Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

AS IHE KkOAlX IAS I EE ShhTTT _ BY <:aui. » « IN ACCORDANCE with our recently announced intention to broaden the scope of this department, while not departing from its original purpose of serving the broadcaster, we are going to print considerable material on sound movies, of the same general type as the articles which have already appeared in "As the Broadcaster Sees It." For those readers who are interested professionally in talking pictures additional references will be of interest. I have prepared these in the form of a haphazard, informal bibliography — haphazard because sound movie articles giving varying degrees of technical information are appearing in great numbers and in widely scattered publications, so that any sort of complete collation is out of the qtaestion, and informal because it contains comments and information not usually included in the austere files of bibliographies. The list: Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. Vol. XII, No. 33. The current issue of this publication contains "A System of Motion Pictures with Sound," by H. B. Marvin of the General Electric Company; and "Some Remarks on the Acoustical Properties of Rooms," by J. B. Engl. Marvin's article is a description of the General Electric system as of April, 1928. With modifications and additions from other sources, this has become the R. C. A. Photophone system. The discussion is interesting, in that a good many questions are asked and answered which are likely to occur to almost all students of soundmovie technique. Copies of this issue may be secured from the Secretary of the Society, Mr. L. C. Porter, 5th and Sussex Sts., Harrison, N. J., at $2.50 each. Earlier issues have also contained sound-movie material. Motion Picture Projection, by James R. Cameron. Cameron Publishing Co., Inc., Manhattan Beach, N. Y. The fourth edition of this handbook contains over 1200 pages, of which 124, starting with page 699, are devoted to sound movies. There are descriptions, mostly of the "hand-out" variety, of Movietone, some of Hoxie's pre-Photophone equipment, Vitaphone, Vocafilm, and Phonofilm. The paper on the last named is ascribed to Dr. De Forest. Following these general outlines there are detailed instructions for the operation of Western Electric sound-picture apparatus. Apparently this stuff is reprinted from the manufacturer's bulletins. It includes general layout wiring diagrams. The whole book is $6.00. Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. V, No. 2, April, 1926. Published quarterly by the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 195 Broadway, New York City. $1.50 per year; 50 cents per copy. This issue contains a treatise on "The Alkali Metal Photo-electric Cell," by Dr. Herbert E. Ives. The general characteristics of central cathode and central anode cells are given, together with a consideration of the effect of such factors as gas, polarization and wavelength of the incident light, the nature of the emitting material and the surface coated with it, temperature, etc. A selected bibliography is included. For those who can follow scientific expositions articles of this and the following type are very valuable. General Electric Review, Vol. 31, No. 7, July, 1928. Published monthly by the General Electric Illustration courtesy Institute of Radio Engineers MAP OF WASHINGTON, D. C. SHOWING FIELD STRENGTH OF SIGNALS FROM WRC I02 Company at Schenectady, N. Y. §3.00 per year; 30 cents per copy. This issue contains an article by Dr. L. R. Roller on ' The PhotoElectric Cell." It is of the same scholarly type as Ives' paper and contains valuable curves. A few references are given as footnotes. The American Cinemaiographer, Vol. IX, No. 6, September, 1928. A camera man's magazine published monthly by The American Society of Cinematographers, Inc., at the Guaranty Building, Hollywood, Calif. Yearly subscription is $3.00; single copies, 25 cents. Material on sound pictures is printed quite regularly. The issue cited contains a story by Delmar A. Whitson on his system, and a discussion by the editor on "Who Invented Talkies?" The material is uneven and often not free from mistakes, but should prove informing to readers who do not know much about the field and want to acquire semitechnical knowledge. The Motion Picture Projectionist, Vol. I, No. 1 1, September, 1928. This magazine is published monthly by the Craft Publishing Co., 45 West 45 Street, New York City; its readers are mostly motion-picture operators and the material is semi-technical, about on the same level as that in the Cinematographer. The September, 1928 issue contains a leading article on "Light Sensitive Cells" by Samuel Wein, a discussion by Friend Lescaboura on "Just What May We Expect of Television?" some Electrical Research Products material, a reprint from the Electrical Workers' Journal by Prof. C. M. Jansky, "How a Rotary Brush of Light Paints Pictures from Afar" (picture transmission) and various little items of interest. Like most of the movie-trade journals, it carries a lot of audio picture stuff. Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World. This trade weekly carries a monthly supplement. Better Theatres, which contains semi-technical sound-movie articles of varying degrees of reliability. The New York office is at 565 Fifth Avenue. Subscription costs $3 .00 a year. The September 1 issue carried a theatre architects' symposium, the conductor of which announced as one of the major conclusions, "Corrective work will be necessary in houses where no acoustical properties now exist," while some of the contributors were responsible for such illuminating statements as, "Will probably require the use of loud speaker equipment" (in answer to the question, "What effect will the synchronized pictures have on the acoustics in building the theatre of the future?)" and, "Yes, where this has not been considered, sounds and tones are more sharp," the question being, "Will it be necessary for present day theatres to reconstruct so as to provide for the proper acoustical properties in the auditoriums?" Although the number of such inane answers was large, the idea of the symposium was good and a few searching commencs were elicited. A comical piece in this issue was an illustration of a section of the dome of a theatre, showing treatment with acoustical felt, and captioned, "Acoustics in the Fox Theatre, Detroit." In the September 29 issue F. H. Richardson, who edits the "Better Projection" department of the Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World had a discursive but fairly informing article on "The Pick-Up, " covering methodsof get ting audio