The talking machine world (July-Dec 1922)

September 15, 1922 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 43 TO EXHIBIT DR. DE FOREST'S "PHONOFILM" NEXT MONTH New York Representative of Dr. De Forest Tells of the Great Possibilities of This Invention for Synchronizing Speaking Movies— New Talking Film Photographs Voice Strips of the Dr. Lee de Forest talking film or "phonofilm" have been received by his representatives in New York City and will be exhibited here by Dr. de Forest next month, when he returns from Germany. It appears like an ordinary strip of film with almost invisible razor lines running vertically on the extreme right. The razor lines are the effects of minute points of light which play upon the edge of the strip under the control of the vibrations of the human voice. From this record the voice is reconstructed with the help of selenium photoelectric cells and the audion amplifier invented by Dr. de Forest for use in radio. This invention, it is suggested, may be capable of use as an automatic interviewer or mechanical stenographer and may become a competitor of the talking machine for general use, in addition to its primary purpose of introducing the spoken word into the motion picture drama. It is asserted, also, that the apparatus for registered sounds with pictures costs but little and may be made an annex to any motion picture camera, so that when a public man or a personage in the news is being filmed his words may be recorded at the same time. The possibility of developing the film photograph record as a substitute for the present type of record also is put forward by representatives of Mr. de Forest in this city. The path of light on the film which registers the sound waves is so narrow that an ordinary inch-wide film has room for a hundred voice photographs side by side. The compactness of the film makes it possible, it was said, to carry about a sound-recording machine charged with enough film to register a day's proceedings in Congress. The New York Telephone Co. has been experimenting for several years on a radio printing machine. This prints by radio, just as tickers and other telegraph machines typewrite by wire at the present time in up-to-date newspaper offices. The radio printing machine makes it possible, for instance, for a man in an airplane to batter away at a typewriter while his radio connections automatically beat a "mill" on the ground and turn out copies of what is being written in the air. The Lee de Forest talking film, as it exists to-day, can be hitched, after the film is developed, on to broadcasting instruments, it is claimed, so that the voice pictures can be wirelessed great distances and then turned back again into sound waves. So far the problem of running a typewriter or a linotype by sound waves has not been mastered, but close approaches to it have been made. .By the use of light similar to the photography of sound waves by Mr. de Forest the printed word has been turned into sound, so that the blind can read by ear. The arrangement of black and white in the ordinary letter causes such varying effects when the letters are intensely lighted and passed over selenium photoelectric cells that the electric current can be controlled by them so as to produce sounds which the blind can interpret into letters. In both the de Forest invention and the machine which renders the printed word into sound for the blind the key is the peculiar property of selenium. In darkness this substance is resistant to electricity. In light it conducts electricity. In varying light it modifies the current of electricity passing through it. In the de Forest invention the aperture for the admission of light for the sound-wave photography is said to be in some way controlled by the vibration of the sound. This produces the variations in the sound pictures on the film. When reproduced these variations modify the light which passes through. 'The modifications of light keep the electrical resistance of the selenium cells in constant variation. The electrical current is thus controlled by the pictures of the sound waves. The current is magnified by the audion tubes and in turn it controls a diaphragm or microphone like that of the ordinary telephone receiver, finishing up I he process of reconstructing the sound. The process is outlined in general terms as follows in a letter by Mr. de Forest to his representative here: "Taking the picture: 1. Sound waves (voice of the actor) translated into electrical waves. 2. Electrical waves translated into light waves. 3. Light waves recorded on the edge of the film. "Reproducing the picture: 1. Light waves translated back into electrical waves. 2. Electrical waves translated back into sound waves. 3. Sound waves amplified with loud-speakers placed near the screen for the audience." The stumbling block which has impeded other efforts to perfect the talking film has been the difficulty in exactly synchronizing the voice and the picture. This is important, since sound travels at 1,090 feet a second and light at 186,000 miles a second. Unless the word and action correspond exactly in time, as rendered by the talking-picture machine, the effect is spoiled. With the picture and the sound-wave on the same film, the time unity is preserved to the thousandth part of a second. BECKER MUSIC CO. OPEN IN CAIRO Cairo, Neb., September 2. — The Gaston Music Co., one of the oldest concerns engaged in the musical instrument business in this part of the State, has been succeeded by the Becker Music Co. Victor talking machines, Edison phonographs, pianos and player-pianos are handled. A little egotism is a good thing. It gives a man a feeling of confidence in his ability. But egotism, like other things, is often overworked. Built by Engineers with the highest Engineering Skill. ESIGNED to stand the shocks of hard usage. PUILT to run smoothly and noiselessly under varying conditions. /fFSPERATED with uniformity, and constant in speed. Write for prices <Sphinx Gramophone Motors Inc. 21 East 40th St. NEW YORK CITY