Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

SYNCROFILM PROFESSIONAL SOUND PROJECTOR World premiere quality of projection and sound at a price a small-town theatre can quickly pay back without strain . . that's what you get in this new Professional byncrofilm Projector. Projection and sound complete in one unit. May be mounted on Powers 6A or 6B Stand. Illustrated interesting folder tells about its twenty features and big moneymaking possibilities. Send for it now. WEBER MACHINE CORP., 59 R utter St., ROCHESTER N Y Export: 15 LAIGHT ST., NEW YORK. Cable Address ''Rom".)*" Better Projection at Less Cost! CARVER KURRENT CHANCER For changing alternating current to direct current for use with reflector arc lamps. Heavy transformer and reactor windings produce the steady current (15 to 30 amps.) necessary to a stable arc, and unvarying light intensity. Ends change-over troubles. Employs the economical and dependable full wave method of rectification, operating from 20 to 30% cheaper than other designs because no outside rheostats are necessary and no current is consumed through moving parts. A real saving of carbon also is realized. Unquestionably the quietest rectifier on the market. Sets up no interference. Will give years of troublefree service. May be safely operated at full capacity. Prices start at See your dealer or write today for details. $82 CAPVER^^COMPAMY UNION CITY, IND. * Brighter CLEARER PICTURES RECT O-LITE RECTIFIER— CUTS CURRENT COST Rugged construction, Ample material used assures long service and extra margin of safety. No hum, no whine, no sputtering. Gives even, steady, strong light from your arc lamps. Type 30M — For low intensity carbon arcs. 15-30 amps. Operate from 110 or 220 volt, 60 cy. current. 7 -point current control. Requires two 15 amp. bulbs. Price including CfiA AA ammeter, less bulbs... tpOU.UU I Year Unconditional Guarantee Ask about 60 ampere Rect-O-Lite for high intensity arc lamps. Distributed by Independent Theatre Supply Dealers. BALDOR ELECTRIC CO. Electrical Mfrs. for 16 Years 4367 Duncan Ave., St. Louis, Mo. to myself, to be based not so much on theory as upon practical work and actual theatre practice, which so many writers seem to either be unadvised of or to wholly ignore. I have shown this official your Bluebook (a splendid book for exhibitors and managers as well as for projectionists) and your Comment in Better Theatres. He has agreed that if I submit the question to you he will abide by your decision. The question is: What fire prevention measures are necessary in motion picture theatres? What, if any, fire drill is advisable? I will deeply appreciate a detailed answer to these questions, but please do not use my name or name of city if your reply is printed." This exhibitor has only a film fire in mind. First of all you will find details of this matter, insofar as concerns the projection room, on pages 258 to 261, inclusive, of your Bluebook. They include, briefly, fireproof construction, fireproof port shutters so suspended that within half a second of the start of a fire they will, with very little noise, fall automatically. Above all things, there must be means established to provide for draining out all smoke and gas as fast as formed by the fire, and that means must be put into full effect automatically when the port shutters fall. If this be done and well done, the audience will not know definitely that there is any fire, regardless of its size, making a panic unlikely. This may be done and panics made highly improbable, but it is not what can be done but what is done that counts, and in a very large number of our theatres, what I have set forth is not done in anything even faintly approaching an adequate manner. Conditions in different theatres vary widely, of course, but in them all it is highly important that all emergency exit doors be opened quickly. The natural tendency is to go out by the main entrance. Experience has demonstrated that in the excitement of panic, people will rush past a closed emergency exit door toward the main entrance, where congestion may and frequently does set up a highly dangerous condition. The chief use of a fire drill therefore is to get emergency exits open in the least possible space of time. So far as possible, assign one employe to each emergency exit door, with orders to open it wide instantly the fire signal sounds or shows, and to stand beside it announcing (not yelling, but cooly announcing, in a loud tone of voice) "This way out." The periodic drill is to determine how promptly and efficiently each employe responds. ANOTHER OLD TIMER PASSES I am advised by Local No. 219, IATSE & MPMO, Minneapolis, that Charles R. Wells, one of its organizers and old-time projectionists, has passed on. Charles R. Wells was a veteran showman. One of the organizers of No. 219, he was its first business representative and financial secretary. He has ever since that time been active in its affairs. Charlie was a familiar and well liked figure at IATSE conventions, most of which he attended as representative of Local 219. As an old-time projectionist, he ranked high on the list, having become projectionist at the Minneapolis Orpheum theatre in 1905. He held that position until the final roll call. SUITABILITY OF MAZDA LIGHT LEONARD A. TRALL of the Sioux theatre, Anthon, la., presents the following request for information: "Dear Mr. Richardson, I am the owner of a small house where high cost of electrical current makes economy in its consumption imperative. We have two 6-B Powers projectors equipped with the oldfashioned arc using the near-vertical carbon setting. We use a motor to pull a generator which converts the 110-volt, 60cycle a.c. to d.c. Projection distance 72 feet. Screen image 8x11 feet. Will you advise us as to whether or not 1,000-watt mazda lamps would be as satisfactory and could they not be used on a.c, so that no rectifier would be required? In the event the mazda would be at all satisfactory, we feel that the reduction in electric power consumption would justify us in making the change." Mazda, properly handled (make note of that, please), with projection lenses of proper diameter, can be made to supply plenty of illumination for an 11 -foot picture at 72 feet projection distance. No rectifier is required. I mention projection distance, not because added distance causes any appreciable loss, but for the reason that if a too-long focal length projection lens is necessary, the working distance (distance of rear surface of projection lens to film when screen image is in focus) will perhaps make it impossible to get all the light beam (which diverges between lens and aperture) into the lens. However, your condition is such that by using projection lenses of large diameter there should be no difficulty in this respect. But don't attempt to make small diameter projection lenses serve. As to whether the resultant illumination will be "satisfactory" or not depends upon what your ideas of "satisfactory" may be. Mazda light does not have that rather harsh brilliancy provided by the modern electric arcs now in general use for projection of motion pictures. Its light is, by comparison, very soft and slightly ambertinted, though viewed alone it looks perfectly white. MAKING EQUIPMENT DATA AVAILABLE from a projectionist in the Middle West comes this letter, with the request that the name of the writer be withheld : "Dear Mr. Richardson: This is my first letter to you, though I have been a projectionist since 1913, in which days, as RECT-O-LITE A BETTER RECTIFIER 30 Better Theatres