Exhibitor's Trade Review (Aug-Nov 1925)

September 12, 1925 Page 47 U.S. Shipping Board Sees t Projector THERE has always been a great need in the motion picture industry, among exhibitors, for a selfoperating, continuous daylight motion picture projector which could be utilized in the lobby, and which, with the use of trailers, would give the passerby an actual visualization, in the form of motion pictures, of a small part of the program being shown inside of the house. There is nothing which attracts more quickly than motion, and when it is in the form of interesting pictures it not only at'racls the man passing a theatre, but will cause him to stop, and in many cases, if the trailer is sufficiently interesting, will draw him inside. The manufacture and distribution of such a machine has many times been attempted, but several obstacles have arisen which made progress exceedingly slow in producing a machine which was practical for all purposes. The Capitol Machine Company of 100 West 42nd Street, New York City, has finally succeeded in developing a machine of this type which is in every way 100 per cent perfect. In" developing this machine, every obstacle which has heretofore paralyzed the efforts of other manufacturers of similar products, aas been overcome by the Capitol Machine Company and they have coday a finished product which is in every way suitable for any need to which the exhibitor might wish to put it. IT IS a daylight automatic continuous projector in which the projection is perfect, and even in the brightest light can be seen as clearly as a motion picture inside of a darkened theatre. The screen which they use has overcome the difficulty of seeing a picture properly from the side, for the picture is as clear and distinct, and as little affected by distortion at an angle of 45 degrees or more as it is immediately in front of the screen. This means that a man at the edge of a crowd in front of a theatre can see the picture just as clearly and plainly as a man standing directly in front of the screen. Another, and probably one of the most tedious of all the obstacles which had to be overcome, namely, the difficulty of running a film for any length of time without it be View of compact jector, and coming broken and useless for further presentation, has also been overcome in this new machine. This has been done through the use of a new and carefully worked out intermittent movement. By this new application of mechanical principle the film is not pushed from frame to frame by a series of hammer blows such as is used in the average machine, which necessarily destroys the averp.ge film in a short time, but is pushed forward through the machine without causing any destruction whatsoever to the film. This means that the life of the film used is lengthened to a point where it is practically used almost continuously for many days, operating from six to eight hours each da}', without any appreciable deterioration to the film. J, Frankenberg, director of exploitation, Capitol Machine Company, demonstrates New Daylight Portable Projector to members of U. S. Shipping Board. portable Capital Automatic Daylight Proscreen attachment, used for trailers. A LSO, by the use of Eastman safety standard non-inflammable film stock they have eliminated all fire hazards and have further reduced the chance of any accidnt to either film or machine by installing a device in the machine which automatically stops the machine as soon as the film breaks or becomes impaired. Another important factor in this projection machine is that it is extremely light, weighing only eighteen pounds, carrying case and all, and requires only a very small space. It is portable, and because of its light weight, can be carried from one place to another by anyone, and set up at a moment's notice. The machine is not in an experimental stage. Its practicability has actually been proven. The Capitol Machine Company have the machine in production, several thousand having already been turned out complete. They state that they have sold several of the large theatres in the eastern territory where they are being used with great success. This machine is also extremely practical for many purposes besides lobby display. The government is using them in many of their deprtments for propaganda purposes; large industrial concerns have them in use for sales promotional work, and banks and similar institutions are using them to the best advantage m promoting the idea of thrift among fheir customers. Even the police departments in various cities have adopted it for "Safety First" propaganda by using them at vantage positions, and showing pictures illustrating preventable accidents. '"THEY are being used by theatres, not only in their lobbies, but are placed in store windows in the neighborhood to show to all persons in the vicinity trailers of pictures which are being shown in the neighborhood theatre, business. At a luncheon which was recently given under the auspices of the Capitol Machine Company at the Princeton University Club, New York, to the motion picture press and other motion picture interests, Mr. Arthur Dunn, president of the concern, and Walter E. Greene, outlined the activities of the firm and emphasized the splendid production facilities available for the new projector.