Behind the Lens: A Camera Goes to College (1940)

Hollywood brilliant tinsel city of lights and fantasy Hollywood glorified glittering fascinating fabulous mythical Kingdom Hollywood the glamour capital of the world Hollywood reaches far carrying its cargo of dreams to almost every city and village in America to these people to you and to me the motion pictures bring magic yet the motion pictures today are learning to put more than romance upon the screen a new era in motion pictures has been born the movies have been given a college education now the camera is seeing things for science with beauty drama and action played from a scenario written as only nature could write it how do growing things grow perhaps the same question has bothered you when your nice clean lon has overnight become a playground for dandelions a special type of motion picture called time-lapse photography shows you or perhaps a little late what happened to your front yard to photograph the growth of a dandelion this time-lapse camera unlike ordinary movie cameras take separate pictures at long intervals speed it up on the screen but gradual changes take place in a few seconds as we watch the life of the golden but pesky dandelion the long time lapse between pictures emphasizes the gradual changes so that we may more easily see the difference between stages in the growth here in time-lapse photography are two roses the smaller plant is growing in normal soil the larger has been given special nourishment this comparison made possible by technical photography has been invaluable to the science of growing things just as it can photograph things too slow to watch the scientific motion picture camera can also help us see things that happen too fast for our eyes to follow like our eyes the ordinary camera misses a lot when the action is fast however a type of photography called slow-motion gives our eyes time to see all the details of action that ordinarily pass unnoticed a slow-motion camera is simply a camera that has been geared up to take a lot of pictures in a hurry the slowdown effect is produced when these pictures are projected on the screen at normal speed here is a super slow motion study of the flight of an arrow see how the lazy push of the bowstring sends the arrow floating sedately to the target this picture taken with an ultra high-speed camera shows how kitty uses her tail is a lever to help her turn over in midair and that's why cats always land on their feet and come up smiling I'll do they watch it again this ability of the scientific slow-motion camera to reveal the tales of lightning quick motion is of tremendous importance in modern industrial research scientists and engineers and Industry have been quick to make use of this marvelous new tool for example studying the effects of bumps jolts and rough roads on the writing qualities of the automobile forms of branch of engineering all by itself in this test run on a rough road the wheels tires and springs move up and down too rapidly for the ordinary movie camera to see what is happening so the high-speed camera makes a real contribution by showing exactly what takes place as the wheels strike each bump first we see how the tire yields to soften the blow however the main force of the jolt is absorbed by the individual spring suspension of the knee action units the scientific camera also shows the action of the stabilizing arm in preventing side sway on curves now we're going to see something that doesn't happen every day on the road these bumps are spaced to give a real beating to the wheels and the purpose of the test is to see what happens to the front and rear ends of the car here is the way you would see the test and now here is the slow motion study made by the camera of science in such a picture the engineers could see that the pitching motion had been balanced out so that the car rides on an even keel the reason for this shows up if we magnify the movement of the front wheels and then compare their action side-by-side with a magnified picture of the rear wheels on the same bumps as the car drives at high speed over the test road during the course of their college career the movies have learned another startling trick the scientific camera can magnify heat waves so that even the slightest degree of heat becomes visible this technique is known to scientists as clear and photography a tiny mirror the size of a pinhead is mounted just in front of the camera lens some distance ahead a large concave mirror is accurately mounted a brilliant light is focused so that it's rays fall directly into the pinhead mirror the rays are reflected into the big concave mirror then they are bounced back toward the camera lens as these light rays traveled back and forth they are bent and distorted by any waves in the air the bending produces a wavy image on the motion picture film in this magic schlieren photography he takes on a flame like appearance notice the actual flame at the center surrounded by heat waves rubbing two sticks together in schlieren photography gives encouragement to Boy Scouts Girl Scouts and general outdoors people who feel that it is possible to start a fire that way the violent rubbing or friction generates heat and where there's enough heat who knows someday there may be fire the photography of heat has a very practical use in the perfection of modern hydraulic brakes in an automobile break a great deal of heat is generated by friction time the lining is forced against the drum to stop the wheel schlieren photography shows how cooling fins and ridges on the outside of the drum carry the heat away as rapidly as it is developed in spite of its lofty college education and its practical engineering uses the scientific camera has time for some amusing and human experiments and here for the first time on the screen is the warmth of a handshake on the other hand there's the well-known fishy or charm to meet you clasp now let's try a little schlieren photography to see if there really is any warmth in a warm greeting well for once Cupid seems to agree with science my my my ain't science wonderful you