Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1915)

80 MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE The chemist is then kept busy observing the batch in the developer until all the lights and shades in the photographs are brought out to the right degree of density. Then this group of five is lifted from the developer and handed over to an assistant, who quickly deposits them first in a water tank and then in the hypo fixing-bath. In the meantime the chemist has shifted the five from the water bath to the developer and started five new frames. Thus do the chemist and his assistant work. There is no wasted effort nor loss of time thru superfluous actions; indeed, there cannot be, or a film or two, or a whole batch, will be spoiled, and the result — well, one can easily imagine what would happen to the employee of a studio who managed to spoil a film of the German attack on Liege, for instance, or the entrance of the American marines into Vera Cruz. Working thus, the two men in the dark-room can develop and fix so rapidly that 20,000 feet of film is made ready in no time. Indeed, there is one man in the business who asserts that he and his assistant deliver 1,000 feet of film to an attendant outside the dark-room every six minutes, once they are well started in the operation of developing. Usually, at one end of the darkroom a "fool proof" cabinet is constructed. This cabinet is composed of two sets of doors, interlocking, so that when one set is opened the other set is locked, and vice versa. When five frames of film have been properly fixed, the assistant dark-room expert opens one set of doors and deposits the racks in the cabinet. When he has closed the inner doors the outer doors unlock and an assistant outside the dark-room takes the films in charge and immediately proceeds to wash away the hypo. This "fool proof" cabinet is very important, for the interlocking doors will not permit a sudden flash of daylight into the dark-room, which would ruin thousands of feet of exposed film. The expert outside the dark-room bathes the recently developed films in water until all signs of the fixing-bath are removed. Then, if the films are positive or release prints and are to be tinted, he proceeds to do the task. Huge tanks of "moonlight," "fire," "smoke" and other tints are evident in this man's domain, and he has little difficulty in producing the proper color. Several frames of film are put into these tanks at once and, in a jiffy, a scene that was taken in broad daylight becomes a midnight picture flooded with soft blue moonlight. This coloring, of course, is done only on releases. The negative films are merely washed in this room and then sent on to the drying-room, where one of the most difficult problems of film-making is confronted. The emulsion on the films, after it is wet, becomes jelly-like in substance. It is easily affected by heat or cold and can be very readily rubbed off or scratched, in which case the photoplay is usually ruined. It can be seen from this that a great deal of skill is required in drying. The drying-room is equipped with large motor-driven drums that are from twenty-five to thirty feet in circumference and made of soft pine strips. The wet film is wound from the developing frames to the drums, emulsion side out, and when the drums are filled the motors are started, and the film is whirled round and round at express-rate speed. Thus the air is circulated across the moist surface of the emulsion, and gradually the moisture is absorbed. But this method has its drawbacks also, for on very humid days it requires anywhere from five to ten hours, and even longer, to dry the films. Here another difficulty arises, for the celluloid of which the film is made is susceptible to too much moisture, and if allowed to remain wet for more than five hours it becomes rotten and will frequently tear of its own weight. This problem has given the Motion Picture manufacturers any amount of trouble lately, but one developing expert in Yonkers asserts that he has found a remedy. During the very humid weather this summer