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358 Transactions of S.M.F.E., Vol XUI, No, 38, 1929
tion of 1,000 or more. The remainder serve populations tiiat vary from 900 down to 33. The smallest posts are the most isolated and consequently have the greatest need for entertainment. Of course, the smaller posts operate at a loss. However, the entire service is profitable and it has been possible, from the returns, to build new theaters at four posts within the last year. The Army Motion Picture Service is operated by the Adjutant General's Department and has its home office in the State, War and Navy Building in Washington, D.C. At the present time it has not installed talking pictures but I understand that this problem is now under consideration and in a short time talking pictures will be placed in some of the larger Army theaters.
The Signal Corps is the largest motion picture producing agency of the War Department. It also maintains the principal motion picture files of the War Department. These files are made up of some six million feet of motion picture negative and positive, which are kept in a specially constructed fireproof vault at the Army War College, Washington, D.C. These motion pictures come principally from two sources, the World War and current domestic events in which the War Department is interested. We have about 750,000 feet of World War negative of our Army in France, and 450,000 feet of negative of current historical events in which the Army is concerned. The remainder of the six million feet is composed of duplicate negatives of all the original war time negative and a great deal of the present day current historical negative, and positive prints of both our war time and domestic negative.
The care of this large quantity of film has been a burden to those entrusted with it. Up to this time we have lost no negative from deterioration, but we have had losses of our positive. We are attempting to safeguard this invaluable record of our country 's history to the best of our ability. We regularly remove it, unroll it, inspect it, clean it, then reroll it and restore it to the film containers. This seems to operate very satisfactorily in preserving the film. An investigation of the losses in the positive film revealed that probably these losses were due to improper fixing and washing when the prints were made.
The war scenes in our files are of great interest to the public. This interest is displayed by all classes of our people but it is centered in patriotic societies, schools, churches, civic societies and kindred agencies. The War Department feels that the public has a right to