THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



39 



convict escaped through a sewer. The 

 large tank was painted to resemble a 

 prison cell and the smaller one filled with 

 water. 



The actor-convict broke the thickness 

 of stone which covered the opening of 

 the pipe, and escaped by holding his 

 breath and crawling through the rushing 

 water into the upper tank. The feat was 

 daring, unquestionably, but not nearly so 

 thrilling as the finished picture, which, of 

 course, did not disclose the trick. 



A Talk with a Pioneer 



Just across a narrow driveway from 

 the executive office and studio of the 

 Solax is situated a low brick building 

 where the films are developed and print- 

 ed. It is one of the most compact finish- 

 ing plants in this country. Thousands 

 of feet of film are turned out daily, an 

 amount which represents not only the 



on wooden racks in deep metal tanks, 

 dried in an adjoining room on immense 

 web-like reels, which are revolved slowly 

 by electric motors. 



The Technical Director, Mr. F. Doub- 

 lier, who is the guiding genius in the 

 handling of the films, was one of the 

 first men to ever operate a moving pic- 

 ture camera. He was a pioneer with the 

 Lumieres of France, and he has a fund 

 of interesting and amusing anecdotes of 

 the early days of the motion picture. 



"I took one of the first moving picture 

 cameras," he remarked, "on a trip 

 through Europe and the Orient. Of 

 course, we had no such elaborate print- 

 ing and developing machines as these. I 

 developed films in pails on the floor of 

 my bedroom and printed by the light of 

 a kerosene lamp. I travelled through 

 Siberia China Turkey, and when I re- 

 turned, I showed the pictures in many 

 cities of Russia and the Netherlands. In 

 Moscow and Amsterdam, especially, the 



At the Left: A Stage That Fol- 

 lows the Sun the Platform 

 Revolves on a Circular Track. 

 Below: Behind the Scenes at 

 the Peerless Studios. Here 

 Are Scene Painters at Work 

 on Backgrounds for Coming 

 Productions. 



product of the Solax, but 

 the output of other com- 

 panies in the vicinity. A 

 small projecting room, 

 where the positives are ex- 

 amined by censors, is in 

 one corner of the building ; 

 developing, printing, dry- 

 ing and finishing rooms fill 

 up the remainder of the 

 floor space. 



The films are developed 



