ONE WAY CLASS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12804, 7 March 1936, Page 9

ONE WAY CLASS

MAKES THREE DIMENSIONAL . MOVIES POSSIBLE. DET IvCTS WE A K NESS PS IN STEEL. AVERTS LIGTTTGLAR E. G 1 jASS which removes the glare from automobile headlights, makes life-like three-dimensional movies available arid gives work, was demonstrated for tho first time here to-day before a group of natural scientists i*T- the Waldorf-Astoria fsavsa.

New York correspondent under date of January .‘10). The new glass, in addition to other manifold uses, also enables engineers to detect weaknesses in steel construction work.

Just as the. telescope and microscope aided human eyes in extending their limits of far and near vision, so the glass, invented by Edwin ill. Land, of Boston, will extend ordinary vision, and by removing glare and unnecessary light rays which befog ordinary sight, give exceptionally el ear-eye pictures of ordinary things.

According to theory, liglil travels in waves like ripples from a stone east into a mill-pond. Smooths Out Ripples. Instead of water, its medium is ihe atmosphere and every dust particle, every gaseous molecule is a. “stone in the mill-pond” causing these light waves to travel bolter skelter every which way. Polaroid, the new glass, | combs out these waves or polarises j them, making them till travel in the same way as though they wore vehicles on a one-way multi-lane highway. I To all outward appearances it is a ! clear, colorless glass, and light which has passed through polaroid looks like ordinary light. I Traffic experts, however. learned differently, and many predicted itwould only he a comparatively short I time before nntomohilo headlights and windshields were equipped with this new glass. Cut Out all Glare.

A pair of blinding headlights was set tip at each end of the demonstration room. Viewed through an ordinary glass windshield the glare was aeeontualed if anything. Then Polaroid windshields were substituted and the brilliant lights seemed almost, out. although objects between the two sets of lights were brilliantly illuminated. It was explained that a sheet of polaroid had been placed behind eaeli headlight, lens so that the rays became “one-way” rays, vibrating in

iho same plane and making it possible for the new windshield to block the glare completely. Actual road tests have shown that not only can an approaching ear be clearly seen at night, but the license plate, radiator, and even the exhaust fumes. Pedestrians are seen as well as if no ear were approaching, and because there is tie glare in the driver's eyes, there is a sense of daytime eonilort. Experts predict a major reduction in the toll of '29.900 fatalities directly traced to headlight gla re.

The world’s firs! three-dimensional movies in full color were shown at the* demonstration. Observers found tlu> pictures seemed real not only because of their depth. hut also because texture and lustre were repro-

diiced exactly. The audience wore el car polaroid spectacles tor viewing the scenes. Actors and actresses seemed actually present in person. The pictures were taken with a double camera having two lenses as far apart, as the average human eyes.

When the films are shown, the two views are projected on the same screen, one on top ot the other, through polaroid shoots set at right angles to each other. The audience, supplied with polaroid glasses, sees one image with the left eye, and the other with the the right. These independent screen images reproduce the actual mechanics of vision accomplished by the naked eve.

Movies made and viewed by this system are expected to be available ' soon through equipment now being built by one of the large photographic companies. Another adaptation of polnroid is its value as a strain tester operating on a fundamental well-known to physicists. Hidden weaknesses in all types of structures ranging from objects like baby’s bottles to steel bridges and giant dirigibles, can easily lie seen. The polarised lights sets up rolor patterns wherever strains of weaknesses occur. Detects Slightest Strain. A model of the framework of a building made of transparent bakelit,© was placed full length in ‘he “strain tester.” The framework was purposely twisted as it- would he I\\ an earthquake or hurricane. 1C points of strain in the framework immediately appeared in brilliant colors. The test is sensitive enough to show the strain produced in a celluloid rod by the pressure of one, finNo longer will apartment dwellers leave to pull down the shades or watch , their conduct if windows are equipped, with the clear, colorless polarised glass, demonstrated to-day. Ono sheet of the Polaroid glass is as ' clear as window glass, the inventor ; pointed out, Tim view is perfect in both directions— except when the win- ; dow is viewed through another pane ; of polnroid sot. to comb out the light' in a different direction. Such a window appears absolutely black.

Saw Without Being Seen. Tn the demon si rat ion instil !lat mu j set up by Mi- Lund, observers grouped themselves behind two sheets el Polaroid on each side oi life room. Objects between the (wo sheets oi polamid wore ns dearly visible ns through ordinary window glass. Observers, however, were invisible to each other. Glare rotlceted from the water or front hard-sitrlnce highways can be cut otf completely by the use of Polaroid sun glasses m dear and uneolored as ordinary spectacles, it was demonstrated with actual specimens of sun glasses which art shortly io be announced lor public use. Even Fish Lose Privacy. According to ‘the inventor, reflections are usually made Tip of naturally polarised light, the plane of polarisation being vertical to the surface from which the reflection arises. With sun glasses tilted with Polaroid turned to receive rays only in the opposite direction, all of this reflected light- is cut out. so that such glasses actually discriminate between the polarised glare and unpolarised, usetwl illumination. Fishermen will thus he able to see their quarry swimming about in the water with a pair of tb.ese glasses. .Reflections of the sky and of surrounding objeets which now obscure the view will he eliminated. At the demonstration a tank was arranged in front, of a window so that from above nothing was visible except. a reflection of the sky in the water. Wearing polaroid sun glasses, however, observers could see the fish below the surface. Oil paintings, shown for the first time to-day under the illumination of polarised light, assumed the depth and color value they had when they , left the hand of the artist. Surface reflections, varnish cracks, which ordinarilv make it difficult to see oil , paintings clearly even in museums, where lighting has received careful 1 attention, are absent when the illu- < mination is through a lamp equipped , with a polaroid lens. ,