Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

20 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS the melting point. This results in greater incandescence, and because of a peculiarity of this metal it uses less current than carbon when glowing brightest. Of course you understand that it might be made to shine even more intensely by crowding an overload of current through the filament, but its life would be a short one; therefore people have had to be content with less light. These facts seem to offer obstacles to the generation of colder light, and yet this ingenious Frenchman has dodged around these hindrances. Perhaps you have raised yourself upon a crossbar, "chinned" it once, twice, three times or more. The first lift was easy, and each succeeding one harder and harder. With a sufficient rest between efforts, however, all of them became quite as easy as the first one. You have had a chance to recuperate. You are doing this very thing between breaths, and when you overwork your lungs by violent breathing you are soon exhausted. These are simple analogies which have had their lessons for M. Dussaud in perfecting his cold light apparatus. By long experimenting he found that he could overload his tungsten filament two and a half times that of the normal voltage provided he did this for only a brief while. He could do this repeatedly without hurting the delicate wire if he gave the tungsten a chance to rest before calling it into service again. In figures, where his lamp would require, say, one watt per candle power, he obtained in this fashion for an instant the same measure of light at an expenditure of only two-tenths of that energy. * * * * BUT you will promptly object to a blinking light of this description. Offhand, this sort of illumination would ruin the eyes in short order. How, then, did M. Dussaud make his experiments of practical value? He obtains a steady lighting effect by using a combination of lamps. Each lamp of this group shines for a moment and then rests while its companions take their turn. Now, the manner in which one lamp relieves the other is so skillfully adjusted that the effect is that of a single lamp glowing continuously. There is no blink. Even so, this does not make for cold light. It is plain that the tungsten filament is standing for the briefest while a severe tax, and this overloading with current produces superior incandescence, which is another term for higher temperature. Certainly this is not getting any nearer to coldness in the film. But the cunning part of the scheme lies in the fact that the tungsten glows for so short a time that the heat waves generated actually don't pass beyond the confines of the glass bulb. It is this very brevity of incandescence that does the trick. However, this accomplishment would not be possible if M. Dussaud employed the usual form of filament. While he uses tungsten he so shapes his filament that the dazzling area is larger than that commonly given to the lamp of the same size, and in this manner he multiplies the volume of the light produced. This permits of the effective and efficient utilizing of the flood of current he pours into his lamp for the instant. Because of the very moderate amount of electrical energy actually needed to maintain a light of this sort M. Dussaud believes it is possible to get this current from very modest sources. Indeed, he has said that the water of a spigot will drive a dynamo of sufficient power to run a cold light installation large enough to work a motion picture outfit for home service ; that is, to produce the needful cold light. And it is this Frenchman's idea to promote, among other things, the motion picture in the household. But it is for the cinematograph generally that the discovery promises the most valuable results. Because the Dussaud light is cold it will not ignite the films, and this gives it an added importance both as a discovery and from a commercial viewpoint. * * * * TO-DAY, the motion picture is giving reproductions of visible life lying within the range of the ordinary camera. But M. Dussaud proposes to make visible those phases of nature that come only within the range of the microscope. This means that pictures infinitely small can be taken upon films of exquisite thinness, and, because cold light will be used, these tiny images can be magnified without danger by powerful lenses and made of a size that everybody can see. This will widen immensely nature studies for schools and likewise broaden the investigating capacity of the man of science. . It seems that cold light does not disturb or alarm some miniature forms of life as daylight would or the run of artificial illuminants. According to M. Dussaud his cold light is rich in ultraviolet rays which, so he says, are "obtained for the first time without heat." According to the latest scientific pronouncements the ultra-violet rays and the X-ray are substantially identical. Therefore it seems likely that shadowgraphs may be obtained by an entirely new process. That is, instead of sending the light through the entire body in order to secure a negative, the same thing can perhaps be done, and better done at that, by internal illumination, thus reducing by half or more the mass of the body substance through which the rays have to pass to reach the photographic plate. These pictures may be microscopic and they may be moving, and through the agency of the same cold light may be cast upon the screen for study. MICHIGAN EXHIBITORS HOLD CONVENTION MEMBERS of the Michigan Motion Picture Exhibitors' League held their semi-annual meeting at the Wenonah Hotel, Bay City, Mich., on Dec. 9 and 10, and many important matters were discussed or disposed of during the session. The meeting was called to order by Peter J. Jenf. There was a large number of delegates from all parts of the state, and they all seemed to be present with the definite purpose of upholding the present three and five reel program rule now in vogue. Hearty expressions of the utmost satisfaction were given with the working of the present resolution that the limit for five cents admissions be three reels, with five reels for ten cents. A letter was received from Billy Welsh, secretary of the Kansas City League, congratulating the Michigan Exhibitors on the ideal arrangement they had made in relation to their three and five reel programs, and asking for more complete information as to just how the Michigan exhibitors accomplished such wonderful results. This information was furnished by the president, in the hope that Kansas City, and possibly the entire state of Missouri, would soon be able to say "We too" have a three and five reel program. A letter was also read from President Neff of the National League expressing his best wishes for the continued success of the Michigan League, and urging them to keep up the good work. Among the telegrams received was one from A. J. Gillingham, manager of the Detroit branch of the General Film Company, who was in New York, regretting that he could not be present, but assuring the contention that he (Continued on page 4i) I