THE PALOPHOTOPHONE.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17747, 26 April 1923, Page 11

THE PALOPHOTOPHONE.

NEW FILMS THAT SPEAK, , The latest firsthand -information to reach New Zealand about the pnlopliotophono oom<o through the medium of Mr Matthow Gable, eleotrical engineer, and assistant managen c< the Wellington Tramways, who arrived home on Saturday after ten months' abeenoe from New Zealand. He returned via America, ing a ton-daya* trip across the Atlantic in the Baltic, which encountered the worst of the record storms in Ja-nuaiy. "When he arrived New York' was under a. mantl© of snow, and blizzards had played havoo throughout' the country. Whilst in New York be waa' fori una to enough to be invited to an imp ortant convention of electrical engineers, which proved to be very interesting. It was at this convention that the first demonstration in public was given of tho palophotophone, op talking film.' By this film—a oelluloid film just tho fame dimensions and texture as til* kinema film—it was possible for a man to speak into a machine and for the film to take his in the form of- vibrations, .which show along the top edge of lie obaonred half of the film in a jogged line of varying aiia and shape, ac-ording to the intensity <u the tone omployed. "This is no doubt one of the greatest m&r» wla of the age," said Mr Cable, "as one can easily eeo_ the 'possibilities of utilising suoh an invention with tho kinema. One if the most striking features of the palophotophona is the clearness andi naturalnees of the speech. At the convention a test waamado. A man spoke a brief speech, ■ and a reoord of the eamo speech waa iteprndttocd by, tho now machmo. So alike were the two voioee that the majority of those present .voted that the reoord waa the real voice." Mr Cable has brought back a length of fh« film with speech recorded upon itj. but. It couldl not be reproduced without the new voice-projecting ninchine. Bo* the imag4 of vibrations on a film can be translated into sound has something to db with the influence of light.