Moving Picture World (Dec 1919)

70S THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 6, 1919 which may be speed regulated. The oiling system is automatic. Either battery or magneto ignition is supplied as the purchaser may designate and for magneto ignition the Bosch Du4 or battery ignition the Atwater-Kent system which operates on five dry cells Universal Motor Generator. Switchboard Outfit. and both systems are interchangeable, is supplied. A switchboard can be supplied in voltage to suit the generator. This consists of a pilot lamp, volt-meter, ammeter, rheostat, main switch and fuses. For battery charging an automatic cut-out can be supplied which automatically opens the circuit should motor slow down or stop and also a switch for starting the outfit from the battery. Additional side line switches can also be supplied, also an ampere hour meter to show the condition of the charge in the batteries. Storage Battery Equipment. A particularly convenient adjunct to this generating system consists of a 60 volt 120 ampere hour storage battery of 32 cells which serves to steady the current output and to permit of a reserve supply of current to be stored up at such times -as the current consumption falls below the rate at which it is being generated. Such a storage battery serves in the capacity of a reservoir from which a supply may be drawn when requirements exceed the generating rate of the motor. It also permits of the motor being self started by pressing a button. Byron Chandler, Inc. Byron Chandler, Inc., of New York and Boston, exhibit the Feaster NoRewind Machine, a simple, patented device, which can easily and quickly be attached to any make or model of motion picture projecting machine, and which eliminates the necessity of rewinding any and all film, in connection with showing of pictures. The operation is simple and consists of taking the first picture from the cen-, tre of the coil of film instead of from the outside. In order to take the centre out of the roll of film, it is necessary to make a curve in the film before threading it through the projecting machine, and it is in the method of taking the first picture from the centre and in making this curve which the Feaster machine accomplishes that it is able to produce successfully the result of showing pictures without the necessity of rewinding the film. How the Device Works. The device consists of a horizontal magazine, which replaces the present upper magazine and attaches to the projecting machine in exactly the same manner and without any further adjustment, necessitating no change in the picture machine. The film is carried on a freely revolving ball bearing aluminum pan, in the centre of which is a stationary cage of rollers. The roll of film is placed on the pan, around this roller cage, and the end of the film on which is the first picture is drawn from the centre of the coil by a vertical sprocket inside the roller cage. Thus the only strain on the film is exerted in a direct pull to this sprocket, and this . strain is minimized by the fact that the entire roll of film is revolving with the pan, and also around the rollers in the cage. At present the entire weight of the roll of film, as well as the reel itself, is being pulled by a single strip of film in the unwinding process which the picture is being shown. With the Feaster device a large percentage of the breaking of film at this point is eliminated. No Strain on the Curve. After the first picture end of the film Feaster No-Rewind Machine. has been drawn from the centre of the coil by the sprocket, a loop, or curve, is made in the film and the end put through the floor of the magazine and threaded through the projecting machine exactly as at present. Once the size of this curve has been set it is impossible for it to vary during the showing of the picture, and at no time can the slightest strain be put on this curve, irrespective of the speed at which the machine is operated. The reason for this is that the film is at all times being taken into the projecting machine at precisely the same speed that it is being drawn from the centre of the coil, as the upper sprocket of the picture machine is geared directly to the sprocket in the Feaster machine and turns at exactly the same number of revolutions per minute. The roller cage in the Feaster magazine around which the film is unwound is five inches in diameter, and in order that the roll of film may have a five-inch hole in the centre, a special receiving reel is used in the lower magazine. This special Feaster reel has a five-inch hollow hub, and is made in two halves, which can easily be taken apart with one hand, leaving the roll of film on onehalf of the reel around the hub. It is then placed in the upper magazine exactly as it came on to the take-up reel, and is immediately ready to be shown again. Since the pan in the upper magazine is free to revolve at any speed, and is turned only by the edge contact of the film it regulates its own speed and never runs too fast or too slow, regardless of how quickly the machine is started or stopped. What Is Claimed for the Device. Its manufacturers claim that the Feaster eliminates all the wear and tear on the film due to re-winding and that 90 per cent, of the present damage to the film is estimated to occur during the continued re-winding now necessary. That, by eliminating all re-winding and the attendant wear and tear on the film, the life and value of each film will be enhanced by just so much as it is now damaged by being rewound. That, a film which under present conditions ceases to have a renting value at the end of a certain number of weeks or months, owing largely to the scratching and breaking caused by rewinding, will, when used in conjunction with the Feaster attachment, continue to be in good renting condition for an indefinite period. That, with the Feaster device in general use on projecting machines, much of the labor of rewinding which is now necessary in film exchanges will be eliminated, as the film will not need to be rewound in order that it may again be shown. That eliminates all rewinding of film in connection with the showing of motion pictures and the boy who does the rewinding. That it eliminates all the labor and annoyance of rewinding for the operator, in case a rewind boy is not employed. That it eliminates all of the fire risk attendant upon the rewinding of film each and every time it is shown, and that the insurance rate should be reduced proportionately. That it eliminates all the breaking of