Visual Education (Jan-Nov 1920)

42 Visual Education the people of Great Britain and America with great thoughts and purposes, inspired by "the common and glorious heritage from the past." * * * ON April 30th, at the Cafe Boulevard, New York City, an informal dinner was given by the Pathescope Company of America, to an invited company of about 50 representative educators. It was a significant event for all those interested in the progress of visual education, not only for the speeches made there by prominent educators, but also for the demonstration given by Mr. Cook, President of the Pathescope Company, of a new model Pathescope far superior to the old machine which was officially adopted for New York schools about five years ago. (For detailed information on this machine, our readers should address The Pathescope Company of America, 35 West 42nd street, New York City, or 17 North Wabash avenue, Chicago, 111.) The dinner was attended by representatives of the Educational Department of Universal Films, of the Educational Film Magazine, and of Visual Education; the rest of the company consisted entirely of High School principals and superintendents. Addresses were given by Dr. Ernest L. Crandall, Director of Lectures, New York Board of Education, on "Some Recent Experiments in Visual Education;" by Mr. Don Carlos Ellis, Director of Educational Production, Universal Film Manufacturing Company, on "The Plan of Films in Classroom Instruction;" by Mr. Wm. P. McCarthy, Principal Public School No. 52, Bronx, on "Selection of Projectors for School Use;" and by Dr. Edward W. Stitt, District Superintendent of Schools, New York City, on "Do We Teachers Talk Too Much?" ¥ * ¥ The following is an extract freely translated from a long article in "UIllustration" for the 10th day of January, 1920. It is an elaborate account of the newly perfected cinematograph for colored pictures which is announced as completed by Gaumont & Co., one of the foremost motion picture firms in France. The article contains diagrams and photographs which make exceedingly clear the working of the new machine. THE Academy of Sciences on the 10th of November last enjoyed a demonstration by the Chief Engineer of the Gaumont Company of their latest device for reproducing moving subjects in colors. Today these fascinating exhibitions are freely being offered to the public. This time it is really cinematography in colors— a thing which can be obtained by everyone without handling color materials at all. The processes are simple and short, as the celluloid film itself, although in black and white as usual, brings out upon the screen the infinitely varied shadings of natural color. The negatives themselves are identical in appearance with the regular film which has been projected for the past 25 years throughout the world. In 1912 M. Gaumont gave a few demonstrations which proved that he had gone furthest along the track toward this end. In 1914 he had almost reached the goal when the war brutally ended his researches. In 1919 he is there. We have already seen all the colors in all their infinite shades of value reproduced by the combination of the three fundamental colors which we call for simplicity's sake green, red, and blue. (The actual shades established after long experimentation are a yellowish green, an orange red, and a blue violet.) If, then, one could take three separate snapshots of the subject upon an ordinary film, but in such a way that one of the negatives should be made only by the green rays, the second by the red rays, and the third by the blue rays, these images would have absorbed all the coloring which was formerly distributed throughout the whole composition. We should have then a three-fold negative, each of slightly different values but all three black and white. Then if the positive obtained by direct print should be reflected back in a mass upon the screen, we should have the same blending of green, red, and blue rays, identical in quantity and arrangement as the rays which first struck the film when the picture was taken. In other words, therefore, the picture would in