A FORTUNE IN SILVER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 296, 15 December 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

A FORTUNE IN SILVER

RECLAIMED AT THE PARAMOUNT STUDIOS. Interviewed during the development of sequences of the latest Emil Jannings’ picture for Paramount, “Sins of the Fathers,” in the laboratories of the Paramount studios, Frank Garbutt the director of the laboratories, revealed some interesting facts concerning the fortune in silver that is recovered from the developing tanks. During a month’s operation between five and six million feet ot raw film stock are consumed at the Paramount Studios. Aud each month approximately £l2OO worth of solid silver is recovered from the developing tanka through which the film has passed. The reclaiming process is in itself an interesting one. Photographic film is surfaced with a solution of silvei, and when passed through the motion picture camera is treated to a rapidly changing flood of light rays. The light cuts into the microscopically thin veneer of the silver solution on the film, oxydizing the sensitive emulsion. Biack leaves it unaffected. When the film is passed through te developer the oxydized silver surfaces are dissolved off and the freed metal remains in the solution or may even settle at the bottom of the tank. By certain processes the deposit, is removed every week, and is made u-p into bags of line dust.

According to recent estimates the annual amount of silver reclaimed at ail the motion picture studios in Hollywood is worth £1,728,UD0. The heart of the motion picture business is indeed one of the world’s largest silver mines. The third greatest silver-pro-ducing area in the world, Idaho, has by comparison an annual output of only approximately £1,100,000. Nor is the silver that still remains on the film wasted. In Australia at the Paramount headquarters, motion picture film that has completed its work is gathered into large sacks and despatched to laboratories where it is burned. The silver is then separated from the ash.

Fifteen separate characters are portrayed by Ilans Joby, well-known European actor, in “Love Me and the World is Mine,” Universal’s big attraction. Although the many roles are all of a minor importance, Joby through his wizardry of makeup and his excellent historic, ability, defies recognition in each of them. Norman Kerry, Mary Philbin aud Betty Compson are the featured playcis in the big production, which was directed by E. A. Dupont from an adaptation of the Australian novel by Rudolph Hanns