International photographer (Jan-Dec 1935)

March, 1933 The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Thirty-one BELL & HOWELL SELL A SECOND BATTERY OF AUTOMATIC SOUND AND PICTURE PRODUCTION PRINTERS TO M-C-M Bell k Howell, Chicago, through J. H. McNabb, President, have announced the signing of a contract with E. J. Mannix, Vice-President of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for a second battery of Bell & Howell automatic sound and picture production printers for installation in the M-G-M laboratory at Culver City. This additional battery of printers will put the M-G-M laboratory on the basis of 100 per cent automatic printing on release pictures. About a year and a half ago M-G-M bought their first hattery of these production printers, and subjected them to the gruelling test of practical usage. So outstanding were the results in point of economy and efficiency of operation, as well as in quality of picture and sound reproduction, that M-G-M decided to convert their plant entirely to automatic operation. It was found that, in addition to the faithful printing of high fidelity recording, the machines were able to pay for themselves in short order by lowering operating costs. It was established also that the ease of operation affords operators the opportunity to give all necessary attention to the job in hand, thus adding to the quality of printing results attained. The machines of the first battery have been operated continuously on 24-hour stretches for months at a time, and so far not a single mislight or out-of -synchrony has been reported. The Bell & Howell automatic printer is the result of practically five years of experiments on the part of the Bell & Howell engineering laboratories in Chicago. To this original research work M-G-M have now added the searching test of practical application. The machine prints both pictures and sound in one operation and is fully auto matic. After being set up, the negatives for picture and sound track are locked in a dust-proof separate compartment, and thereafter the machine needs only to be threaded forward or backward with positive stock at the completing of the printing of each reel. The machine stops automatically if a lamp burns out or if by chance the film breaks or the air supply fails. It is absolutely fool-proof. One handle turns the machine forward or backward and controls the major operating factors, viz., motor, brake, air, lights, water, vacuum, tension, weights, and locks on all gates. It is impossible to start the machine if a gate is left open or if a lamp is burned out. The machine also cleans both negatives, picture and sound, as well as the positive stock at several points on its path from the feed to the take-up. There is absolute sensitometric control of light values for any given development gamma. The control is so exact that the same negative and traveling matte can be used in any other printer of the same kind with the positive assurance of exact duplication of print densities after a preliminary setting. In addition to the full installation of automatic printers, M-G-M laboratories have tested, approved and are installing a new Bell & Howell developing technique involving a turbulation system to overcome directional effect. This developing technique, which extends control through to the finished print, is a decided improvement over ordinary practice and reaches its full possibilities when used in conjunction with the Bell & Howell automatic printers. This combination of printer and control technique has reduced ordinary and rather elaborate methods of sensitometry down to almost fool-proof automatic sensitometric control. RECENT PHOTOGRAPH AND SOUND PATENTS B\ ROBKRT W. FULWIDER 1,987,062 — Apparatus for Tinting Photographic Film. Kenneth Hickman, assignor to Eastman Kodak Co. 1,987,06-1 — Edge Printer. Roy Hopkins, assignor to Eastman Kodak Co. 1,987,072— Photographic Band. Donald McMaster, assignor to Eastman Kodak Co. 1,987,205 — Light Coupled Projector. Theodorus Nakken, assignor to Nakken Patents Corp., Forest Hills, N. Y. 1,987,387— Film Tinting Machine. Oliver Conklin, assignor to DuPont Film Mfg. Co. 1,987,406 — Talking Motion Picture Projector. Russell May, assignor to Radio Corp. of America. 1,987,443 — Relief Picture in Natural Colors (also Stereoscopic). Herbert Ives, assignor to Bell Telephone Labs., Inc. 1,988,069 — Controlling Apparatus for Motion Picture Projection Machines. Robert Bissinger and Harold Warren, of Columbus, Ohio. 1,987,623 — Motion Picture Projecting Machine for Exhibiting Improved Sound on Film Prints. Arthur J. Holman, Brookline, Mass. 1,988,812 — Sound Negative for Direct Production of Sounds. Richard Schmidt, assignor to Agfa Ansco Corp. 1,^88,868 — Automatic Film Cutting Device. Irving Danuff and Robert Horowitz, Brooklyn, N. Y. 1,988,882— Lens Structure with Prisms. Wm. M. Thomas, Los Angeles, Calif. 1,988,891— Method of Producing Photographs in Two or More Colors. Bela Gaspar, of Berlin, Germany. 1,988,980— Safety Closing Circuit Device for Preventing Stuffing in Cinematographic Apparatus. Andre Debrie, Paris, France. 1,988,981 — Drive for Cinematographic Film. Andre Debrie, Paris, France. 1,989,134 — Shutter for Reproducing and Copying Lenticulated Films. Fritz Fischer, assignor to Siemens «Sc Halske, Berlin, Germany. 1,989,166 — Means for Automatically Modifying the Functioning of Mechanical Movements in Sound on Film Motion Picture Apparatus. Leonard Day, of New York City. 1,989,310 — Safety Device to Prevent Film Burning. Max Fritz, assignor to Vereenigde Internationale Agenturen Maatschappij, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 1,989,748— Multicolor Filter Used in Taking and Projecting Photos on Lenticulated Film. Helmut Frieser, assignor to Siemens & Halske, Berlin, Germany. 1,989,754 — Apparatus for Advancing Film Across a Sound Aperture. Albert Kindelman, assignor to International Proj. Corp. of New York City. 1,989,836 — Optical System for Recording Sound on Film or Reproducing the Same. Stewart Whitman, Sunnyside, L. I. 1,989,963 — Talking Motion Picture Apparatus. Judd Baker, assignor to Radio Corp. of America. 1,989,971 — Film Checking Device for Synchronized Sound Pictures. Charles Cretin, assignor to Telefunkin Gesselschaft, etc., Berlin, Germany. Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.