Sound motion pictures : from the laboratory to their presentation (1929)

THE FUTURE 367 stacles are insuperable, but insists that if sufficient diligence and the same kind of financial backing and facilities that have been given to similar developments are given here, the difficulties of simplifying the projection and restoration may be overcome. The experiment is particularly interesting in view of the fact that Dr. Ives has to his credit the origination and the present progress of television as developed by the Bell Laboratories. What about sound itself? An indication of the possible future is the fact that recently the American Telephone & Telegraph Company transmitted actual pictures of an actor's voice, sent by telephoto from Los Angeles to New York in seven minutes. Three words — "Is that so?" — were spoken in Los Angeles by William Haines and photographed in sound strips, and were later divided into separate pieces the size of an ordinary photograph. Transported across the country in this manner the individual pieces were put together in New York and the words were incorporated in the scene of a picture that was being shown in New York at the time. Eventually science will certainly develop wireless telephony and television beyond our present imaginative expectations. When they are fully developed a person sitting at home may be " present" at any event, regardless of distance, at will. Stereoscopic television in full natural colours, and perfected wireless telephony, will enable him to see and hear any event that is broadcast as effectively as if he stood beside the transmitting apparatus. The dialogue motion picture is also likely to have an interesting effect on the theatregoing habits of its public. While it has meant nothing, until now, to drop in on a picture after it started and then pick up the threads of the story as it progressed, in the case of the talking picture it becomes more important for the audience to be present from the beginning. If the talking motion picture follows