Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1946)

SERVING THROUGH SCIENCE Yes ! "U.S." Plastic Naugahyde washes os easily as a hanky. Science saw to that. And here you have the secret why Naugahyde keeps its original beauty through the years. It wears well through the years, too. For endurance, it's hard to beat ! Whether it's scufFing, edge-wear, spilled alcohol, hair oil or perspiration... Naugahyde can take it... year after year! That's why you can count on Naugahyde to keep your maintenance costs down. It's safe, too . . . even a "live" match dropped on it won't ignite it! COATED FABRICS DIVISION MISHAWAKA, INDIANA additional absorbent materials are needed. The audience, carpeted aisles, and the upholstering of empty seats, provide a sufficient amount of sound absorption to reduce the time required for sound to die away. 1 f more absorbent materials were used, the house would merely sound too "dead." "Standing waves" and sound interference patterns are caused by opposite parallel surfaces. By placing the walls out of parallel to even a slight degree, the wall may be dispersed so as to be no longer objectionable. This sound dispersion may be arranged for by such non-parallel arrangement in both vertically and horizontally. Care should be exercised to prevent the occurrence of concave surfaces (bowled inward), which would tend to collect reflected sound at their focal points. The tonal response of an auditorium seating 400 may tend to be more brilliant at the higher voice and musical harmonic tones than the response in a larger house. In order to keep the sound pleasant, it may be necessary to modify the sound system by increasing the sound loss from 2 to 6 decibels at 8,000 cycles per second, over and above the 18 decibels indicated in the Recommended Frequency Characteristics of the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AIR SUPPLY The theatre must be ventilated by the introduction of outside air and the removal of a like quantity by one method or another to replace the oxygen consumed. Reduction of odors, within acceptable limits of perceptibility, must be effected by ventilation or other means. In the absence of cooling and dehumidifying equipment, ventilation must also perform the important function of removing the internally generated heat and moisture at the same rate that these are produced. scheme for a simple ventilating system for a small theatre was published in Better Theatres of May 4, 1946.— Ed.] AUOIEUCE HEAT PRODUCTION Every adult person, seated at rest, will supply to his surroundings approximately 400 units of heat (Btu's) per hour. About 40% of this heat is consumed by the evaporation of perspiration. This portion is referred to as latent heat. The remainder is known as sensible heat. The sum of the latent and sensible heat is the total heat of the air. In a 400-seat theatre the total heat gencrated by the occupants, when the house is filled to capacity, would be equivalent to the heat emitted by 668 square feet of equivalent direct steam radiation, or 1060 square feet of hot water radiation. This quantity of heat, in addition to that from other sources, such as lights, fan motors, sun efifect, etc., is objectionable during hot summer weather. Ventilation alone cannot be wholly satisfactory when the outside air is already too warm and humid for comfort. Air-conditioning, with UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY An unusual solution of an exploitation problem in a residenfial section adopted for the Fox Boulevard theatre In Wichita, Kan. Two Adier silhouette letter frames are mounted between masonry pillars about 30 feet in front of the theatre, on a parkway. The display facing the theatre advertises coming attractions, the opposite side bills the current program. 24 BETTER THEATRES, JUNE I, 1946