Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-29

4
talkieS, it is interesting to discover
" that fragrances induce emotion. &C
cording to experiments conducted at
the University of Southern California
Maybe you will respond to the subtle scent
of mignonette gently released by the new proc
eSs at the cinema unrolls its action on the
screen, but then, again, maybe the emotion in
duced in you by this modest flower isn't IN
tune with that the producer would desire.
That's going to be just too bad!
Audiences should be psychogalvanographed II
producers are to get anywhere with 'smellies."
DR.. Karl T. Waugh dean of the College OF
Liberal Sciences at the University of Southern
California and one of the worlds authorities on
psychology, has made series of experiments
with the Temperament detector" to find out
just how much the odors mean.
The scientific name for the detector Is
psychogalvanograph. 1t is a delicate electrical
instrument connected to the subjects hands,
and every huctuaton of the heart every Varl-
alton in respiration and thousands of minute
changes in the body brought about by conflict
ing emotions are amplif1ed and measured by its
means an electric recorder.
A FTER q month of experiments conducted
among students at the university, Dean
Waugh decided that screen players should be
more sensitive to emotional impulses, since they
deal in emotion and perhaps more could be
learned from their reactions. The youth of
students, too was felt to be drawback, while
older persons in ordinary walks of life might
be too self-conscious to react
He therefore brought his apparatus to one
of the large studios, together with another in
strument the oeofactometer, which measures
certain perfumes for subjects to smell. The
oleofactometer is an invention of Capt. Hum
phrey Read F. P. G. S., the scientist who aided
Dean Waugh in his experiments.
Players who happened TO be on the lot that
dav cd tO tn g.
up to the detector and inhale a succession of
perfumes for the benefit of science.
Dorothy Sebastian is usually considered
sweetly serene young person, but the uncanny
detector discovered that In reality she is seeth-
ing with emotion.
Various perfumes were poured into the
of the oleofactometer and given to Dorothy
in whffs. New-mown hay set the needle OF the
detector bobbing wildly because it brought back
to the girl in the chair scenes from her Ala
bama childhood
shes very temperamental,' declared the
dean. Temperament is really mental sensi-
tivity to impressions and the ability to start
train of thought which leads to certain emo
tions from suggestion. woman could not
be good actress without temperament, for
she must take suggestion, from script di-
rector and through train of thought build it
into an emotion to transfer to stage or screen.
Nobody can fool the machine. 1t has two
little electrodes touching the skin and tiny
a
faster, it pumps blood from the surface of the
skin, the skin becomes more resistant and the
electrical flow in the machine wavers. This
tiny fuctuation is stepped up with vacuum
tubes like radio impulse, can measure it.
Buster Keaton, for instance, sat with his
usual poker face. Not change of position,
f1eeting expression the droop of an eyelaSh
disclosed what he was thinking of in his tests.
But the needle knew. Every time perfume
Whit started thought train the indicator
showed it, try as he did to conceal it by remain
ing expressioness only Buster can do.
I'VE pa sed the perfume of lavender through
the oeofactometer and recorded sign of pleas
ure; switched suddenly to odor of limburger
cheese and the needle sharply reversed showing
active distaste though the comedian never
moved muscle of body or face. This is just
to show you that you can't fool the machine"
Dean Waugh net only measured tempera-
ments in terms of mathematics but demon
strated to what emotions the players most
quickly respond. Buster Keaton though a
comedian, does not react to funny ideas so
rapidly as he does TO sad ones. Any suggestion
of pathos promptly brought response from the
magic needle the dial.
Strangely enough, Rosetta Duncan the clown
ing half of the Duncan Sisters team, most
easily moved by sad music. while Vivian, the
seriouS-seeming sister, responded to flowers
and bright lights. Both girls, connected to
the machine at the Car7c time and given the