The talking machine world (July-Dec 1922)

October 15, 1922 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 35 Is Leona Williams in collusion with her Dixie Band or in collision with them? Talk about gorgeous jazz — rip-roaring, rollicking, syncopated racket— "Sugar Blues" and "The Meanest Man in the World" are a pair ot aces. Both selections on one record. A-3696. The line forms on the right and don't crowd. Columbia Graphophone Co NEW YORK DR. DE FOREST EXPLAINS DETAILS OF TALKING MOVIES Inventor of "Phonofilm" Busy in New York Studio Perfecting Talking Film for Exhibition in New York Soon — Details of Process Used to Synchronize Film and Sounds Dr. Lee de. Forest, inventor of the audion tube, who recently announced that he had developed the talking film to a state suitable for public exhibition, arrived from Germany recently and is now busy preparing his first talking films. These will consist of monologues, dialogues, violin solos and other musical pieces, which will be worked out in co-operation with Hugo Riesenfeld and other theatrical and motion-picture men. Films will talk in public for the first time in about two months, probably at the Rialto Theatre, according to Dr. De Forest. In regard to the German invention, an account of which appears in another section of The World, Dr. De Forest said: "Their process differs from mine in several respects. They use a mouthpiece to catch the sound, for instance, while I use a vibrating disk of parchment. They also render the sound differently. They follow my device closely, however, in photographing sound waves on the film and translating them into electrical waves, then photographing them and translating them back into sound waves." In Dr. De Forest's invention the sound waves first hit the parchment disk, which vibrates at the faintest sound. At each fluctuation of sound this disk modifies a high-frequency electrical current. This current passes through a tube about the size of the little finger. This tube is full of a gas which gives an intense, bright light as it is ionized by the electrical current. The light varies with every variation of the current. Thus, in its turn, the light reproduces the pattern of the sound waves. This tube emits light by a tiny slit, which is about a tenth of an inch long and an imperceptible fraction of an inch in width. This light falls on the right side of the film between the scene photographed and the perforation. Constantly fluctuating with the sound waves, this light registers every fluctuation of sound on the film. It registers the high-pitched notes on the film at the rate of about 3,000 a second. That means that, in one second, each of the vibrations of the parchment disk is transferred to the current and that the light brightens and wanes 3,000 times in a second and that the film records them at the same rate. These appear like lines, one-tenth of an inch long. So fine that they might have been drawn with a needle or a diamond. They seem to be horizontal lines, one on top of the other, each bright line separated by a dark one. The dark line is only dark when, speaking comparatively, it registers the lesser light of the lamp at the period of its decline, which period may be one-three-thousandth part of an inch. On the film beside these lines is photographed the motion-picture part of the film. Each picture records scores of vibrations of the actor's voice. They must be developed and printed together. Great care is needed in obtaining uniformity in developing and printing, as the voice lines are blurred if they are overdeveloped and rendered feeble if they are underdeveloped. The reconstruction of the voice or the notes of music from the strip of celluloid is another interesting process. An intense light is passed through the moving strip on which appears the track of the voice or the horizontal lines which represent the sound waves. The dark and light lines modify the light passing through it, as it was originally modified in the gas tube. This light, with its infinitely fine fluctuations, falls on photo-electric cells. These are cells with chemicals which have the strange property of being non-conductors of electricity in darkness, but good conductors in light. The electrical current passing through them is constantly modified by the fluctuation of light. It again reproduces the sound wave. The audion amplifier, invented by Dr. De Forest, is used to give power to the vibrations which originally appear in the sound disk. Earlier in the process the vibrations are exaggerated several thousand times in order to give the sharp changes necessary to produce the sharp fluctuations in the light in the gas tube. The audion amplifier is required again in the latter part of the process. After the photoelectric cells have transformed the lines on the film into vibrations in the electric current, the vibrations are again exaggerated a thousand times more. This raises them to a strength which enables them to operate the loud-speaking telephone devices, exactly as is done in longdistance telephoning. In the early and the latter part of the process the amplifiers are used to multiply the original strength of the Records vibrations by about 10,000,000 times. This amount of multiplication, however, only reconstructs the human voice or musical note to its original power. Selenium cells are not used. These used to be considered miraculous, because of their power of resisting electricity in darkness and conducting it in light — a property used in wireless torpedoes. The selenium, however, is coarse and unsatisfactory in comparison with the new photo-electric cell, whose composition has not been made public. "So far the work has all been on the technical side," said Dr. De Forest. "From now on I will work in my studio here with motion-picture men, actors, speakers and others, working out the technique of acting for the talking film. The talking films which I have now are roughand-ready affairs of our laboratory which would prejudice the invention if I put it before the public. "The development of technique will take much time and thought. The question how far the actor or actress should stand from the vibrating disk is one thing. Conditions providing absolute silence are necessary. The slightest sound is registered and becomes a disturbance. During a song by my wife on the film I said 'Louder!' once or twice in a small voice, but it sounds like a shout on the films. "For a while I had great difficulty because the camera registered its own clicking and all the other sounds of its internal mechanism. I managed to hood it and keep this out. Absolute silence, not even a whisper, will have to be the rule in studios where talking-films are taken. "One roll of film will record a whole opera or symphony. Such a film would be about fourteen inches in diameter. "Until very recently I have found phonograph manufacturers cold on the matter. Recently I have been receiving inquiries. The motion-picture men have been prejudiced against the idea because efforts to hitch up phonographs with films have been unsatisfactory. The photographing of the voice on the film, however, produces a different effect." The A. I. Ross Music Store, Victor dealer of Queens, N. Y., has added a stock of musical instruments. 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