Very interesting article about how film and photographic paper is made:
“The story behind the actual film-making begins in a huge vault where five tons of bar silver —a week’s supply of the precious metal— may be stored for almost immediate consumption.”
That’s a lot of silver, and this was only 1936!
TWILIGHT CITY — Where Snapshots are Born
“It’s easy to take a snapshot,” as 500,000,000 pictures a year will testify. But behind the click of the lens there lies a story of high speed chemistry fascinating in its scope.
The early amateur photographer carried a bulky apparatus in a portable, tent-shaped darkroom into which he plunged for a freshly-sensitized glass plate every time he wished to take a picture. Today’s amateur, exposing some 500,000,000 snapshots yearly, has at his command a vast array of lightning-speed emulsions in convenient sizes and shapes, which are ready for instant use.
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The funny thing about this ad is that “NASA Space Telescope” was the original name of the Hubble Space Telescope and Perkin-Elmer is the contractor that delivered a flawed main mirror, requiring a very expensive and difficult repair mission.
Responsive Technology from Perkin-Elmer
The NASA Space Telescope: Getting ready for the clearest look yet into space
The NASA Space Telescope, scheduled for launch by the Space Shuttle in the 1980s, will orbit the earth at an altitude of 310 miles. Unlike ground-based telescopes which are restricted to a narrow spectral window and subject to distortions by the earth’s atmosphere, the Space Telescope will provide astronomers with the clearest view yet of the universe.
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This is apparently the second article in the Modern Mechanix series: “How to kill yourself underwater”. The first being Build Your Own Diving Helmet.
They are seriously talking about getting in this thing and being towed 15-30mph at a depth of at least 30 feet. But don’t worry because “The air inside the boat will be sufficient for approximately half an hour’s stay under water”.
Take Thrilling Underwater Cruise in ONE-MAN SUB
YOU get all the keen thrills of deep-sea diving and underwater cruising in this one-man submarine. Towed by a motor-boat, the novel craft will take you down to a depth of at least 30 feet, where you can explore the river or lake bed. Through a special conning tower you can watch the fish as you dart among them, the while maneuvering about like a real submarine.
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Ah, racier days. The caption doesn’t say she’s “holding it”, no, she’s “fondling it”.
Think of the Light Bill!
EVEN at reduced rates for household electricity, Mr. U. Consumer would think a long time before putting one of these new German incandescent lights in the parlor; it consumes 50 kilowatts of current, or 67 horsepower. The multiple filaments are shown clearly, at the right.
This young lady is fondling, not a balloon, but the largest incandescent lamp bulb in the world, over 100,000 candlepower. As they used to say on the Fourth of July—”Do not hold in the
hand after lighting!” (Osram Lamp Works)
Odd article explaining all of the tricks and techniques used by trainers to get their animals to perform in movies without using vocal commands.
Mechanical Cues DIRECT Animals in the “BARKIES”
by WALTER A. RASCHICK
When the talkies came in, directors of animal pictures faced a new problem. Before the super-sensitive mike, vocal commands were impossible, so other means of giving “stars” their cues had to be devised. In this unusual article you are taken behind the scenes and shown how directors utilize ingenious mechanical gadgets to make animals perform with keen intelligence before the camera.
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