The Moving picture world (February 1920-March 1920)

March 27, 1920 THE MOVING PICTURE WCBLD 2125 Twenty-Five Cycle Projection Current Ed Kramer, Burlington, Iowa, says : There are a number of towns around here ■Which offer good openings for a moving picture theatre, but the current is 110 volt, 25 cycle, and what has been bothering me is, can we use this for projection. In other words, can we get a fairly good picture on short throw, say forty-flve to sixty feet, using a projection transformer? The projector is a Power's, with two-wing shutter. Would take current through a Power's 25 cycle Inductor. Cannot afford a rectifier or motor generator, at least until have given these towns a tryout. Recently I noticed something with regard to your handbook which I had not supposed would ever happen. Took a short auto trip recently and stopped in Mt. Pleasant to look over a house. It is running now, operated by the Adams Theatre Company, of Des Moines. On top of the desk in their office was a Richardson Handbook, which the firm supplies to all their projectionists, first placing in its front a nice little note telling them that the day of inefficiency and the flickering picture is past. They use two Power's, taking current through a rectifier, with a Fort Wayne compensarc for warming up. Advise Motor Generator. With regard to the 25 cycle current matter, I could not conscientiously advise anything other than a motor generator set. The current will give you flicker, becaiise the cycles are so slow that even in an incandescent lamp the flicker is visible to the eye. This is inevitable and cannot be overcome by anything other than a motor generator set. A rectifier will give very fairly satisfactory service, but even it will not, I think, entirely remove the objection. Much depends on what you call a "fairly good picture." I am afraid we might differ on that point. You can get" a fairly brilliant picture, if it be not too large and if you use a good metallic surface screen, using one inductor set at its maximum. You may even get a fairly bright picture with a plain white screen, but the flicker in the light itself is inherent and cannot be evaded. The length of throw is of no importance lip to 100 or 125 feet, except that anything less than fifty is bad, unless you have a very small picture. Put in more intelligent form, any distance of projection and picture size which compels the use of an objective of less than 4-inch E F is not good, and if it compels the use of an objective of less than 35^2 inches it is very bad indeed. Excellent Business Proposition. We are, of course, flattered by the action of the Adams Company, but many progressive companies are now doing the same thing. For instance, Major Grierson, chief engineer Provincial Theatres Company, Inc., London, England, has ordered handbooks for several of its theatres, and will, I believe, order for them all, because it is a most excellent business proposition. An exhibitor who pays large sums of •money, per week for film service can well afford, purely as a matter of business economy, to pay $4 for a book to teach his projectionist to put that service on his screen efficiently and well, and to take proper care of his costly equipment. Sorry I cannot be more definite on the 25 cycle question, but I have given the •only practical answer. You cannot give what I would call a satisfactory show with 25 cycle current at -the arc, but you might, nevertheless, call it fairly so. And there you are. Los Angeles Man Honored Edwin A. Keller, projectionist, member Los Angeles local union No. 150, was a .^'illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllNlliillilllNiiililii^ iiiiiiiiniii 1 Projection Experience 1 1 MOTION PICTURE 1 I HANDBOOK | I For Managers and Operators : I By F. H. RICHARDSON | M The recognized standard book on the work of pro M s jcftion. Comijlcte descriptions and instructions on s ^ atl leading machines and projection equipment. s s There isn't a projection room in the universe in M ^ wliich this carefiilly comi)iled book will not save its ^ M jiurchase price each month. ; ^ Buy It Today $4 the Copy, postpaid = I MOVING PICTURE WORLD | m 516 Fifth Avenue. New York City 1 1 Schiller Building. Chicago, III. 1 g Wright & Callcnder BIdg. Los Angeles, Cal, I = To save time, order from nearest office. s illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllU^ caller at the office of the editor of this department recently. Brother Keller has resigned his position with the Grauman Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles, to accept the position of Supervisor of Projection with the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, Ltd., 199 Piccadilly, London, W. Mr. Keller will receive a salary commensurate with the importance of his position, and will have supervision of projection in fifty of the finest moving picture theatres in Europe, scattered in various cities of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Mr. Keller took along an autographed copy of the handbook, a lens chart and an ambition to make good and do honor to the land of his birth. We commend him to the courtesy of British projectionists. He was engaged, as we understand it, by Major Grierson, chief engineer of the company, at the time of his recent visit to the United States. We wish for brother Keller all good fortune. We feel sure he is well equipped for his new position and that he will justify the judgment of Major Grierson in his selection. Clever Reel Film Clamp Down in Washington, D. C, C. Francis Jenkins, one of the oldest old-timers in the business, has invented what we regard as a very clever clamp for attaching film to the reel. The device is merely a piece of spring steel which snaps on over the standard small reel bulb, either wood or iron, and hugs it tightly, but may at any time be removed merely by pulling it off. Its center is just wide enough to fit in between the reel sides. In fact, the two Jenkins sent us for inspection were a bit too wide, but that may be easily remedied with a carborundum wheel or a cold chisel, vise and hammer. Spaced apart exactly the same as the two lines of sprocket holes are four steel teeth, two pointing each away, bent up just enough so that when the film is held against the reel hub and the reel revolved slightly, or the film is pulled endwise, they engage two of the sprocket holes. Looks good to us for the projection room reels. Will save time and bother in threading and do away with the annoyance of loose spring clamps. Distortion and Its Effect In nine out of ten high class theatres, especially in the east, the projection room is located up high and way back, the general idea being to place it where it will occupy space that cannot possibly be put to use for seats. The prime idea is that seating capacity counts for everything and that almost any location will do very well indeed for the projection room if seats are not sacrificed. • But there is a phase of this matter which exhibitors do not seem to have grasped. It is possible to locate the projection room where no seats will be sacrificed, but at the s^me time involve very great sacrifice in seating because of the fact that empty seats have mighty little value. They may — or may not — be ornamental, but as revenue producers an empty theatre seat is about the most useless thing we know of today. So let us look into this matter just a wee bit further. Let us take a certain Broadway theatre, for example, because it is, we think, the very finest example of moving picture theatre magnificence in this or perhaps any other country. It has a projection room so located that the picture is very nearly square in form on the screen. A Seat-Selling Proposition. Now this theatre has, if I rightly remember, 2,800 seats. It gives two shows a day, hence has 2,800 x 2 = 5,600 seats to sell every day. Does it sell them? Some days, yes. More days, no, which is not as it should be. There is, of course, a reason. While it is quite true that the audience, not having an undistorted picture before them for comparison, does not actually know the screen result is not as pleasing as it should be. It does know that the net result is not altogether to its liking, and this naturally operates to decrease the attendance. Of course we cannot actually prove this as to this particular theatre, but we nevertheless firmly believe that if there were an undistorted, truly proportioned picture on its screen the added beauty of the result would fill those sometimes empty seats. And if this is so, then while the projection room location is such that it does not actually supplant any seats, still it sacrifices seating capacity heavily by making the seats less salable. One Effect of Distortion. One effect of distortion caused by error in projection room location is to compel one to remember that one is looking at a picture, the very thing one does not desire to do, and may not do under right conditions. But when one sees men and women abnormally tall and thin the mind rebels. Sub-consciously it senses the fact that something is wrong. People do not actually look that way. And the sense of pleasure is thus marred. There is no more use in disputing that proposition than there is disputing the proposition that one and one make two. One may dispute the latter, true, but arguments will not alter the result of the addition by the smallest fraction. Meeting in May The next meeting of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers will be held in Montreal, P. Q., May 10, 11 and 12. Many interesting papers will be read and doubtless very valuable discussions will be held thereon.