Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

26 REEL and SLIDE Questions on Educational Lantern Slides will be answered by mall If stamped envelope Is enclosed. This department is in receipt of the following letter: Editor, Reel and Slide Magazine: Why is it that the majority of the slide makers of the cotintry — particularly in the East — insist upon price cutting at a time when by all rules of commercial fairness prices should go up? The cost of all materials, including glass, has risen until the margin of profit is practically wiped out. There are any number of slide men in New York who are making slides for 15 cents and less, in the mad rush to get business. Of course, they must turn out an inferior product at this price with the result that the quality slide man finds his business being lured away from him, and either the quality must be reduced or he must close up shop. In the end the price cutter will lose along with the quality man. In fact, I have had purchasers of cheap slides come to me disgusted with what they get, convinced that the price is secondary in this business. But, only after trying the cheap and, therefore, inferior article have they become convinced. I venture the suggestion that a large percentage of lecturers who buy cheap slides give up the use of slides entirely as a result. L. J. M., Boston, Mass. Joseph Hawkes, of New York, who has a collection of several thousand educational negatives, recently declared to the writer that he had visited a large number of the countries in which his original pictures were made. "The slide maker who would turn out a perfect product," said Mr. Hawkes, "should actually see his objects. This particularly applies to the colorist. Anybody can guess how to color a view of the camp unit at Venice, but that's no sign he is right. And accuracy certainly is a necessary quality in slides depicting historical or architectural objects." * * * The inventor of the first stereopticon might well turn in his grave could he return to earth and witness a complete display of the modern types of machines in operation. The newest conceptions of the stereopticon run to automatic operation, and there are not less than a half do7en comparatively new types being offered by as many concerns. While many of these remarkable machines are adopted for the purposes of the advertising man, the lecturer and teacher have not been overlooked. The Mazda lamp undoubtedly has had much to do with the development and improvement of the old-fashioned lantern, not only because of its convenience and safety, but because of its superior illuminating power. Many of these new instruments work almost without any attention on the part of the lecturer. The latter can, therefore, devote his time and attention to his discourse. * * * A reader writes that recently he ordered a war series from a Chicago slide house. When the set arrived, two of the plates were broken. He complained that the slide house refused to make good. Most firms take the same stand and so announce in their catalogs. Where carelessness in p. eking is the cause, that is another matter. The widening use of lantern slides is instanced in a newsp.iper article printed in a recent issue of the Muncie, Indiana, press, as follows: "Open house at the Y. W. C. A. last night was a very successful affair, more than 100 women and girls attending. The guests were received in the prettily decorated rooms and a chorus from the Girls' Patriotic League sang a number of patriotic songs and camp parodies. "Following a brief program, the guests were taken to the First Baptist Church where stereopticon slides depicting women in war work were shown. Hostess houses in the American training camps were shown, with some of the good work that is being done. Pictures showing the care received by girls who are taking men's places in all walks of life, both in this country and in Europe, also were included in the screen program." Thus the church with a lantern reaches out beyond its immediate sphere of influence and enlarges the scope of its service to the community. Another instance is found in the following dispatch from the Grand Rapids, Mich., News: "The Students' Volunteer Band at the Theological School and Calvin College, the members of which are preparing themselves for missionary work, has appointed a committee to purchase a stereopticon lantern, together with slides on China and Central Africa. These districts are at present under investigation by a committee of the Christian Reformed Church for the purpose of selecting a mission field for the denomination." The value of the stereopticon as educational factor is accepted by the world today, but there vvas a long and discouraging interval of scepticism preceding that threatened the credit of the invention and seriously retarded its development. The stereopticon is a very old device; Roger Bacon, the medieval friar, is accredited with being the first European to use it, and a romantic story is told of the way he employed it to strike fear into the hearts of the simple, superstitious people of his time. Bacon was a Franciscan monk who had traveled much, seen many remote lands, and brought their mysteries back with him to Europe. He learned the secret of the manufacture and use of gunpowder of the Chinese and introduced it in England; but that is another story. He was a guest in the castle of an English knight when a hostile baron led an attack upon the stronghold. The good knight was away from home with most of his retainers, but his son and the few who remained entrenched themselves and conducted the defense with courage that aroused Bacon's admiration and sympathy. One by one the works were carried by the enemy, and the last desperate stand was made in an old tower. At last the enemy succeeded in battering down the doors of the keep and, as the foe swept into the gloomy room, intent upon slaughter and plunder, they were confronted by the image of — the Devil! It was Caliban seeing his own face in the glass, and the fiendishness of the reflected image frightened him. The robbers fled from the hall in dismay, shouting to their .comrades outside that the Evil One was leagued with the defenders. And, when the last of them had vanished, Roger Bacon stepped from his vantage place on the winding stair, and laughed until the tears streamed from his eyes. The Evil One has been but the reflection of the image Bacon had painted upon the slide of his magic lantern. * * * This department is in receipt of a report on visual education work from the Extension Department of the North Dakota State Agricultural College. COLLEGE EXTENSION ACTIVITIES 1. Collected and distributed to the schools of the state, 93 moving picture films and 91 slide sets on agriculture and allied topics. 2. Exhibited slides and films showing the work of the North Dakota Agricultural College at several fairs in the state. 3. Assisted a number of county superintendents and school boards to consolidate their schools and introduce industrial subjects. 4. Furnished lecture and musical courses at cost to a number of towns and rural communities. ' 5. Furnished illustrated lectures for short courses at agricultural high schools and boys' and girls' encampments. 6. Furnished illustrated lectures for child welfare campaigns. 7. Addressed rural school rallies in twenty-five counties at school directors' meetings and teachers' institutes. 8. Assisted the State Farmers' Institute with illustrative material. 9. Lecture on war activities in high schools — in a number of the state high schools in response to conferences called by the U. S. Bureau of Education at Washington, D. C, and the N. E. A. at Atlantic City. 10. Prepared two special illustrated lecture sets on (1) boys' and girls' club work, and (2) work of the Agricultural College in peace and war. This latter was sent to France at the request of the National War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. of the United States. SLIDE SETS , Try these on your class: Corn Is King. Alfalfa on Every Farm. Live Stock on Every Farm. Dairying. Poultry Raising. Home Economics and Sanitation. Fight the Fly. Great Forward Movement in Education. Gardening for Schools and Homes. Canning by the Cold Pack Method. Consolidation of Rural Schools. Good Health for Boys and Girls. An Agricultural College in Action. Panama Canal. Yellowstone National Park. Concrete in the Country. Preparation and Use of Illustrative Material for Elementary Agriculture. Some Features of H. S. Instruction in Agriculture. Boys' and Giils' Club Work. Physical Geography. ASK YOUR MOVIE MAN TO RUN THESE FILMS ON A SPECIAL DAY FOR YOUR SCHOOL Story of a Grain of Wheat. Development of a Reaper. Putting Your Uncle Sam to Work. Scenes in Yellowstone National Park. Ford Administration JFilm. Scenes at the North Dakota Agricultural College. Making of An American. May Irwin's Conservation Loaf. A Window Romance. A Fresh Water Sea Voyage. A Ford Weekly. School and Home Gardening. Devotees of the lantern slide who delight in making their own subjects will be interested in an announcement made by the Committee on Public Information, Division of Films, concerning the availability of the "still" scenes of the war activities for general distribution. The great number of requests on the part of the public for authentic pictures of the war, for framing or use in albums, is to be met by Manager William A. Grant, of the Bureau of War Photographs, of the Division of Films, by a special department, which will furnish pictures, at a low price, to applicants. The bureau now has over 40,000 photographs available for this service. Applications should be made by mail to the Bureau of War Photographs, No. 6 West 48th Street, New York City. The arrangements for an augmented picture service for newspapers and other publications are now complete, and the increased number of pictures coming from France, it is announced, will enable the bureau to take care of all demands made upon it. Many of the new pictures bring the war up to the recent operations of the First American Army. « * * Reel and Slide Magazine, Chicago, 111. The writer is really disgusted with the slide men in general, owing to their lack of foresight and business ability, and if it is at all possible to get them lined up into an organization that will educate them to have confidence in themselves and the courage to get a decent price for their goods, we will be glad to fissist in any way possible. We believe a magazine of your kind deserves support, and we feel that this is an opportune time for the slide makers to get together and have an understanding and we believe that an outsider or a magazine of your kind could do it better than the slide makers themselves, and if you wil start something along this line you will do the business an everlasting good. Youi*s very truly, Kansas City Slide Company. At the community motion picture entertainment recently at the First Methodist Church, Bridgeport, Conn., the program included a Liberty Loan film and a fourminute speech by one of the high school students engaged for this work by the local war board. These Saturday night meetings are attracting considerable attention. They are conducted by the Men's Assembly with the purpose of making them a real service to the community. There is no charge for admission. Five reels are usually run. The Board of Education of Parkersburg, W. Va., is considering a plan by which a committee will regulate the question of operating picture shows for the school children. Superintendent Odgers had recently been approached by managers of one of the leading picture houses in the city, who asked permission to canvass the schools and to sell tickets at a reduced rate for a special picture to be shown. Speaking of picture shows in general, Mr. Odgers said that there is no doubt but that the moving picture is educational, but it may also be detrimental, and he felt that if the local picture shows would consent it would be a good thing to have a committee of intelligent, broad-minded people, who would represent the board in the matter and studying pictures before presented, could determine those which should be seen or should not. The board approved of Mr. Odger's suggestion and authorized him to consult with the three moving picture houses to see if they would be willing for such a committee to act with them.