RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 155, 28 March 1938, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (By Kickshaws.) We think the moment has come la Europe when the whereabouts should be disclosed of those fifty million Frenchmen who can’t be wrong. ♦ ♦ ® War debts, says a speaker, are unthinkable. The world seems well able to think of war without them, all right. $ # ♦ A Frenchman declares that there is a law in England to prevent a man marrying bis mother-in-law: those mad English. » » « “Would you please be so good as to settle still another argument?” asks "Puzzled." "When honouring a toast, does one drink both before and after tho musical honours or not?” [So far as is known, the usual custom is to drink after the musical honours. What usually happens, however, is that most of those present forget that there are to be musical honours. They snatch a much-required drink when the opening burs begin. The drink, so to speak, is held in suspended anticipation until after the tiresome delay. Maybe an expert on the matter would care to elaborate?]

When a cinema film depleting religious subjects was recently shown at Chichester Cathedral, Englund, the dean explained that the experiment was a further step forward in lantern lectures that were once so popular. Lantern lectures, however, are not dead. There is always an attraction about them. “And, s-L we come, ladies and gentlemen, to my next slide, showing, er-er, the incomparable beauty of the west gate,” or the cherry tree in flower, or whatever it is. Tap-tap goes the pointer on the floor, and a beam of light wavers across the hall, ami there appears on the screen, upside down, a picture of a cat and her kittens. The lantern lecture, indeed, is by no means dead; in Britain, anyway. From one distributor alone, 1000 sets of lantern slides are hired out every year to village halls and literary societies.

One may wonder why lantern lectures continue to survive, but one curious reason is the strictness of regulations regarding the display of cluema films. Unless expensive fireproof apparatus is used, the cinema is banned. The magic-lantern costs perhaps £5 to prepare, the cinema film about £25. The Dean of Chichester, in fact, might be pleased to know that religion is the best selling lantern lecture topic.. Tinmost popular lecture, guaranteed to till village halls, is the vicar’s lantern lecture on “Six Most Dangerous Things in Life.” Dr., Johnson, the Duke of Wellington, and John Wesley, are the magic-lantern stars. A curious repercussion of lantern lectures is the lack of interest in drink films, once so popular. Lantern slide hirers have been forced to send these slides to missionaries abroad. Wildest Africa Is now regaled with lantern slides depicting the English public-house and the perils of drinking gin. One ean but wonder If it is for the best.

If the vogue of the lantern lecture is not yet dead, the uses to which the cinema film may be put are scarcely developed a.t all. Nevertheless, film funs may be Interested to know that this art has been used for many purposes other than hero worship nt the local cinema. One curious adaptation of cinema technique is for making statues instead of stars. The sitter is placed in a

chair mounted on a rotating platform. Au intense spotlight projects a patterned disc of light on to the subjectA camera containing cinema film is focused on the sitter. The film winds at a speed proportional to the rotation of the sitter. On development, a series of peculiar light streaks is obtained. The film is then placed in a special machine, where the light patterns serve as relays to guide cutting tools which operate on a block of suitable wood. This wood slowly rotates and: is cut into the correct profiles of the sitter with the precision of photographic standards.

Already the cinema film has been pressed into service at race meetings. In fact, a check on jockeys was first made at Ellerslie some six years ago. In other countries film records have shown that a horse that was supposed to have just won had actually just lost. A modified model has been used at sports meetings. In one case the film revealed that the individual who had been given the verdict was actually .06 of a second behind the real winner, a period of time too quick for the eye to appreciate. Cinema technique has been developed to slow down swiftlymoving things, and to speed up slowmoving things. In the first instance, it is possible to slew down the bursting of a toy balloon so that it occupies several minutes. In the second ease it is possible to watch plants growing and the cultivation of cell tissues. One film, in fact, depicts the development of cells causing tumours and the effect on them Of radium and other substances. It has even been suggested that geographical films should be taken depicting the changes that are occurring slowly In the land. In about 10.000 years such a film would make interesting viewing.

“Will you please settle the following argument for me?” asks “R.N.S." “A friend has attempted to convince me that there is no law of libel in the United States of America, ancL failing to do so, offered to lay a small wager on the point in question. Would you be so good as to name the authority from whom you procure your information, as my friend is rather 'difficult to satisfy?”

[A legal expert at the American Consulate has kindly supplied the following facts: "Most of the books available relate to Federal and international law. whereas crimes aud misdemeanours coming within the bounds of any particular State are subject to the laws of that State. The only Federal statute on the subject that I have been able to find is one relating to the transmission of libellous matter through the post. The following excerpt from the World’s Almanac relates to the law of libel in New York State: ‘Libel or Slander: Libel is injuring by means of publication : slander is injury by word of mouth.’ Penalties rarely exceed a year’s imprisonment, and usually are confined to money damages. Under the terms of a 1930 Act of the New York Legislature, signed by Governor Roosevelt on April 22, and effective on September 1, an action for civil or criminal libel cannot be maintained against a reporter, editor, publisher or proprietor of a newspaper for the publication therein of n 'fair aud true’ report of any judicial, legislative or other public aud official proceedings.”]