Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1948)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, January 31, 1948 E-25 Helpful Books The Illuminating Engineering Society has just published the first edition of its "Lighting Handbook"— a compilation by technical specialists in every phase of lighting techniques. The work is authoritative. Each section represents the integrated views of several different specialists; and the entire book has been read in advance and approved by the President and several Past Presidents of the Society. The enormous volume of solid information it contains is presented simply and clearly, and without advanced mathematics. The book can be consulted easily and with profit by the average reader who is not an engineer. Separate chapters deal with the elementary physics of the production of light by incandescence and luminescence; the principles of human vision; standards, nomenclature and abbreviations; color; measurement of light; commercial light sources; light controls; lighting calculations; interior lighting; exterior lighting; and projection lighting. A substantial appendix groups together mathematical formulae and tables that are not included in the body of the work. In the form of a second appendix there Is a section devoted to Manufacturers' Reference Data, giving details of a wide variety of items of commercial lighting apparatus and equipment. The Handbook devotes more than four pages to indoor theatre lighting, setting forth recommended intensities of illumination for lobbies, foyers and the auditorium. Several additional pages are given to outdoor lighting, silhouette letter signs, and floodlighting of buildings. Seven pages are allotted to motion picture projection lighting; and there are extended discussions on the use of ultra-violet. light. The Handbook is attractively bound in blue leatherette, with titles stamped in gold. It contains 850 pages, including a 19-page alphabetical index. Price is $7.50. Publishers are the Illuminating Engineering Society, 51 Madison Avenue, New York. Unless a theatre's fuel consumption is substantially perfect from the point of view of efficiency, it is hard to imagine that any theatreman could look through Kalman Steiner's simply written "Fuels and Fuel Burners" without finding some ways to improve his current practices; and even the slightest improvement would abundantly pay for the time spent in reading this easily-read little book. The average theatreman would not go through all of its 394 pages — if he burns coal he would look through the chapters devoted to coal and coal furnaces; if oil, through the chapters dealing with oil and oil burners, and so on. All types of coal, oil, gas both natural and artificial, coke, briquettes, packaged fuels and wood are thoroughly discussed. The commercially available grades of each, their respective values, methods of testing and classification, are examined. The mechanisms used for burning each type of fuel are described and abundantly illustrated; the most efficient method of operating each is ex plained, and their service requirements are outlined. One chapter (which users of all types of fuels should read) deals in clear layman's language with the general principles of combustion. Chimneys, drafts, heat loads, heat leakage through wans and so on, and similar related topics, are not overlooked. "Fuels and Fuel Burners" is published by McGraw-Hill Book Company. The price is $4.50. It is cloth-bound, and its 394 pages include an 8-page index. Are you using your fuel as efficiently as possible? For the benefit of all who are interested in the new technique of magnetic recording, and who are not members of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, the Society has brought out a reprint of its "Journal" for January, 1947. In this issue of the "Journal" the entire field of magnetic recording was rather thoroughly canvassed by specialists; and demand for that particular issue ran to several hundred extra copies, exhausting the Society's supply. Hence this reprint. Six separate papers discuss "Recent Developments in the Field of Magnetic Recording"— "Magnetic Sound for Motion Pictures" — "A Magnetic Sound Recorder of Advanced Design" — "Magnetic Sound Recording on Coated Paper Tape" — "Discussion of Magnetic Recording by the Research Council Basic Sound Committee" and "Magnetic Recording for Motion Picture Studios." The reprint is 62 pages long. Copies can be obtained from the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 342 Madison Avenue, New York, at 75 cents each. Strong Sends Exhibitors 'Album oi World Cinemas' Harry H. Strong, President of Strong Electric Corporation, who each Christmas season mails to exhibitors all over the world an entirely original book on some subject of interest to theatremen, has this year chosen to produce "Your Album of World Cinemas" showing the facades or interiors of theatres located in 26 different regions of the world. The book is most attractively bound in blue and light grey embossed leather. The drawings of the theatres are appealing and accompanied by lively sketches of the local people and their costumes. Each drawing is accompanied by a few words of descriptive text. Exceptionally interesting to American theatremen (and theatre architects, too) is the variety of styling of theatres in so many lands. The British New Cinema "situated in a typically old English setting in the 15th Century town of Chipping Norton . . . might easily be mistaken for a library or other public building. It is devoid ef neon signs and posters." While in Haiti the Rex Cine "is constructed between a court and a garden" and the luxurious and spacious loby of the Metro in Bombay might be the throne room of an Indian palace. 199 More Sign With Altec Altec Service Corporation announces that sound servicing agreements have been concluded with 199 theatres in 30 states from coast to coast. Seven of them are drive-ins. IT S BETTER BECAUSE IT WAS DESIGNED AND BUILT BY PROJECTOR SPECIALISTS PROJECTOR Yet it costs less to own and operate because it gives you business-building projection quality and long, dependable, trouble-free service. AND FOR LIFELIKE SOUND IT'S ALSO MOTIOGRAPH MOTIOGRAPH, INC. CHICAGO, ILL. PRODUCING THE BETTER PROJECTORS FOR OVER 50 YEARS