International projectionist (Jan 1959-Dec 1960)

2000th Kodak Research Paper Caps 47 Years of Photographic Progress By GLENN E. MATTHEWS Member, Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories IN the broad sweep of photographic progress a milestone was reached recently with the issuance of the 2000th scientific paper from the Research Laboratories of Eastman Kodak Co. Over a span of 47 years, the papers have chronicled an extensive record of significant additions to the world's knowledge of photography, including such things as the nature of photo-sensitivity, the theory of how the tones of a photograph are formed from millions of tiny silver threads, and the complex chemistry that lies behind the deceptive simplicity of color photography. Report No. 2000 concerns a new technique for exposure of a single, tiny silver-bromide crystal to ah electrical field and to an amazingly brief flash of light — one ten-millionth of a second. The paper explains how by carefully controlling the time between the application of the field and the light exposure, and by use of an electron microscope for tremendous magnification, the reaction time for the photo-chemical process for one emulsion has been found to be only one-millionth of a second — much shorter than previously believed. Scientists Respect Reports Dr. Cyril J. Staud, in charge of research, sees the papers as a record of progress based on original scientific work toward a main objective of increasing understanding of photographic science. ''The 2000 carefully compiled research reports form an important part of the body of Kodak's photographic knowl edge." he said. "Beyond this, they are significant additions to the literature of science." Dr. Staud drew a comparison between the flow of scientific detail and new theory in the papers and Kodak's recognized service to science in supplying nearly 4000 organic chemicals to the nation's research laboratories and provision of more than 100 different types of special photographic plates for spectroscopists and astronomers. Kodak Research Laboratories, established in 1912, was one of the first such in the United States to do basic research. The first laboratory communication, published in the Philosophical Magazine of London in 1913, discussed the absorption of light in materials such as photographic emulsions, glass, and other media. Since then the reports have appeared in 201 scientific journals around the world, including 47 published in French, German, Italian, Japanese, or Chinese. When Light Strikes Film The secrets of the invisible change caused by light striking a photographic emulsion are the subject of an important group of the 2000 papers. Even the earliest wet-plate photographers were interested in how the hidden "latent image" is formed. Some technical men have called it one of the most elusive of scientific questions. As latent-image formation is understood today, incoming light frees electrons that move about in a silver-halide crystal and finally combine with silver Now It's "Cinerarium," Cinetarium is a new way of taking and projecting a 360-degree circular motion picture using only one camera and one projector. Adalbert Baltes, a German film producer with studios in Hamburg, developed the process during the past 11 years as a result of continuing experimentation with prisms. In front of an ordinary camera operating in the vertical direction a reflecting sphere or hemisphere is mounted. The image on the hemispherical mirror is photographed and produces a circular picture on the film. For projection a conventional projector is used, the light beam being vertically directed onto a hemisphere, for instance by means of a mirror. From this the picture is reflected onto a hemispherical all-around screen or on an all-around screen of a certain width, comparable for instance with a Circa 360° Surround Film rama screen as used by Walt Disney. The great difference betwen these two systems lies in the fact that the Circarama picture consists of 11 projectors and 11 separate screens due to the necessity of using just that many cameras and films with more or less visible seams. The Cinetarium picture is produced with one camera on one film and projected the same way and therefore has no seams at all and can obtain a picture on a fully hemispherical screen-surface. This system was demonstrated at the Photokina 1958 Exhibition in Cologne, Germany, in a viewing room with a diameter of approximately 46 feet. Cinetarium Film Corp. of America plans its first showing of the process at the Pan American games in Chicago this summer. Progress Report for 1958, Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineer* Camera in position for a Cinetarium shot. The hemispherical mirror is seen above the camera lens. Proposal for the exhibition of Cinetarium pictures. Fanciful? Maybe; but don't forget Disney's Circarama. Photos by courtesy of Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers 16 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST • SEPTEMBER 1959