Motion Picture News (Nov-Dec 1919)

3784 (Equipment Service) Exchanges Projectors for Professors (Conlinnrd from page 3782) " Wc hope you called your manager's attention to the answer concerning those \\ hitc A. C. Uppers. He may know all there is to know about theatre managing but it is evident that he is no David W. Griflith as regards projection. Wc wonder what he thought the upper and lower carbons were marked particularly for those positions if it really was a fact that they could be used interchangeably. Of course, he was wrong. An Upper carbon is for the Upper positive jaw and for none other; the Lower goes opposite it in the lower jaw. No one should try to use them otherwise. " Furthermore, you could easily have shown your m.anager that he was losing money himself by using alternating current instead of converting or rectifying it to direct current. But probably he is the type that looks only at to-day's receipts. No doubt it would be a difficult matter to convince him that a motor generator set would pay for itself in power saved over a period of a year or so. Besides this power saving his picture would reflect the difference. Some day he will see the difference and wonder why he didn't change over before. By that time, of course, you will have lost all interest in his theatre. But we felt that a few remarks of this nature must be made. And perhaps he reads the Projection Department." They*re at it Again '^^HERE is nothing that will clear up an argument like a good A healthy discussion by both sides. Just so long as the language is gentlemanly the NEWS will continue to print articles from both the "City Man" and the "Small Town Operator." The one below, written by a Brooklyn, N. Y., projectionist hits straight out from the shoulder and we are sure that the man working in the " small town " will have dozens of " come-backs." Jas. Andrea Merklein, of Brooklyn, N. Y., will now l)e heard : " I have read several articles that this man Christopher from Pennsylvania has been handing out but when it comes to making the city man look foolish ' country ' has got to go some. Christopher surely got my blood a-going. " Mr. Christopher, you claim to have such a wonderful projection room, do you realize that you also forget to mention the most important things in projection, i. c., BRAINS. You blame the city man for the punch marks in your reels. Why not be a good little green-horn and go 50-50. " I am going to tell you of one incident that happened when I was projecting ' Trafiic in Souls' on the road. A man cam.e to me one night during the performance and said he was a good operator and would I let him help. I said, yes, and allowed him to go on until he asked this foolish question, ' Is that a spark coil you get your light from?' I said, yes, — but that he had better go on home to his mama. The funny part of it was that Motion Picture News I was using a calcium outfit which we carried and used in the towns where we were unable to get ' juice.' "I worked one day in Easton, Pa., and quit. Why? For the simple reason that no city man would work on a job with defective wiring and with machines out of order. I told the manager and he claimed the last man did the wiring and operated for fist jears. I refused to go back for fear of fire and when I told him to that effect, he said ' It takes our own boys to run it.' " He was right, for three days later in the Sentinel I read that a boy of 14 years and the operator lest their lives. The City Man lives to-day to tell about it. That's what I call BRAINS. " That was about ten years ago. And the same conditions exist outside New York City. With all your brilliant ideas of the small town you have yet to find such fire hazards in New York. Places of such a nature have been wiped out, conditions made better tor the ' operator,' enabling him to do better work, therefore, the city man stands supreme in projection and supreme in salary, not wages. "A city man never asks if he can smoke in the projection room. He knows the law. Why, some day one of you small town men will ask the Technical Editor of the NEWS how to find a lost arc. "As to the condition of film there are three w^iys to eliminate the trouble: (1) Don't destroy it; (2) cut out all bad pieces and put it in good shape yourself, then keep still about it; (3) send it back in better condition than you received it in. " Have you ever stopped to think that the city man can't lay down on his job, like some of you country operators and ask foolish questions. " Trusting that what I have written will help to bring the small town operator to his senses, I am, " Yours verv trulv, "J AS. 'merklein." New Firm Formed Messrs. T. F. Dailey and E. L. Garfield, formerly Sales Engineer and Ventilating Engineers respectively for tlfe T>-phoon Fan Company, have oganized a company called the Monsoon Cooling System, Inc. The new organization will offer to the theatre owner the benefit of long engineering experience specialized in the field of theatre ventilation and cooling. Offices have been established at 70 West 45th street. New York City, with a branch office at 723 Finance Building, Philadelphia. fW^f f Make Projection a Pleasure S. C. Davis of Reids\ille, N. C, say>; I received membership card, button and stickers for the N. A. M. L. and want to thank you for same. I am hoping that more projectionists will join and carry out the N. A. M. L. pledge thereby making projection a pleasure. TYPHOONS nOOL« VENTILATE I TYPHOON FAN COMPANY W ^Vw orIIanTla"' W 281 LEXINGTON AVE., NEW YORK You need Bartola music in your theatre. Easy monthly payments. Send for catalogue. BARTCLA MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CO., Room 314 Mailers Bldg., tticago, IlL Factory, Oshkosh, Wis. FILM DEVELOPING CORPORATION Phone: Union 4800, 4801, 4802 LABORATORIES 216-222 WEEHAWKEN ST WEST HOBOKEN. N. J. HARRY HOUDINI, Pr,.. ALFRED DAVICSON, b«e. & Tr.ai. THEO. W. HAROEFN. V'ice-Prrs.