USE OF SILVER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21100, 6 February 1932, Page 10 (Supplement)

USE OF SILVER.

FILM INDUSTRY'S DEMANDS.

WORLD'S LARGEST CONSUMER.

More silver < is annually consumed by the motion picture industry than the United States mint, or for that matter, any other of the world's big coin-making institutions.

This interesting fact was revealed by Marion Gering, director of Clive Brook and Kay Brands, in Paramount's " Twenty-four Hours." Gering's years of study of both the directorial and photographic side of picture-making have provided him with this knowledge. " One large manufacturer of picture films alone uses four tons of the precious metal each week," he says. " It is purchased in large bricks and ground into fine powder. This dust is sensitised and evenlv coated over celluloid to make the picture that you see. "To make the powder stick, a' solution, or bed, is flowed over the celluloid. This bed is made from ground up horses hoofs and hides. It is, hard to believe that such beautiful and sentimental scenes can be seen through the remnants of poor old Dobbin." In conclusion, Gering points out that the film when completed, is 6-l,oooths of an inch thick, but has such strength and durability that it can be run through the projectors thousands of times.