Moving Picture News (Jan-Jun 1913)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 23 used patent so that he could have a basis on which to enter into competition with the pioneer of the invention who has introduced an improved machine. "Before any changes in the law are made, let the objectors cite instances where injustice has been worked on the public by the alleged suppression of patents for other reasons than those which were due to improvements." tary Mfg. Co. vs. United States. "The mere ownership of patents does not constitute restraint of trade, nor on the other hand provide a cover for doing things forbidden by statute." U. S. Supreme Court re. Sani Burch versus Goodson, 85 Kan. 86. Per contra "Then spare the rod and spoil the child." Patent No. 1,047,528 to Charles Francis Jenkins, of Washington, D. C, relates to devices for avoiding serious tension upon the moving picture film as it is rewound after leaving the projecting apparatus. As the film is delivered from the projecting apparatus at a constant rate, and as the roll upon the receiving drum necessarily increases in diameter, the tendency is to take up the film more and more " rapidly. Obviously this \ must be compensated for. A common expedient is to drive the winding drum by devices allowing slip of the parts whenever a low tension upon the film is exceeded. But as the roll increases this slip-causing tension acts through an increasing lever arm always equal to the radius of the growing roll, and hence the pull necessary to cause slipping at one stage of the winding is many times that required at another time, whence it follows that during a part of the winding period, it being impracticable to vary the force needed to produce slipping, there is undesirable tension upon the film. Film is at best short lived, and since tension upon it is principally exerted in pulling the film edges, at two perforations, against the faces of two narrow sprocket drum teeth, such tension as has been described seriously shortens the life of the expensive film while also causing unpleasant results in the pictures on the screen as soon as any wear or injury results. To obviate the difficulty the inventor drives the film winding drum by the frictional contact of a pinion bearing upon an external disk on the drum shaft, said driving pinion being controlled in position by a bearing roller contracting with the film wind and acting through a rock lever and connecting rod, as clearly indicated in the accompanying drawing. The claim is for the combination with a projecting machine and a film box alongside the same, of a film drum mounted in the box, a friction disk mounted on the drum shaft, a shaft in geared connection with said machine and provided with a drum-driving friction roller impinging on said disk and arranged to slide on the shaft without rotating thereon, and two rigidly connected pivoted arms, one normally pressing toward the periphery of the drum and the other connected by a link to said roller to slide the same on its shaft. Extract from Brandeis' testimony before the House Committee on Patents : "I am strenuously opposed to the Government fixing any price in any business that is competitive, but I do think that a man who nas an individual article, whether it be covered by a patent, copy right, trade-mark, or trade name — something which is known as his article — would have the right to have that article distributed under the conditions which he deems best, including a fixed price, provided always that it is a competitive article; that is, that the field of competition is left open." (Full copies of patents cited furnished to our readers for ten cents each. Order by number.) NOTES Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, one of the most prominent leaders of the Suffrage movement, is considering an offer from the Thomas A. Edison concern to deliver a six-minute speech for the Kinetaphone. Kansas City is considering the idea of providing a motion picture show in the waiting-room of the new Union Passenger Station there, for the entertainment of passengers. * * * * A joint committee of the Women's Welfare League, of Minneapolis, and the Minneapolis Grade Teachers' Association, recently agreed that "motion picture theatres all over the state should close at 11 p. m. The censorship should extend to the lithographs displayed outside the theatre." * * # * The Commercial Motion Picture Company, of which E. Roskam is president, will be ready for business at their quarters at 102 West One Hundred and First street, which have been well-fitted out, and where they will manufacture their product. All modern equipments have been installed, and fuller details will be given in a later issue. * * * # Another new film exchange has entered the New York field. It is the Mecca Branch of the Universal Film Exchange, and is located on the third floor of the Mecca Building, Forty-eighth street and Broadway. Edward Saunders holds the reins. Articles of incorporation of the Photoplayers Club (formerly known as the Reel Club), of Los Angeles, have been filed at Sacramento. * * * * The case of the New York Baseball Club vs. the Universal Film Company, in which the former sued the latter for a violation of rights in taking motion pictures of the games in the recent world's series on the grounds that the full moving picture rights had been sold by the club to the Pathe Freres Company, was adjourned at this week's session of the Jefferson Market Court. The court held that it must be convinced that a crime had been committed before a warrant could be issued. Washington's University's School of Medicine has installed an electrocardiograph. It is being used in the study and treatment of diseases. The electrocardiograph is a thing of wires, copper plates, electrodes, cameras, lanterns, compensators, keys, accumulators and the other technical requisites of electricity. It is a moving picture machine, and one of the weirdest in the world. Miles from the bedside of a dying man one may watch the final fight of his heart against the coming of death. Infallibly the uncanny machine records the pulsations and contractions of the most tireless engine in the world, the human heart. * * * * It is said that a marvelous reformation has been brought about in the motion picture theatres of Buffalo, N. Y., through the activities of the M. P. Exhibitors' League, of which John C. Harrison is president. The following from the Buffalo (N. Y.) Evening News tells the glad story: "Buffalo is being given a better grade of motion pictures. No longer are the hundreds of patrons of the 'movies' revelling in the squalor of crime, unreasonable melodrama and morbid drama. To-day the hundreds of beautifully appointed theatres are veritable paradises of pleasure where leisure hours are spent to advantage by Buffalonians."