spark, it necessarily means that the ground must (a) take all the current, or (b) be sufficient to cut down the voltage so low that there is not enough to build up an arc, either of which, I believe, we must agree is in the range of the impossible. Such a ground would, I think, burn itself out in the fraction of a second, provided it be a heavy amperage arc. In such a question the amperage must be stated. If the examining board desired to ask a fair question along the lines indicated, it might ask this one: Suppose you have an arc circuit taking power through a rheostat from a 110-volt line. Name the various possible effects if a ground should develop in the rheostat. That would be an absolutely fair question; also, it would give the board a pretty good idea as to just what the applicant knows about the action of an arc circuit through resistance. Examining boards will do well to remember the time when its own members, perhaps, faced a similar board. Also, it is well to consider that, whereas it is perfectly right and proper to hold down the number of organized men to the needs of the local situation, still this may easily be done by stiffening the examination with perfectly legitimate questions, and thus not only restrict the accepted men to the needs of the local but do it in a way calculated to admit only those men best fitted to join. Trick questions merely arouse hard feelings and enmity. If a man be rejected because he has found himself unable to answer perfectly legitimate ques BLIZZARD FAN 30,000 Cubic Feet of Clean, Fresh, Cooling AIR Forced Into Your Theatre Every Minute SILENTLY EFFICIENTLY ECONOMICALLY And All This For $ 1 60.00 What More Does a Fellow Want! Right — Now — Write BLIZZARD FAN, 1524 Davenport, OMAHA, NEBR. 1 am interested in economical guaranteed ventilation. Size of my theatre is width length height. THEATRE TOWN BLIZZARD FANS properly installed will pass the most rigid test when considering your sound installation. Blizzard9 s Way Is Nature9 s Way j BLIZZARD SALES CO., OMAHA, NEBR.