Movietone Bulletin (August 1928)

imaginations, and they tell us that inside the atom, which is itself a thing so small that it may not be seen even with the aid of the most powerful microscope, are still smaller objects, called electrons, which are negative particles of electricity, and that each electron will have as much room to play about in as does one of our planets in the solar system. And mark you well, these gentlemen of learning mean these electron particles will have all that room without passing outside the confines of the atom! Laugh that off if you feel able to. Such statements seem almost foolish to the untrained mind. To them the thing is past all comprehension and I sometimes wonder if friend scientist isn’t spoofing both himself and We, Us & Company a wee bit. But then after all I dunno! I think of a few feet of small wire wound on a frame, often not to exceed eighteen inches square, located perhaps inside thick concrete, brick or stone walls. I consider the fact that it picks up electrical vibrations emitted by another wire located say 1,500 miles away, passing them along to a dinky little piece of apparatus something like eight inches square by maybe eighteen long, which same is connected with a loud speaker, from which, marvel of marvels, comes the perfectly natural voice of a man (static excepted) who is speaking in ordinary conversational tone of voice at a place one thousand five hundred miles away. And when I hear the voice reproduced so marvelously well, with every little tonal peculiarity, just as though the speaker stood by my side, I begin to wonder if after all Mr. Scientist is so very crazy in his statements. And now we get down to what this blurb is all about, and the reason for its writing. We have said that you men who project movietone must not only be “in the know” concerning the apparatus you are called upon to handle, but also that you must be and remain at your post of duty beside the projector, with your “hand on the throttle’ every moment of the time. You are handling forces inconceivably small and weak—so much so that they are analogous to the smallness of the organisms and electrons the scientist tells us about. In this I refer to the train of impulses delivered by the projector photo-cell to the vacuum amplifying tubes. We hear the loud speakers or “horns” filling a large theatre auditorium with sound. Apparently there is lots and lots of power available, and so there usually is, but (and here is the basis of this whole talk) the initial strength of the photo-cell output is so inconceivably small that it must be built up or “amplified,” by the apparatus you are handling, more than 100,000,000 times before it is able to operate the horns acceptably. Gentlemen, an apparatus which is able to do a thing like that most certainly is justly entitled to your highest respect. You should feel honored in being permitted to handle it. Into your keeping is entrusted apparatus which, under your guidance, can and does receive electrical impulses so weak that they may be compared with one dollar and its relation to the entire fortune of John D. Rockefeller or Henry Ford. It receives these impulses and, without the loss of even so much as the millionth of a second of time, builds them up, or amplifies them until they have power to operate a horn or horns and fill a great auditorium with sound, which sound will be in every way, down to even the most minute variation of tonal effect, an exact reproduction of the sound the microphone “heard” and caused to be recorded on the sound band of the film. I sometimes feel like removing my hat when I pick up a reel of movietone—remove it out of respect for the miracle it holds, and out of respect for the master minds who have made the thing’ possible. You see a lot of news-reel shots taken from airplanes. We asked the cameraman if that wasn’t a rather ticklish job. He says there is no reason why it should be— nothing on earth can happen to you. | FLICKERS | Regulating the volume of movietone should quickly become instinctive to the projectionist. Do you know what instinct is? Instinct is that faculty which enables you, the moment the boss enters the room, to tell he will be in a bad humor the rest of the day. We are not able to verify it, but we have heard a rumor that St. Peter has ordered a movietone recorder installed in his office so there won’t be any argument as to what the applicants for admission to his realm said or didn’t say in the process of qualifying themselves. The news cameramen have to be careful in taking sound films of street scenes. If they should happen to catch a truck driver in a traffic jam what he would say would play the devil with the recording apparatus. No matter what your work is, get down to business. The time to get down to business is about nine o‘clock in the morning, unless you are the boss. Have a head of your own. It is no particular distinction to be able to follow somebody else’s lead. That’s what they put halters on jackasses for. Every man to his calling. If you can’t deliver the goods any other way get a horse and wagon and hire out to a grocery store. The Office Boob says the screen ought to be a subject easily understood—there is so much light thrown on it. There is always room at the top. In fact, there is more than that— there is room and board. Movietone Mike says his girl calls him “Atom” because she can’t see him. Of course, movietone is the talk of the town—that’s its business, to talk.