NEW SCIENTIFIC WONDER.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18230, 14 November 1924, Page 14

NEW SCIENTIFIC WONDER.

.—« THE TALKING FILM.

REVOLUTION IN MOVING*

PICTURE WORLD.

(TSOU OUB OWN COBEBSPONMKT.) LONDON, October 7

It needs little imagination to realise what a revolution in popular entertainments we should have if we could photograph what the eye sees and what the ear hears all in one. Grand Opera played at Covent Garden could be reproduced in. the picture houses of New Zealand. The peoplo who pay their shillings or sixpences to enter the cinema houses would' be .able to see' and hear the greatest prima donnas, the instrumentalists of world-wide fame, or the statesmen who have a messdge to give to the whole Empire. The Prime Minister of New Zealand could haw© 'himself and. a message to the people of Great. Britain photographed and the film distributed throughout the thousands of picture houses in' this country. In a studio in. a' back street", of Olapham I have seen the. instrument at work which can reproduce the voice or the music along with the motion picture. Unlike the phonograph and the ordiary motion picture at their initiation, this new . scientific wonder is developed and complete.. Already the people, of the United States have the speaking film iik their ■ picture houses, but pnly a.handftd. oif people, in tf»is : country "have ~s6en rthe new : -'wottd.er film* -'demonstrated. Some Now' Zealandera who skw the films in America have formed a syndicate. Mr T. C. List, of New Plymouth, who .' is' in London, was asked to report on the new invention. He has reported favour-ably-—indeed, no one could-help doing so—and the Syndicate in now completing negotiations' for the New Zealand and Australian rights Of the invention.

The British Empire Company are ready to supply, films to the New Zealand and Australian Company at a fair rental, also taking a percentage of the profits. But besides this they are ready and willing to circulate in this country films taken'in New Zealand. If the films are explained by some public man ocmpetent of doing it adequately, it is easy to realise what boundless possibilities there will Be In the direction of advertising the Dominion. It almost fires the imagination to think of the people of this country being able to look on the picture of one of our sequestered glades and hear a full morning chorus of mokoinoKos.

2fev Impulse to British Films. At the demonstration given to an audience of half-a-dozen last week.only shore : American films were used. line British Empire Company have mined not" to start the new iiidustiy until haire a gojod collection of British .films to put before'the. public. This fact creates a - new train . of thought, Hitherto*' British people have been content mainly witi American pictures. Will they be ccntent. with American pictures when the actors-hare to' talk ?•' The new type 'of film will undoubtedly be a wonderful stimulant to the British film industry. British people will object to the English spoken or sung by the American film actor. Then, again, the 'film star who has never learned to speak correctly will fail in this new art. The genuine actor' will come into. his own- again, because not only will his actions and facial expressions be recorded, but. every word and inflexion of his voice as well. "We . saw l«st week a banjo player. As he struck the strings the notes came directly to the ears, not as from. a _ gramophone '.record but as it .were directly from the banjo portrayed on the film. "We ea.w the Swan Dance and Egyptian Dance by noted artiste, <uid music and steps exactly synchronised. We heard a monologue .and saw -the actor who gave it, and we heard a speech" given by a Canadian on the wonders of the new, invention. Not a word was lost f.nd the speaker might have been standing just where his picture was shown on the screen.'

How It Is Done. Hffw iu it done? The inventor has been working on it for fourteen years. A few inches' of the' film I have in my possession is just like the standard make of film except for one thing. At one edge of the series of pictures is a cloudy bfind . 3-32 in wide. On looking closely into this, one may see minute markings across the band. These nre the photographic records of the voice .or music .taken at -the same "time as the motion picture itself. The principle _ involved is an elaborate one, but briefly told it is this: An especially designed gas-filled lamp, called the Photion light, is inserted in the moving picture camera. The light from this Photion' tube passes through j? extremely narrow slit and falls directly upon one margin of the film. This margin is screened from the picture itself so that only the light from, the Photion falls upon it. The light m the Photion tube is generated/oy the electric currant which is passing through the gas enclosed therein. The -intensity of the light depends ,on the intensity of the electric current. The light fluctuates in brightness hundreds or thousands of times a second-in perfect rhythm ivith the telephonic current pulses, and varies in strength with the current. . A special microphone transmitter picks up tiie sound waves, transforming

these waves into vnjNNjMH currents. Ait amjp&jmrliiflH plity the w>ak cun^p>ljA3| camera. usual manner, but which at any instant fjanffif the amount" Amplifiers are thousands of rrliielf' alongside the^6crea^>^^^W the^soum^