Projection engineering (Sept 1929-Nov 1930)

Page 14 Projection Engineering, April, 1930 by its irregularities. It would seem that, for home use, the disc recording offers both a simpler and more rugged form of apparatus than the film. Phonograph records as now made, when played with a good electric pickup, are certainly not far from perfect, and such sound production coupled with suitable pictures should be acceptable to anybody. Of course it will not do to make the home sound pictures too good or people won't go to the movies. One theatre at least has found it necessary to broadcast Amos and Andy every evening in order not to have the house empty for the early performance. Many people have stopped going to concerts because they can hear almost as good music over the radio. However no form of entertainment has ever offered so much for one's money as the movies, and it is hardly likely that the theatres will feel the effect of any home product for a long time to come. One of the engineers pointed out that sound records made only a year ago are now of the nature of antiques, so it is probable that we shall not have to wait long for the perfect sound picture at the rate things are going. Colorama New System of Lighting Has Many Applications for Auditorium Illumination COLORAMA, or "painting with light," was introduced to a distinguished gathering of lighting engineers, interior decorators and scientists when, under the auspices of the Illuminating Engineering Society, the great ballroom of the St. George Hotel of Brooklyn was decorated with this new type of lighting on January 9. The ballroom, one the largest in the country, has a clear ceiling height of 29 feet and 6 inches, has an unobstructed floor area of 9,500 square feet, and is without windows or visible ceiling or wall lighting fixtures. The entire room is painted in a flat white finish to serve as the "canvas" upon which a master artist paints the room's decorations — solely with lights. A hundred thousand variations of colors and patterns are possible with the system of decorating. The designs and colors may remain fixed, or move according to any predetermined plan. Thus the ballroom may be a cool, light green and blue for luncheon, white and amber for afternoon bridge, or in deep rich, formal reds and browns for an evening banquet. The Colorama method of lighting was developed by the engineers of the National Lamp Works of the General Electric Company, in collaboration with the builders and architects of the St. George Hotel. The painting with light, in the case of the St. George Hotel, is spread upon the walls from a remote control board, approximately four by six feet in size, with more than 500 control buttons. Were this system of control to be operated by manual labor it would require eight men on the switchboard, but through the use of remote control one man is able to operate the entire system. Details of System This method of painting walls with light so that colors and patterns may be changed instantly and for hours at a time, is made possible through the use of a series of covers and flutes which conceal thousands of Mazda lamps, wTith the color effects developed by the use of color caps and aluminum collars over the lamps. Only three colors — red, green and blue — are used, but their dimming and mixing give many variations of gray, orange, black and white, yellow, purple and cerise, as well as the pastel shades of red, blue, green, yellow and purple. The dimming of one series of lights as another series comes on produces effects so unusual and beautiful that it has been predicted the system may easily revolutionize the decoration of hotels, theatres and public buildings, and, through adaptation, eventually come into the home so that the housewife may change the color and pattern of her walls at will. Besides the coves and flutes, used to conceal the lights in the sides of the St. George ballroom walls, there are five inverted troughs, ten feet wide and sixty feet long, placed symmetrically with the ceiling. These have sawtooth openings along the sides, through which colored lights and shadows are projected onto the ceiling. These intermingle and interlace with each other, as well as with the patterns which creep up the walls, thus producing a series of unusual combinations. Without a single decoration or fixture installed in the windowless ballroom, there are more than 6,000 incandescent lamps in the flutes and coves, ranging from 50 to 1,000 watts in size, and totaling more than 530,000 watts for the installation. The work cost approximately $150,000; but it is estimated by M. Messner, electrical engineer of the hotel, and F. J. Cadenas, illuminating engineer of the National Lamp Works, that this cost is low in comparison with good interior decoration, fixtures; etc., and their renewal at frequent periods. Large interior illuminated by new system of electric light.