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20
Pictures and Pic Aj retpver
FEBRUARY 1924
The output of this factory, however, yields figures that read more like some chapter from a sparkling romance.
A special machine for cleaning positive^ films.
The projection chamber.
All films arc di
They print at the Olympic Laboratories 100,000 feet of film every day, 100 miles of film every week, 5,200 miles of film in a year. Each week there leaves the factory enough film to reach from London to Bournemouth! Its yearly output would stretch practically from I .oiulon to New York and back !
And this is only one of the many factories that each week are turning out thousands of miles of film that, sooner or later are shown on the screen of your own favourite theatre.
It is a spacious building, this factory : two floors, measuring 125 by 65 feet. standing in clean and pleasant surroundings. And while its motto is " Efficiency," its watchword is " Cleanliness." They wage a Holy War against dust and dirt at the Olympic, and every possible precaution is taken to guard against the film's deadliest enemies.
Close-lit ting double doors meet one everywhere. ' The very air that enters these sacred precincts is taken in hand, washed, dried, and strained through fine meshes, and not until it has been
thrown on a screen for examination before tpatch.
warmed to a temperature of 70 degrees is it allowed to pass, pure and clean, to do its work within.
The negative is developed, washed and fixed, much in the same way that the amateur photographer develops his films, with the difference that, in this instance, everything is done with the
The packing department, where
The printing room, where positives are printed from the negatives.
most scrupulous care and scientific accuracy, and on a large scale. Carefully wound on frames in lengths of 200 feet, it is immersed in the necessary chemical baths, and its period of immersion carefully timed. Follow the processes of washing, fixing and further washing, and then it is wound on revolving drums to dry. From what has been said it can be readily realised with what anxiety and immense care every detail of these processes is watched, lest the slightest mishap befall the precious material that is being handled.
So far, so good. The negative has been safely de\ eloped, and each tiny picture is found to be clear and definite. Meanwhile preparations for printing the " positive " have been going forward.
The positive stock, which is to receive the impression from the negative, has been perforated on a Rcll-Howcll Perforator. Wonderful machines these, that cut the tiny holes in the edges of the film stock which are necessary to enable it to run over the cogwheels in the projection machine. It is tremendously important that this work should be carried out with absolute accuracy. The slightest error in this means jumpy projection in the theatre. Nevertheless these marvellously ingenious machines carry out their work with delicate precision, and perforate the film at the rate of 400 films are boxed for transi!.