International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1954)

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONISl With Which is Combined PROJECTION ENGiNEERING R. A. ENTRACHT, Managing Editor JAMES MORRIS, Associate Editor Volume 29 FEBRUARY 1954 Number 2 Index and Monthly Chat 5 THE LENS: Key to Projection Quality 7 Robert A. Mitchell That Hardy Perennial: Damaged Film! 9 James Morris Proper Tools a 3-D 'Must' 12 Stanley Cohen Atom-Smasher Principle Aids Color TV 14 Frederick Hodgson Light-Gain, Better Screens Demanded by New Systems 17 Leonard Safz What's Your Problem? 18 Ampex Has New Stereophonic Sound Series 18 Pension Protection — Goal of Labor, V 19 Versatile Magnarc Used for CinemaScope 19 In the Spotlight 20 3-D Is Job for Men of Muscle .... 22 Robert L. Moore Film Industry Profits Rise Despite Forebodings 23 New Products for the Industry 24 lA Elections 25 Free Polaroid Land Camera, II 26 Book Review 27 Motiograph Offers 'Raincoat' In-Car Speaker 28 Westrex Has Stereophonic Conversion Unit 29 Big Future Seen for the New Giant Magazines 30 Obituaries __ 31 Canada Doubles Number of Theatre Seats 32 News Notes Technical Hints Published Monthly by I INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST PUBLISHING CO., INC. 19 West 44th Street, New York 36, N. Y. Telephone: MUrray Hill 2-2948 R. A. ENTRACHT, Pub//sher SUBSCRIPTION REPRESENTATIVES AUSTRALIA: McGills, 183 Elizabeth St., Melbourne NEW ZEALAND: Te Aro Book Depot, Ltd., 64 Courtenay Place, Wellington ENGLAND and ELSEWHERE: Wm. Dcv/son & Sons, Ltd., Macklin St., London, W. C. 2 'EARLY SUBSCRIPTION: United States and possessions, $2.50 (two years, $4); Canada and oreign countries, $3; single copies, 30 cents. Changes of address should be submitted two weeks •n advance of publication date to insure receipt of current issue. Entered as second class matter February 8, 1932, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., with additional entry at Yonkers, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Entire contents copyrighted 1954 by INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST PUBLISHING CO., INC. INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST assumes no responsibility for personal opinions appearing in signed articles, or for unsolicited communications. 9 MONTHLY CHAT PROJECTIONISTS who remember the hand-crank, the milk bottle and projection room batteries of the old shooting gallery days may feel that they're playing at being Buck Rogers in this age of wondrous confusion. Mule team drivers must have felt that way when they saw the first locomotive belching its way across the salt flats. Lee DeForest, away back in 1907, must have wondered a little when, for the first time in the life of any man, he heard the human voice via the vacuum tube. Now, in 1954, IP ponders the problem of "What hath Sarnoff wrought?" — or rather, Gen. Sarnofl's bright young engineers ! It is curious that every advance in applied science, including the modern miracle of the motion picture, had its genesis in the work of some pure scientist struggling to find out about nature and not caring a hoot to what useful purpose his discoveries might be put. Sound motion pictures would be impossible if Clerk Maxwell in 1864 hadn't worked out his theory of electro-magnetic waves. Or if Sir. J. J. Thomson hadn't isolated the electron in 1897, paving the way for the cathode, the rectifier, the Tv kinescope and ten thousand other items. IP, in a Nostradamic mood, is wondering (backed by engineering friends in the electronics field) about the newest RCA demonstration, a tube powered by Beta rays from atomic waste. Next month we'll carry an article on this new development and on its application in the projection room. Meanwhile, let's do a little preliminary wondering. The RCA gimmick is a simple tube, with a radioactive electron source bombarding a transistor-like wafer acting as the cathode. The radioactive material takes the place of the heater in the tube familiar to every projectionist. Imagine the perhaps not too distant future when no heating elements will be necessary in rectifier tubes! Think of the simplified circuitry! Ponder the ease and fidelity of sound reproduction and amplification when the power source becomes an absolute constant! Strontium-90, the radioactive source material, is abundant and, as a waste product of America's expanding atomic program, its cheapness makes for its speedy utilization in industry, including the film business. Less than a year ago few projectionists had ever seen magnetic sound tracks on film. Maybe next year, or the next, we'lll be running our projection rooms with atomic power. Let's call up Mars and ask the engineers there about it. Or maybe we can call 20th Century Fox? INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST • FEBRUARY 1954