Book Category: Technology, History of

The New RCA Victor Photophone Recording System. RCA Victory Company, 1932.  Internal RCA Document:  8vo, 45 typed mimeo leaves, with 26 pp of blue-line photographs and schematics of the  equipment.  Punch-bound at one time, though metallic binding element is not present.  Very good condition.   $3500 (1/3 to charity)

This a sound-on-film incunable. This means the pamphlet was printed within the first few years of the first “talking”  (synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image) motion picture. The first feature length film using sound throughout¹ the length of the movie was The Jazz Singer, which was released in 1927 and used a sound-on-disc² system of recording. That means that the audio portion of the film was recorded onto records, and then synchronized in playback with the film to match up the audio and video–this technology was obviously not the future.

The technology of sound-on-film would take the day, and in very short order, leading to four different systems, of which the Photophone was one.  Photophone’s share of the prospective studio users was pretty good: the earliest major producers/licensees included Walt Disney Productions (after 1932), RKO Radio Pictures, Republic Pictures, Warner Borthers, and Pathe.

” From the producer’s standpoint, variable area film recording has one great advantage that places this system in a class far ahead of all others”.  

And on the Film Phonograph Reproducing Equipment:  ”  the need for combining two or more sound tracks, the adding of sound effects to an original recording, or matching around levels of scenes in the final editing of a picture has brought re-recording into an increasingly important position in sound picture production”.

The work is in general a technical report and sales pitch for the new system.  It includes the following sections:

General introduction (1-7, 4 illustrations), the Ribbon Microphone (8-12, 3 illustrations); Microphone Distribution Panel, (13-14pp, 2 illustrations); Microphone Mixing Panel (15-17, 2 illustrations); Compensator Panel (18-21, 2 illustrations); Recording Amplifier (22-25pp, 2 illustrations); Ground Noise reduction Amplifier (28-30, 2 illustrations); 35mm Film Recorder (31-34, 2 illustrations); 16mm Film recorder (page 35, 2 illustrations); Film Phonograph Reproducing Equipment (36-39 pages, 2 illustrations); Phototube Amplifier (40-41pp, 1 illustration); 35mm to 16mm Film Re-recorder, 42-45pp, 2 illustrations). 

Notes:

1.  Earlier on in the mid-1920’s there were efforts of using sound in film but limited to music or very specific areas of the film, most of which in the end was silent. 

2. The  movie was made with the Vitaphone system, which was not long for this world, soon to be replaced by the more sophisticated sound-on-film systems.

“In 1925 GE started a program to develop commercial sound-on-film equipment based on Hoxie’s work. Unlike the Phonofilmand Movietone systems in which the audio modulated the intensity of a recording lamp which exposed the soundtrack, thus creating a variable-density track, the GE system employed a fast-acting mirror galvanometer to create a variable-area soundtrack. A number of demonstrations of this system, now known as Photophone, were given in 1926 and 1927. The first public screenings with this system were of a sound version (music plus sound effects only) of the silent film Wings which was exhibited as a road-show in around a dozen specially equipped theatres during 1927.”–Wiki

Theatre Survey Instructions.  “Property of RCA PHOTOPHONE, INC. Its use is limited exclusively to authorized employees of RCA PHOTOPHONE, INC., and authorized employees of its associated companies.    Very good condition.  $3500 (1/3 to charity)

“London Office, May-30-1929” 

“Engineering Productions E.1-1.”

10,5×8 inches, 6 typed carbon sheets.  

“London Office, May-30-1929” 

“Engineering Productions E.1-1.”

10,5×8 inches, 6 carbon copy typed sheets.  Very good condition. 

This is a short (but quite rare) document on operating the photophone (1929).

Provenance: Harold E. Sunde, with his initials in pen at top left front cover, and signed by him on final page.  Sunde (1910-1990) was responsible for the explanation and demonstration of the RCA “Photophone” invention–one of the earliest simultaneous sound-on-film recorders and projectors, and introduced the machine to England and Russia, where true sound-on-film motion pictures were seen for the first time. He was also JHU APL, Sandia, Radiological Defense at Bureau of Ships, USAF). This document appears just a month or so before the showing of the first successful synchronized sound-on-film picture in England, A. Hitchcock’s “Blackmail”. This a sound-on-film incunable. This means the pamphlet was printed within the first few years of the first “talking”  (synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image) motion picture. The first feature length film using sound throughout the length of the movie was The Jazz Singer, which was released in 1927 and used a sound-on-disc2 system of recording. That means that the audio portion of the film was recorded onto records, and then synchronized in playback with the film to match up the audio and video–this technology was obviously not the future.

The technology of sound-on-film would take the day, and in very short order, leading to four different systems, of which the Photophone was one.  Photophone’s share of the prospective studio users was pretty good: the earliest major producers/licensees included Walt Disney Productions (after 1932), RKO Radio Pictures, Republic Pictures, Warner Borthers, and Pathe.

” From the producer’s standpoint, variable area film recording has one great advantage that places this system in a class far ahead of all others”.

Content: following a general intro to the equipment, which is followed by four section, including the auditorium, the projection room, the power supply, and the power equipment. The auditorium notes interestingly describe what the operator of the photophone should pay attention to in the building, touching on the location of the speaker, but particular attention was made for the architectural properties of the auditorium and how they might affect sound quality. This is followed by the projection room comments, and then the power supply needs and the power equipment itself, the ending item being the “synchronous disk requirements”.

Sunde (1910-1990) was responsible for the explanation and demonstration of the RCA “Photophone” invention–one of the earliest simultaneous sound-on-film recorders and projectors, and introduced the machine to England and Russia, where true sound-on-film motion pictures were seen for the first time. 

RCA Photophone Sound Reproduction from Film.

11”x 8” (the first leaf slightly smaller). Undated—I’d guess that this was around 1930.

Blueprints, printed by (Photophone) “Engineering Department”. 6 leaves, numbered (I)-(VI). Bound at the top with a brass fastener.

Accompanied by a 8”x 5” original photo of the instrument.

Rare. $2500 (1/3 to charity)

• No copies in WorldCat.

The publication gets right to business in the opening paragraph in the section titled “RCA Photophone Sound Pickup”: The RCA Photophone Sound pick-up comprises an optical system and photo-electric cell….”

In short this is a short primer on how the machine functions.

Provenance: Harold E. Sunde, with his initials in pen at top left front cover, and signed by him on final page.  Sunde (1910-1990) was responsible for the explanation and demonstration of the RCA “Photophone” invention–one of the earliest simultaneous sound-on-film recorders and projectors, and introduced the machine to England and Russia, where true sound-on-film motion pictures were seen for the first time. He was also JHU APL, Sandia, Radiological Defense at Bureau of Ships, USAF). This document appears just a month or so before the showing of the first successful synchronized sound-on-film picture in England, A. Hitchcock’s “Blackmail”.

This a sound-on-film incunable. This means the pamphlet was printed within the first few years of the first “talking”  (synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image) motion picture. The first feature length film using sound throughout the length of the movie was The Jazz Singer, which was released in 1927 and used a sound-on-disc system of recording. That means that the audio portion of the film was recorded onto records, and then synchronized in playback with the film to match up the audio and video–this technology was obviously not the future.

The technology of sound-on-film would take the day, and in very short order, leading to four different systems, of which the Photophone was one.  Photophone’s share of the prospective studio users was pretty good: the earliest major producers/licensees included Walt Disney Productions (after 1932), RKO Radio Pictures, Republic Pictures, Warner Borthers, and Pathe

Ruth Ferris, Steamboat Tales. Saint Louis, Missouri, 1940. Offset, privately printed. 11”x 8.5”, 38 lvs. $250

“Ruth Ferris was one of the nation’s best known collectors of steamboat objects and history.” She was the first curator of the Missouri Historical Society’s River Room, and her writing “represent(s) a history of St. Louis during the golden age of steamboats”.

It is noted that the work being sold here, “Steamboat Tales”, was never published before being included in “St. Louis and the Mighty Mississippi in the Steamboat Age: The Collected Writings of Ruth Ferris”, published by the St. Louis Mercantile Library in 1993, which is also the source of the preceding quotes. Very good condition, bound in a store-bought manila folder, punch bound. Provenance: Library of Congress, with their 10mm perforated “LC” stamp in the title page, plus their surplus rubber stamp on the rear cover. Also comes with a carbon copy library card of the original LC library card catalog card.

WorldCat locates 0 copies.