Projection engineering (Sept 1929-Nov 1930)

Page 32 Projection Engineering, March, 1931} REALISM AND RESISTANCE Since the inception of the "talkies" realism has been the order of the day. From the gilded palaces of the Great White Way to the town hall in the smallest hamlet, "louder, sweeter and clearer, please" is the sentiment if not the cry of the populace. Technical achievement has gone far to gratify this demand. There are of course exceptions to this rule of progress; science has never been able to render electrical or mechanical equipment absolutely immune to breakdown and trouble. It has, however, been able to perfect the component parts of an assembly to the point where a reasonable amount of troublefree service may be taken for granted. In the average theatre today sound is reproduced with maximum volume and minimum distortion. Furthermore, this flawless service is assured over a relatively long period of time. The day of the converted and glorified radio assembly in sound work is over. Loudspeakers are being designed especially for the great spaces that they must fill with undistorted sound and the loads that they must carry. Amplifiers are being built along battleship lines with enormous safety factors to assure permanent, troublefree service. Only one serious problem has blocked the path of perfect, steady, reproduction. As in so many industries, it has been the variable factor. A chain is said to be no stronger than its weakest link. In science the weak link is the variable factor. Automobiles, are built with the assumption that they are to be driven on fairly good roads. They are not designed to climb rocks or cross swamps. The use to which the car is put, however, remains the variable factor, over which the builder has no control. A variable factor has also been discovered in sound reproduction. Like the automobile designer, the electrical equipment designer has taken for granted the road upon which the machine is to be used; namely, the current supply upon which the device is to be operated. Most electrical equipment, unless otherwise specified, is designed to operate on 110 volts alternating current. However, it has been discovered that the so-called 110 volts may vary anywhere between 90 and 130 volts, depending upon the locality, load upon the line, transformer equipment, time of day, and other factors beyond the control of the power company and the designer of the apparatus. Thus the actual voltage applied to a sound amplifier may vary within wide limits, either momentarily, due to a sudden heavy load upon the line, or steadily as in the case of a voltage drop due to a long transmission line. Vacuum tubes operating below the specified voltage provide poor tone quality and weak volume. High line voltage, on the other hand, may result in a short but brilliant performance. The load being much greater than that for which the equipment was designed, resistors, transformers and vacuum-tube filaments are subject to burn-outs. With the realization that current fluctuation is the rule and not the exception came the necessity for providing some means by which a definite current supply of constant voltage could be maintained. In the development of a device to solve this problem resistance was called upon to play a most important part. The device was called the line ballast, since it throws the weight one way or the other to compensate for any voltage fluctuation. If the line voltage only dropped, it might be compensated for by the use of properly designed lowvoltage transformers. Unfortunately, however, line voltages rise as frequently as they drop, making it impossible to employ low-voltage transformers, since any increase above normal would seriously overload the tubes and result in disrupted service. The tapped transformer with a choice of two voltage ranges, adopted by some equipment manufacturers, was a half-way improvement. It was a relief measure, but by no means a cure, being unable to cope with line voltage fluctuations. Automatic and instantaneous regulation was necessary for complete satisfaction. Rather than discuss further the qualifications of a voltage regulator, let us analyze the device that has been perfected and is in operation at the present time. The Garostat line ballast operates on the automatic compensation principle of a series resistor with a high temperature coefficient, so wound and ventilated that a change in line voltage is instantaneously compensated for by a change in the resistance value of the ballast. A constant voltage is maintained on the transformer primary, even though the line voltage varies as much as 30 per cent, up or down. During this wide voltage fluctuation, the primary voltage, and consequently the secondary voltage of the transformer, varies less than the plus or m'nus 5 per cent limit specified by vacuum-tube manufacturers. In this form of equipment the power transformer and the line ballast are matched, or designed to function together. If the average line voltage to be dealt with is 110 volts, the primary of the power transformer is designed for operation at 85 volts and the difference in voltage between this and the line is built up across the line ballast. Even though the line voltage changes within the limits of 100 and 130 volts, the transformer primary will never receive more than 89 volts nor less than 81, which figures are within the 5 per cent leeway allowed by vacuum tube manufacturers. The seund reproduction will remain stable. Neither blasts nor whispers will detract from the quality of the performance. Several types of line ballast, all intended for the same purpose, but of different design are on the market. Some cover wide limits, but are sluggish and permit a slight shock on the tubes. Some are active but do not cover wide enough limits. And others advertised as "ballasts" are nothing more than small fixed resistors mounted on a plug-in base, preventing overloading of the tubes but by no means compensating for weak voltage or acting as a ballast. The ballast is essentially a built-in proposition to be incorporated as standard equipment by the manufacturer of the apparatus. Just as we look for ABC bearings and XYZ axles in the purchase of a motor car, so it is well to make sure that the proposed amplifier carries a device on the order of the Clarostat line ballast. The line ballast is but one of the many uses to which resistance has been put in sound work. Small wire-wound fixed resistors and heavy-duty variable controls all have duties of their own to perform in the sound outfit. Incorrect grid bias, incorrect plate voltages, incorrect input and output voltages, incorrect volume control, these and many other allies of the demon, distortion, have been corrected in the perfectly constructed amplifier and sound installation, through the proper application of well-designed and well-conceived resistances. Thus resistance when properly applied, might well be a synonym for that important attribute of the talkies— REALISM. FOX HEARST CORPORATION-WILDING PICTURE PRODUCTIONS, INC. The Fox Hearst Corporation of New York, Commercial Division, licensed by Western Electric Company to produce Movietone Talking Pictures for commercial and educational purposes, has appointed the Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., of Detroit, as their exclusive sales and production representatives for nine Central West states. A branch office is established in Chicago, and others will be opened in the near future at stragetic points to keep pace with the expansion in the use of commercial Movietone motion pictures. This appointment has been made in recognition of the important part Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., has played in introducing this new medium of communication to the industrial enterprises of the Central West. Among the many nationally known institutions who have utilized Fox Hearst Movietone productions in their sales promotional and educational work, are such familiar names as Studebaker, GrahamPaige, Dodge Brothers, M'ajestic Radio, International Harvester Company, Chicago Daily News, Standard Oil Company, Western Union, Vogue Magazine, Indian Refining Company, Armour & Company, National Electric Light Association, Chevrolet, the United States Army and the American College of Surgeons. Mr. N. E. Wilding, President and General Manager of the Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., assisted by X. F. Sutton, is in charge of the commercial Talking Picture activities of this organization. PUBLIC TASTE IN PICTURES A study of photoplay likes and dislikes made by a college professor with 500 subjects shows, in response to the question: "What kind of pictures du you like best?" the following results: General College public, student, Per cent Per cent Comedy 20 25 . Melodrama 20 18 Historical 21 17 Mystery 15 23 Sex drama 15 8 Hestern 5 6 Costume 4 3 Thirty-seven per cent of those questioned preferred going to the cinema on Saturday. Forty per cent liked afternoon performances and 60 per cent evenings; 72 per cent preferred the orchestra and 28 per cent the balcony. Of those who cited the balcony, one-half said that they preferred it because of economy and one-half because of a better view. One out of every four said he went to see a certain picture because of the star and three out of every four because of the photoplay itself. In response to the question: "What interests you most in pictures?" the classification was as follows: General College public, student. Per cent Per cent Stories 37 17 Stars 26 12 Entertainment 8 17 Acting 7 16 Life 5 10 Romance 5 6 Scenery 4 6 Education 2 2 Feature 5 2 SECOND GERMAN TALKIE ARRIVES Tile second German-produced talking film to be exhibited in the United States. "Why Cry at Parting," was put on at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, late in January. Critics who viewed and listened to the projection state that the picture is too long, taking up an hour and a half. One critic was of the opinion that "the voices are not particularly well synchronized. The tonal quality is natural, but the speech impresses one as being delivered from a distance and then amplified. It sounds muffled. Sometimes it is difficult to decide who is talking, and the male voices are unusually high pitched. In one episode the singing is better recorded than the talking parts." DODGE TO HEAD NEW ERPI SALES DEPT. C. W. Bunn, General Sales Manager of Electrical Research Products, has announced the appointment of H. W. Dodge to head the organization's new Merchandise Sales Department. This department will handle the distribution of all replacement and repair parts to exhibitors in connection with the Western Electric Sound System. Mr. Dodge comes to this post from Chicago where he has been, for the past year, assistant to Frank Rogers, Central Division Manager of Electrical Research Products. G. S. Applegate, Assistant General Service Superintendent, becomes Mr. Dodge's assistant manager of the new department. LEE DEFOREST HONORARY MEMBER OF AURELIAN HONOR SOCIETY After due consideration, the Aurelian Honor Society of the Sheffield Scientific School (Yale), has offered an election to honorary membership to Dr. Lee DeForest, the inventor of the audion or presentday vacuum tube, and the acknowledged father of radio. The offer has been accepted, and Dr. DeForest will accordingly attend the initiation exercises on November 12th, at New Haven, Conn. An alumnus of the Sheffield Scientific School, from which he graduated with the degree of B.S. in 1896, followed by his Ph.D. in 1899 and D.Sc. in 1926 from Yale, Dr. DeForest will be quite at home in the Aurelian Honor Society of hLs alma mater. A. B. AYERS OF SPRAGUE SPECIALTIES GOES TO COAST A. B. Ayers, general sales manager of the Sprague Specialties Company of Quincy, Massachusetts, makers of Sprague condensers, left for the west coast on February 15th. In San Francisco he will be joined by R. J. Noel of R. J. Noel Company. Western sales agents for Sprague condensers. While in the West Mr. Ayers will make a tour of the motion-picture studios and will study sound equipment at these studios. MOVING PICTURE INDUSTRY HAS FOUR BILLION CAPITAL According to statistics compiled by the International Labor Bureau, Geneva, Switzerland, the capital invested throughout the world in the moving picture industry now totals $4,000,000,000. With the first exhibition of moving pictures given on December 28, 1895, the business has grown in thirty years to its present large proportions. Of the $4,000,000,000 that have since been invested in the industry about half the sum belongs to the American concerns where the industry ranks third after foodstuffs and automobiles. The French investments in the industry total 200.000,000 francs; those of Great Britain 70,000,000 pounds; those of Japan 12,000,000 yen of 300,000,000 gold francs while in Germany one concern alone has a capital of 45,000,000 marks. At the present time it is estimated that there is a total of 57,000 cinema houses in the world of which 25,000 are in the United States. Germany has 5,000: England 4.000; Fiance almost 4,000; Spain. Italy and Soviet Russia have 2,000 each; Sweden 1,300; Czechoslovakia 1,000 and Belgium 800. The 25,000 American houses with a total of 8,000,000 seats can accommodate 100,000,000 spectators a week. The world production of films in 1927 which give the latest statistics available was 1,859 films. Of these the United States produced 473; Japan, 407; Germany, 278; Soviet Russia, 151; England. 106; France, 74; China, 57; Austria, 15; Denmark, 10. In the United States it has been calculated that the production expenses of a large studio are $1,000 an hour while one hour of work in the studio gives an average of six seconds of film when the latter is actually shown. As regards employees, the United States naturally leads in the industry with 225,000 workers; 30,000 supers, and several thousand artists. The largest German firm employs 4,000 workers; the French studios give employment to 1,000 workers, 1.000 technicians and 4,000 supers while in England about 70,000 people earn their living from the industry. The recent origin and the rapid growth of the industry has been such that it has not been possible to provide for any international regulation and very little national legislation of the working conditions such as has been done in the older and more stable lines of industry. With the results of the world-wide investigation of the movie industry which the International Labor Bureau has just completed it expects to take up later all the problems of working hours, health and safety of employees, employment of children and similar questions.