Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

report very good success in this way. The Hollywood symposium on 16mm emulsion position is worthy of special mention here as a typical example of an engineering service growing out of Engineering Committee activity. High-Speed Photography This Committee was first organized by Engineering Vice-President John A. Maurer in 1 948, with John H. Waddell as Chairman and with a membership representing film and equipment manufacturers along with an excellent representation of the users of this very specialized equipment. Under Waddell, this group got off to a most energetic start, although more along the lines of a Papers Committee in its field, rather than with an agenda of engineering problems to be solved as is the case with the other Engineering Committees. In the papers field, the Committee on High-Speed Photography has sponsored technical sessions for one or more days at several Conventions and has published "A Survey of High-Speed Motion Picture Photography" and a "Bibliography on High-Speed Photography,"11 while sponsoring the "High-Speed Photography Question Box."12 A "Subcommittee on Technical and Engineering Society Liaison" was organized last year with representatives from about twelve other technical organizations, although it is too early to judge what may come from this attempt to correlate all technical-society effort in this field. When John WaddelPs permissible limit of two terms (four years) as Chairman terminated last January, we were fortunate in securing the services of Dr. Harold E. Edgerton of M.I.T. in this post. With the planning of an International Symposium on High-Speed Photography for the Washington meeting next October, the Committee is continuing its typically fast pace along this line. Laboratory Practice This is another of the Society's longstanding Committees, organized first as a committee on Laboratories in 1921, then Development and Care of Films in 1931, Laboratory and Exchange Practice in 1933, and finally as a separate Committee on Laboratory Practice since 1935. This Committee has never operated with more energy and effectiveness than during the last few years under the Chairmanship of John Stott of Du-Art Film Laboratories. Membership is recruited largely from the processing laboratories, as the title would suggest. Projects of this group include the determination of a standard screen brightness for 16mm review rooms, so that the customer and the laboratory may judge the product on an agreed common basis. Difficulties presently arise here on account of the conflicting demands of the Armed Services for thin prints to be projected at low light levels, and the need for dense prints for the amateur's small, beaded screens and 1000-watt projection lamps. The standardization of printer cueing devices is another project of much potential value. Negatives circulate widely between laboratories and since there is no present agreement respecting these cueing devices, much patching and mutilation of the film results. Emulsion position with 16mm positive films has also been discussed long and often by this group. Here too it is concluded that no single standard will ever be observed until the customers apply the necessary pressure and agree to pay the extra cost where this is involved. Standard magnification ratios when printing between 35mm and 16mm film sizes, and assistance to the Armed Services in setting up better specifications for print quality are other problems. The recent establishment of a Chemical Corner13 in the Journal is 166 September 1952 Journal of the SMPTE Vol. 59