FILM SHOWS

Opunake Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3164, 24 January 1928, Page 2

FILM SHOWS

Cinema films were shown with perfect success on a train travelling at more than GO miles an hour.

The experiment, undertaken by the Empire Marketing Board in conjunction with the London and North-east-

ern Railway Company, demonstrated the complete practicability of the “train cinema.”

The train, a special, brought members of the Imperial, Agricultural Research Conference back to London from an 800 mile cruise of England and Scotland, and left Edinburgh in the morning.

To enable the members to set certain technical films, which could not be shown otherwise, a guard’s van was fitted up as a theatre. In this way 40 people together saw the show in comfort, and three shows were given. Although the screen measured only four and a half feet square it served the purpose admirably.

CLEAR AND STEADY.

Projection was by means of a portable machine, 4 which met all the safety requirements without the use of a special fireproof box for the operator. Motive power was taken from the electric current generated by the train but the illumination was by means of special accumulators.

The motion of the train had little or no effect on the projection, which was remarkably clear and steady. The films included specimens of rapid motion photography, in one of which, produced by British Instructional Films, the growth of a nasturtium was shown at a speed 20,000 times greater than the actual rate of development. Another British film represented a study of animal tissues, and showed the behaviour of cells and the effect of radium on tissues.

A French film showed what could be done with electricity on the farm; one from Onetrio dealt with the physical characteristics of the soil; and others were concerned with poultry culture and potato growing.