IN THE HOT=BOX.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1073, 11 March 1911, Page 6

IN THE HOT=BOX.

WITH THE KINEMATOCRAPH OPERATOR. SOME INTERESTING FACTS. "Come up—it's pretty warm, hut step up. Look out lor your head — that door's low." On being thus invited by a collarloss operator with a damp face, who turned tho little handlo at the side of a motion-picture machine in a local picture theatre, tho pressman entered. It was 0.15 p.m., and out in the gloom of the big thcatro wero 1200 people—men, women, and children —gazing at that wonder of tho ago—the kincniatograph picture. ' Pictures in ordinary liavo always bad a well-delined interest for 90 jier cent, of the people —tho moving picture fascinates about the samo proportion, not only in Wellington, but in every country on earth. Wellington peoplo must not imagine that their love of "live" pictures is peculiar. There aro 160 picture shows, for instance, in Sydney, interior and open air, and there are now established permanent picture shows ill every town in Europe and America, and if you chanced into Singapore, Hong-lCong, Valparaiso, Vladivostock, or Khartum, you would find tho kiuematograph an established institution. Its appeal is universal—all races and creeds can follow and appreciate a good motion picture. That is why the kinematograph is to be always with us. Tho writer was struck with these thoughts as ho climbed tho narrow, iron stairs, and bumped his head against tho iron door, admitting to tho abode of the voico above referred to. It was a little concrete liutch, about Oft. x Sft. — concrete • floor, concrcto roof—a couple of feet at least of reinforced rock between tlio inner and outer air. The reader might have noticed that a number of kinematograph fires have occurred recently, including the terrible holocaust in a' Russian town, in which 90 lives were lost. That is tho sort of tiling that is provided against in "Wellington—at least, in those halls dedicated to the permanent picture show. What is tho risk from fire, Mr. Operator?

"That's a pretty easy one. D'yo see that light in tho box," indicating the kinematograph lamp, "that's 10,000 candle-power arc. You can't look at it with tho naked eye —look through hero, this coloured glass. That doesn't givo tho exccssivo heat that causes trouble all over tho world. It's that point where the light is focused by a powerful lens on to that little square aperture. That's where the film passes. See it running through," said the operator, as the ribbon was unwound from tho spool abovo to ono below, passing, as ho had stated, before tho little glory gate.

"Tho light , that is shot through tho gato and the little inch of photograph is magnified or intensified by the lens to anything between 25,000 and 30,000 candlc-powor ; and as the light is intensified so is tho heat, and tho celluloid film, being highly combustible, would firo at once if I were to stop winding. So you . see that little squaro is the point of trouble." : Isn't there any way of cooling tho rays from tho lamp? .

• "Yes, there is. In ■ some of the Australian picture theatres, they have fitted up small dynamos which work ail air pump, tho tube of which is trained on to the aperture. This keeps tho bit of film that happens to fill the space at. tho time cool enough to prevent it firing, but when there is a man ill constant attendance on the machine, working it.by-haiid right i through tho show, this is hardly necessary. If anything goes wrong with the, film, I immediately drop that metal shutter in fronv of the lamp, which at once cuts tho light and, of course, tho heat." Whilo tho wheel whirred tho operator became informative. Ho stated that a foot of film passed the aperture every second, and there were sixteen complete photographs to the foot, so it becomes a matter of simple arithmetic to tell tho length of a complete moving picture by tho timo that is taken in reeling it off tho spool. Ho also stated that a pair of 8-inch carbons were used for every performance. These need constant attention, and aro manipulated by four screw levers, -winch move tho carbons up or down, or from side to sido as tho "burn" dictates. Tho operator's room is a vcritauio hos-t>o*. comfortable enough on a cold winter's night, but as hot as a steamer's engineroom when tho temperature is normal, but a measure of relief is afforded by an electric fan- which makes murmuring music abovo his head.

Is it necessary to wind by hand? "No, not- absolutely nccessary. I can work the winding pear from a small dynamo, and do at- odd times, but 1 fancy I get better results by reeling myself, as I can vary the pace slightly as the subjects demand, and then, like everything else, , the apparatus is mechanical, and therefore liablo to play tricks."

As he spoke, tho film in the spool became exhausted. The operator whisked up the "selvage" of tho film as lie dropned the shutter before the bull'seye. lens. He then removed the empty spool, grabbed a full one ready to his hand, placed it on the spindle, threaded the new film through the "gate," attached the end to the sprockets of an empty spool which had l-enlaccd the filled one below, knocked up tho shutter, and away she wont again, making the audience eve-witnesses to a big elephant shoot in the heart of Africa—all done in thirty seconds.