Making It Easy to 

 See the "Movies 



)) 



How tedious inserts can be avoided 

 and how the clock can be watched 



THANKS to the invention of Dr. J. W. 

 Billings, any explanation that needs to 

 be made in a motion-picture can appear 

 at the same time that the action is going on. 

 The inventor calls his contrivance for 

 projecting captions a "descriptograph." 

 In general appearance it looks not unlike an 

 ordinary stereopticon. In the place where 

 lantern slides ordinarily go, however, is a 

 large disk having a number of radial 

 openings. These radial openings contain 

 the captions to be thrown on the screen and 

 go through the field of the lenses on the 

 lantern one after another, being moved 

 along by an electromagnet, one radial open- 

 ing at a time. On the film are little metal 

 rivets or eyelets. When the film slides 

 through the guiding and feed ' 

 rollers, there metal rivets make 

 an electrical contact with the 

 rollers, completing a circuit 

 through the electromagnet on the 

 auxiliary lantern, or "descripto- 

 graph," down in the orchestra 

 pit. This causes the descripto- 

 graph to throw a fresh caption on 

 the screen. Just before the ac- 

 tion on the main film is to change 

 again, another rivet appears on 

 the film, makes proper contact, 

 and causes the electromagnet to 



The disk which contains the captions 

 printed for the screen in radial openings 



Clock mechanism 



Drive qear Revolvinq di*'* 

 A machine for projecting both advertise- 

 ments and a clock-face to tell the time of day 



pull a new caption into place. 

 The whole plan is here illustrated. 

 Another device somewhat like 

 the descriptograph is also being 

 marketed. This contrivance, 

 however, is for the purpose of 

 projecting advertisements in- 

 stead of captions. It has a 

 special screen of its own, much 

 smaller and to one side of the 

 main screen as is shown in tie il- 

 lustration. In conjunction with 

 its advertisement-showing fea- 

 tures, this machine also projects 

 the hands of a clock and a clock 

 dial at the same time, this latter 

 feature being an integral part of 

 the advertisement. Since people attend- 

 ing the show will inevitably look at the 

 clock now and then to keep track of the 

 time, the clock serves the special purpose of 

 attracting attention to the advertisements. 

 As is shown in the illustration, the clock 

 hands project inward from the rims of two 

 large and hubless gearwheels through which 

 light from the lenses of the lantern passes. 

 In practically the same focal plane as that 

 of the hands a wheel revolves in which are 

 some half-dozen regularly spaced openings 

 about the size of a quarter. Transparent 

 celluloid disks cover these small opening: , 

 and on these the advertisements are painted 

 or printed. By means of a suitable escape- 

 ment device, this wheel shows six adver- 

 tisements in rotation. 



brass eyelet 



the space left 



the caption 



590 



