Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

Developing the Film There are "wrinkles" in all trades. One of the latest of these, from the laboratory standpoint, is called "turbulation development." Laboratory superintendents found themselves puzzled by occasional inexplicable variations in development quality, for feet of perfect film would be followed by other feet, dull and lifeless. The solution, when found, was quite simple. Because of capillary attraction all of the old developer could not be removed from the tanks as fresh fluid flowed in, and some, by the same attraction, would be held to the surface of the film. Being old, this fluid developed the film improperly. Today by use of a giant egg-beater, developer is thrown violently against the film, preventing such unwanted adhesions. One day, it seems, a laboratory technician wanted to have a piece of film by which he could test the quality of developing fluid. He picked the discarded close-up negative of a blond girl. The girl was "Susy." Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, every hour a positive print is made of an eight-inch strip showing a number of frames of Susy's face. One print is made for every developing machine in use, and the changes in fluid quality are determined by this method. By all odds, more millions of feet of film showing the face of Susy have been developed than that of any star who has ever lived. And yet Susy never was a star although she did act once in a tiny "bit." But years ago she dropped out of pictures and today no one knows where she is. She may be dead, or she may be very fat, and have eleven children. While Susy's own cinematic ambitions fell by the wayside, her destiny has [233]