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)
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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
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