Home Movies and Home Talkies (Jun 1933-May 1934)

HOME MOVIES & HOME TALKIES 339 INFLAMMABLE FILM SOLD TO CHILDREN -APPALLING FIRE RISK IVHEN M^ILL THE GOVERNMENT ACT? By the Editor WITHIN the last few years the popularity of the home cinema has progressed by leaps and bounds, and much of this popularity has been due to the simplicity and perfect safety of the apparatus used. Safety, non-inflammable film has been standardised for all 8-, 9i and 16-mm. machines, and no responsible manufacturer would dream of issuing anything else. In the professional theatres, where the inflammable film is still used, the most drastic safety regulations are imposed and enforced by the authorities, with the result that anyone can attend such a theatre without the slightest risk. Projectors which automatically cut off the light if the film should stop, fireproof projection booths, comjDlete ventilation of every part where the film is used, sepai-ate rewinding rooms — all these precautions and many others were brought into being as the result of terrible accidents in the pioneering days. Woe betide the exhibitor who attempts to evade them ! Yet any boy — your boy, maybe — can walk into dozens of toy shops and purchase just this same highly inflammable film — scratched, worn and worthless, from the professional point of view, but every bit as dangerous — with neither restriction nor warning. He can buy for a few shillings a rackety projector for showing it, he can sit by the fire and play with it, he can crowd his little friends into a woodshed in the dark, he can light matches to see where it is, and then one day — any day — it majsuddenly burst into flame — and — tragedy. Home Movies and Home Talkies demands that this state of affairs be immediately rectified. As long ago as March last we exposed the scandal in these columns, and as a result the National Safety First Council asked us for particulars. We furnished them, givuig the names and addresses of typical stores carrying on this dangerous jiractice. The Safety First Council took up the matter with the Home Office, but apparently they "had no jaowers," and nothing was done. A few weeks ago, in a humble part of Brighton, a boy of seven was given one of these wretched contraptions, with a supply of film. It was fitted with an oil lamp, which leaked. An attempt to work it with a torch lamp failed, so a boy friend tried to work Fifty up ir were feet of inflammable film, sold to a boy reader, going flames during a " Home Movies " test. The flames seven feet high. The same boy was sold 750 ft. in one piece ! it with a candle. The film caught fire, blazed up, and the poor little fellow (his parents were out at the time) rushed screaming into the street. The Fire Brigade was called and a dangerous fire averted by minutes. Home Movies and Home Talkie.s interviewed the jiarents and obtained these facts firsthand. A little while afterwards a group of boys in another town met in a wood.shed with a similar outfit. It burst into flames and two of the boys. badly burnt, are now in hosjjital. But they did not die. There has been no coroner's inquest, and so nothing has been done. The other day we sent a boy to a London store to see what he could get. He was sold 750 ft. of this film in one piece without question or warning. A spark from the fire, a lighted cigarette, pipe ash, anything red-hot sends this film off into a blaze, the fierceness of which has to be seen to be appreciated. Look at the photograph if you have any doubts about its inflammability. There is not even the excuse that these toy 35-mm. machines give better results than the safety type. They do not. The cheapest 9j-mm. inncliine using safety film gives a imuli better picture without the slightest risk. Most of the machines are foreign, although regrettably some of British manufacture appeared on the market this Christmas-time. They are all unsatisfactory. But good or not, the unrestricted sale of inflammable film for them must stop at once. If the authorities lack power to stop the sale. Parliament must immediately pass a measure to give it them. Send this issue to your Member of Parliament, and mark this page. Do everything in yovupower to remedy this crying scandal. Your boy is not allowed to buy a packet of cigarettes unless he is over sixteen, but no one restricts his buying this terribly dangerous material. Look aroimd among your friends and see if any of them are imwittingly allowing this film to be used. Remember ALL 9i and 16-mm. film is safe and non-inflammable. Only the full sized 35-mm. film (about 1| inches wide) is a peril in the home. Home Movies is not given to scaremongering or sensationalism but in this case no words can be too strong and no action too firm. You now know the facts. What are you going to do about it ? Don't wait for a coroner's inquest — prevent it ! ! WRITE TO YOUR M.P* ABOUT IT!