Evening star., 1949-07-31
igh-Speed Camera
Clicks 5000 Times
In One Second
By the Assoeiotsd Press


NEW YORK. July 30.-Ths
modern Columbus is the man be-
hind the high speed motion pic
ture camera.
He is discovering a new world
that travels too fast for the I'M
aided human eye to catch. And
he is slowing it down so that q
bird in fight hangs almost mo-
tionless in air and the bat Of an
eyelash would take half an hour
to complete.
Things happen too fast on mile
a-minute assembly lines for fac
tory workers to see. When a ma
chine goes wrong human eyes
often cannot detect the cause.
5000 Per Second.
The man with the high-speed
camera steps in. He takes movies
at superspeeds of up to 5000 pic
lures per seeond and beyond. He
screens the movies at normal
speeds which slow down by 500
times the movement he shot with
his camera. What the eye could
not see before it now can study
in earnest.
Speed movies are growing in
industry. Efficiency experts use
them to get a closeup. clear-eyed
view of hundreds of operations
ranging from the working of a
die-casting machine to the way
girls on an assembly bench put
the caps on vinegar bottles.
Officials OF the Bell & Howell
Co., which makes different types
of cameras for industries, say
movies have increased efficiency
and cut costs in scores of ways.
For years. even in the biggest
linked sausages by the same hand
operations their grandfathers
used. Cameramen then took close
ups of finger motions. The movies
proved that the sausage workers,
simply out of habit, were per-
forming many unnecessary move
ments. When they were re-
trained, their work was reduced
38 per cent.
Engineers of the Bell Telephone
laboratories, where the Fastax
speed camera was developed, tell
of a typewriter problem. which
stumped the experts The type
writer worked too noisily, but
ordinary attempts to learn why,
failed. High speed films showed
that after typewriter key was
struck it bounced at the bottom
OF its downward movement, then
rose and bounced again at the top.
Engineers eliminated the bounce
--and the noise.
Airplane manufacturers, work
Ing in supersonic speeds have
found these cameras indispensable.
For example, increased speed make
it harder and harder for pilot to
bail out safely. If they try to
jump from planes travelling at
400 miles per hour. their bodies
may hit the slipsteam and could
be torn into pieces. Speed movies
uncovered the otherwise invisible
flaws of special pilot-ejection de-
vices until workable, safe models
were developed.
h Saved Many Lives.
Bell engineers say speed Aims
helped save thousands of lives In
wartime. In one case, q particular
kind of machinegun jammed at
critical moments. Movies, slowed
down on the screen, proved that
the ammunition belt by its erratic
weaving caused the jamming.
Through use Of X-rays, movies
have shown what goes on In
closed areas. A vacuum cleaner
manufacturer built q better model
after discovering exactly how dirt
was sucked up and drawn into the
tank OF his machine. Medical
men also have studied operations
OF the human body through X-ray
movies.
Sometimes the film camera
serves better by taking pictures
to be shown at super slow motion
speeds. One fertilizer company
wanted to observe how plant roots
developed. A movie maker set up
a flower pot with glass sides. As
the roots grew along the sides he
took only one picture a day. In
this way the film compressed
of growth into minutes
and told the story of a plants life
IN way that could not have been
done by anY other means