The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (May-Jun 1923)

i= June 30, 1923. THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. (Technical Supplement). 63 A GLIMPSE INTO THE GAUMONT LABORATORY Wonderful Automatic Machines. T was with the wish that one of the earliest experimenters in photography—Scheele, for instance—were by my side that I stood last week in the new Gaumont laboratory at Shepherd's Bush, watching tle operation of what is perhaps the most efficient large scale film developing and printing plant in the world. But it is not given tu pioneers to see the perfection ot the process to which they have contributed the first principles, and soon the pioneers were forgotten in the absorbing details and remarkable efficiency of the elaborate plant. What made the visit to this laboratory so interesting was that the explanation of every detail was given by the inventor, Mr. H. V. Lawley (of the Lawley Apparatus Company), whose brain had worked out the thousand and one—or million and one—details upon which the ultimate success of the system worked. Arriving at the studio in the early afternoon, we climbed the iron stairway which has figured in many a film, and, entering the building, were plunged into the blackness, as it seemed, of a room in which little was at first distinguishable beyond dim red lamps. Gradually, as our eyes became accustomed to the darkness, the figures of the laboratory workers stood out, each at his task of tending the automatic machines by which light hidden from the visitor printed on positive film the reversed image from the negative. But we had to begin in another buy of the room, where, as Mr. Lawley explained, was the humau factor upon whose judgment the result finally rested. His work accomplished, the rest of the work lay with the unerring machine. Grading the Negative. Before this worker was an examining bench with its glass surface, through which came the Sight from an orange lamp below. Upon this surface were placed uegative film cuttings in their order of density—patterns with which to compare the negative passing through his hands. Kach length recording a scene was compared with these patterns, and according to its density was marked in sprocket holes with metal staples— inserted by a machine similar, but not exactly similar, to that used in hundreds of textile and other warehouses. Automatic Printing. Here ended the human, with his chance of fallibility. We crossed the room to where, side by side, stood six printing machines, each capable of printing 3,000 feet of film an hour. Beside each stood an attendant, whose duty was merely that of guiding the strip. The thousand feet of negative was placed in position, and the band passed on from machine to machine, so that one negative was printing six copies at a time. Here was seen the reason for the stapling. The negative passed through a gate where were studs connecting with an electric control, and as each staple passed over a stud it regulated the amount of light necessary for printing to a certain tone, A tell-tale light shining through a glass of about half-aninch diameter told the observer when a fresh length of film requiring greater or less strength of light had been reached, for there was noticeable immediately the contact between staple and stud was made a perceptible change in the light value. Formerly this difference in printing has been guided by snips made in the edge of the film, but this method does not in every case ensure exact synchronisation, and sometimes throws out of order later markings, (The negative, when finished with, is passed through a small machine, which removes the staples.) Treatment of the Positive. Notwithstanding the fascination of this process, the machines that followed were even more so, except for the difficulty of the lay mind to grasp all the details and relate them accurately. In another room, also dimly lighted, stood other machines, each covering a space of about eight feet by four, devoted to the development of positive film. The superiority of the new method over the old frame bath was seen at a glance. The reel of undeveloped positive film which we had just seen being printed was placed in position and led through its proper leads tor developing, rinsing, fixing, washing, dyeing, and drying. How to describe these processes lucidly is a difficult task. Imagine a row of twenty vulcanite tubes, each of about three inches diameter, rising to a height of about five feet fram the tloor, and filled with liquid. (Imagine, too, our surprisa to learn that each tube was 26 feet long and went down through other floors to the basement.) Into these tubes the positive film was descending for twenty-six feet, and then running under a pulley and up again, Then another descent and ascent until the operation of developing was complete in the third of these tubes. This process went on over the twenty tubes. Jn others rinsing, then fixing in hypo, then washing, and then dyeing took place. After this the film went through a little slit in the wall to daylight, as we afterwards found. Between the rinsing tubes and the hypo tubes, and between the washing tubes and the dyeing tubes, the film passed through a saw cut in a tube, where a strong suction removed superfluous moisture. ‘ Then out into the dazzling daylight where the film emerged from its slit in the wall and passed over and under other pulleys, and down into the dark recesses of more twenty-six feet of vulcanite tubes, where heat from electric radiators dried the film, until at length, clean and glistening, it was wound on to the reel for use. Now what is effected by this means? First the negative is cleaned, then judged according to the skill of the operator; thereafter can come no chance of falling short of perfection, for all else is automatic save the judgment as to the exact depth which the film shall descend in the last of the developing tubes. This process means evenness of tone and stain, cleanliness and exactness of treatment everywhere. This means tip-top results. J.B. CLARKSON Costumes, Wigs, Properties, etc., FILM PRODUCTIONS 41-48 WARDOUE STREET, W.1. ’ A few of the Films I have Dressed: “THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURE” “DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS” “JANE SHORE” “SIXTY YEARS A QUEEN” “BATTLE OF WATERLOO” “GAME OF LIFE” ETC., ETC.