October 21, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



373 



lum ultimately as tlie need and demand be- 

 come imperative through the diffusion of 

 knowledge. 



E. Bennett Bean 

 University op Virginia 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE FILM PHOTOPHONE 1 



The announcement in the Times of Sep- 

 tember 24 of the successful synchronization 

 of speech and action in kinematography by 

 means of photographic films bearing suitable 

 sound records is the natural outcome of the 

 work expended on this problem in numerous 

 different countries. Sweden, through MM. 

 Bergland and Freatadius, has apparently been 

 fortunate enough to reach success first. It is 

 indeed surprising that the achievement has 

 been so long delayed. Speaking-films, apart 

 from synchronization, have been in existence 

 for a long time, having been first made by 

 Ernst Eiihmer about 1900, and called by him 

 the " photographophone." Eiihmer made his 

 films by photographing upon them the fluc- 

 tuating light proceeding from a " speaking 

 arc," and the reproduction was effected by 

 making use of the well-known property of 

 selenium of controlling a telephonic current 

 when actuated by variable illumination. More 

 recently Professor A. O. Eankine has made 

 speaking-films by a different method, in which 

 the voice imposes fluctuations of intensity on 

 a beam of light issuing from a constant 

 source, the reproduction from the film record 

 again being by means of selenium. The whole 

 problem is closely related to telephony by 

 light. In photo-telephony the speech is 

 transmitted by light and reproduced immedi- 

 ately; in speaking-films a photographic record 

 is made for future reproduction. The Times 

 article does not make quite clear by what 

 process M. Bergland makes the sound-film, 

 but it probably does not differ fundamentally 

 from those previously used. The novelty of 

 M. Bergland's work appears to be the success- 

 ful realization of synchronism between the 

 picture-bearing and the sound-record-bearing 

 films. This has been done by the obvious 



1 From Nature. 



method of running the two films on the same 

 shaft, both during the taking of the double 

 record of action and speech and during re- 

 production. In addition, sufficient valve 

 amplification to actuate a loud-speaking tele- 

 phone has been successfully applied to the 

 selenium-controlled currents. 



RADIUM FOR ENGLAND 



Dr. Frederick Soddy, professor of chem- 

 istry in Oxford University, travelling as a 

 King's Messenger, has arrived in London 

 from Prague, bringing with him the largest 

 quantity of radium, valued at about £70,000, 

 ever brought into England. The consign- 

 ment consists of two grams and is the first 

 to be received under the terms of the recent; 

 agreement between the Imperial and Foreigns 

 Corporation of London and the Czecho-Slova- 

 kia Government. The radium was deposited 

 at the Foreign Ofiice and will remain there 

 for the time being, its exact future, accord- 

 ing to Professor Soddy, being a matter for 

 negotiation. 



Professor Soddy is reported in the London 

 Times from which we obtain this information 

 to have said that while on holiday with his 

 wife in Czecho-Slovakia he visited the Joa- 

 chimsthal mines and was given every facility 

 for inspecting them and the various processes 

 by which the radium was extracted from the 

 uranium obtained in the mines. The agree- 

 ment mentioned above having been concluded, 

 he was asked by the Corporation, to whom 

 he is the expert scientific adviser, to make 

 arrangements for the transport of the radium 

 to England, a task of considerable responsi- 

 bility and some danger, in view of its malig- 

 nant penetrative properties. The two grams 

 were distributed in nine glass phials, packed 

 in a lead case 3 in. thick and weighing about 

 70 lb. This was contained in an ordinary 

 Foreign Office dispatch-bag, which was finally 

 sealed by an official of the Czecho-Slovakia 

 Government. 



" I am sure," Professor Soddy added, 

 " that this radium will be an enormous help 

 to British science and medicine. It is of ex- 

 ceptionally pure quality. The cry of the 



