Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1922)

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REPORT OF THE SAFETY COMMITTEE A MOST decided step to lessen the danger of fire from the use of inflammable film on portable projectors is the introduction of heat resisting or heat reflecting glass into the light beam. In the case of non-inflammable film, while there is no fire hazard, the use of one of these substances lessens the danger of injury to the film if it is stopped on the picture. In some machines, the glass is being used as a fire shutter while in others it is a permanent installation. There are advantages and disadvantages of both methods. 1. Permanent Installation Where the glass is put in so as to cut the light beam at all times, the danger of the film burning at the aperture is eliminated. The disadvantage of this, however, is that the amount of light from a given illuminant is also somewhat reduced. The percentage of reduction varies greatly. The manufacture of either heat resisting or heat reflecting glass for this purpose is a new developement and the product of various manufacturers or even of the same manufacturer at different times is not uniform. 2. Incorporated with the fire shutter. The use of one of these substances in the fire shutter has the advantage of not cutting down the screen illumination while the machine is in operation but, of course, has no advantage over the metal shutter in preventing ignition at the aperture. 3. An advantage of either method of introduction of either type of glass is that it makes possible the stopping of the film and the showing of a satisfactory still picture. The committee would suggest that some time in the not distant future, say at the next meeting, a paper on this subject be given to the Society as we feel that the matter will shortly develop sufficiently so as to warrant a much fuller discussion than can be given in this brief report. The committee has had two meetings previous to the meeting of the Society and several matters have been discussed but the consensus of opinion was that the matters were outside of the jurisdiction of the Society or else had not been sufficiently developed to warrant a report of this meeting. L. E. Davidson, Chairman 183