Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 625 loop. This roller had a tendency to cause the film to bunch up when it jumped." Well, Norfolk, I have given practically your entire letter space for the reason that it is all excellent. You need have no fear of taking issue with the editor. Like yourself, I am a firm believer in the efficacy and value of friendly argument. I have studied your sketch and find it to be O. K. I have published it for the reason that there are comparatively few operators sufficiently well versed in electrics to tackle such a proposition with any degree of success. I agree with you, however, that if it were practical to have operators work out many of the problems presented it would be of distinct value. Usually, however, the party propounding them is on the anxious bench for his answer. I have been thinking, for a long time, of inaugurating a contest by propounding one hundred questions, three each week, with prizes aggregating a good sum for the best solutions. I have not yet put the matter through simply on account of the tremendous amount of labor involved. It would do a world of good, however. But to come back to the subject in hand: If Colorado has his arc hitched up as you describe, that is one thing; but my understanding was that he claimed to run on open circuit without resistance — I use the term "open circuit" in this case as meaning lamp hitched directly to dynamo. Going, as you say, a little deeper into things, even this may be done provided a generator is used of the type designated as "constant current." Such a dynamo hasa weak field and strong armature reactance, which auto'matically supplies a constant amperage by forcing down the voltage when the amperage seeks to rise a"nd vice versa. What I said, or at least what I meant, was that the hitching of a projection arc directly to an ordinary generator, with no regulation of amperage save the resistance of the arc itself, is an impossibility. You are wrong in one thing, viz.: in supposing me to be an E E. I am not, but merely a man who has acquired a pretty fair fund of electrical lore by hard study and practical experience. What I consider an Electrical Engineer is a man who can sit down and work out plans and designs. If I want a generator to give 100 amperes at no volts, running 1,500 revolutions to the minute, I would call the man who could sit down with tables and pencil and paper and lay out that machine an E E. This I could not do. The term E E as used here in New York City is something of a joke. Personally I know of three different men who have tacked E E on their writings in various motion picture publications who have no right to the title. They are pretty fair electricians, one of them a very good one, but E E — nothing doing. I do not care to make claims which I cannot substantiate; therefore must disclaim the E E end of it, though I thank you for paying me the compliment of supposing me to be one. I shall indeed be pleased to meet vou whenever you are in Gotham. Meanwhile let us hear from you often. Another One. — Mr. S. F. Wallace, chief electrician for Wallace's Golden Rule Wagon Shows, writes from Red Oak, Iowa: "I notice Leadville, Col., is using a motor-generator set connected directly to his lamp without any resistance at all. I am working on a small wagon show, carrying our own light plant. We make small places, 500 population and under. Our show consists of trained animals, dogs and ponies and motion pictures. When I say 'pictures' I mean that we show them right. Only once in a great while do we find projection equal, in our own estimation at least, to our own. We have a 25-ampere, no-volt Fairbanks & Morse D C generator hooked to a 4-horsepower National gasoline engine. We pull about 35 sixteen candle power incandescent lamps up to the time the show starts, then I pull the voltage down to 60 and throw on the arc (no resistance), and when the picture machine is not running, a spotlight, as all the acts work under a spot with no incandescent lamps burning. The arc pulls the engine pretty heavily. We tried to do it with no, using a rheostat, but light was not a bit better and engine worked much harder. That is why I think the rheostat just wastes power. The generator runs about four hours each evening and it just barely warms up. Not enough to hardly notice. Am running a Motiograph No. 1 and use the same films all the time, mostly travel subjects and comedy. We get 15 and 25 cents and are sure getting the crowds all right. Our expense is not heavy and what we get is ours. Two gallons of gasoline will run a show so the light bill isn't much. I have taken great interest in the Projection Department and have gotten many useful ideas therefrom." You will note, friend Wallace, this no resistance proposition is dealt with in my answer to Norfolk, Va., in another place. You say you "pull your voltage down to 60" before striking the arc. Kindly tell us exactly how you do this. Your generator is only y/2 horsepower, I note, still that is ample for 25 amperes at arc voltage, without resistance. It is probably one of the type of machine mentioned in my reply to Norfolk. It is possible Leadville also has such a generator, though he did not say so. You are quite right in supposing the rheostat represents waste, still, with an ordinary dynamo it is necessary for reasons I have several times explained in detail in the department. I have long believed such a show as yours would pay, if rightly managed. In fact, I firmly believe such a show can do exceedingly well with nothing but motion pictures, provided always that they are put on with first class projection and all that implies. A forty or sixty horsepower auto truck — one of the large, roomy ones, such as a moving van, equipped with a governor engine, with governor detachable for moving, and a 50-ampere dynamo, is my idea of an outfit. Such a show should own about thirty reels, or more, of very carefully selected films. The admission should be 15, 25 and 50 cents for a show lasting from 8.30 to 11 p. m., and it should only make small places where there is no electric light. It should be advertised quite heavily, on the same plan as circus advertising is done. Operators' International Union? — From all over the country letters are being received complaining of the treatment accorded operators by the I. A. T. S. E. Many ask if something cannot be done and what. Others, evidently thinking men, ask why an Operators' International Union cannot be formed. One man, president of one of the best operators' unions in the country, writes at length and I wish I might publish his letter in full. I quote from it: "I note your comments on the recent I. A. T. S. E. convention and am very glad indeed to see that you are getting posted on the inside of this thing. The more you get in the inside the worse you will find it to be — in conventions the operators have always got the worst of it — for the reason that they are dominated by an overpowering majority who are pursuing the old dog-in-a-manger policy of fifteen years ago. Now to the juice of all this: the operator has not, till now, been, as a rule, a man of force or ability. Now, however, with the grand awakening, to which you yourself have so largely contributed, we are bound to get into our ranks progressive, forceful, resourceful men who can, by united effort, do almost anything they may desire, and if the I. A. T. S. E. cannot be compelled to do as they have been told by Gompers, viz.: organize the operators and* protect them, then some other means must and will be found to accomplish that end. I hope you will always continue to be the wheel horse for us you have been in the past in general and also get into the work from the union end." This brother has pounded several nails very straight on the head. There is truth and sound sense in what he says as to the situation. The I. A. T. S. E. unquestionably has not done its duty by the operator, taken as a whole. If that organization wakes up, and wakes up real quick, to the fact that the operator no longer proposes to accept any and everything ladeled out; if it shows immediate evidence of giving the operator a square deal, well and good. If not, then we prophesy that it will hear something drop with a dull thud before very long. The operator of three years ago is not the ooerator of to-day and he is not only awakening to the real importance of his profession in the affairs of men, but also to a realization of the fact that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 of him in this country alone and that he can paddle his own canoe quite well, thank you, if he is obliged to. It is indeed unfortunate that the I. A. T. S. E. has adopted and pursued such a short-sighted policy. We are not writing this from any desire to mix up in the scrap, which cannot be much further postponed, but purely out of justice to the operators whom we feel and know to have been treated with rank injustice. As to the editor "getting into the union work," it is utterly impossible. He has done, and will do everything, in a general way, possible to further the interest of the operator. There are, however, plenty of younger men with time and ambition who are abundantly able to fight the operators' battles from the union point of view. ADVERTISEMENT