Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/407

 Popular Science Monthly

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��For nearly twenty years the industry has used the same film and the same size picture which were introduced in the first years of the century as the standard product. In these years magnifi- cent motion-picture theaters have been built, fortunes have been spent in the salaries of stars, and the cost of settings and directors has soared into the hundreds of thousands per picture. The presentation meth- od, however, has stayed in the old channel, and the old film size, which was designed for cheap "nickelo- deon" theaters has continued.

The new process is being introduced, its sponsors state, in order to get up a standard of quality by which the public can judge the pictures it wishes to see. It is stated that the new process, which practically controls this size and shape of picture, will be used only far the highest class productions. Producing franchises will be given to the manufacturers of all high-class pictures and steps taken to gain their interest. Once the new style of pictures become known to the public, they will certainly become popular.

���Camera showing the lens removed

��Turning an Eyesore Into a Dignified and Imposing Structure

AGAIN it has been . proved that even a strictly utilitarian structure need not be ugly. In Cincinnati, some unsightly steel water standpipes have been placed in an archi- tecturally pleasing con- crete shell. Now the residents of the neigh- borhood see a concrete industrial monument instead of hideous, painted metal cylin- ders. The utility of the tanks has not been injured in the least, so the strictly practical business man need not object.

The reservoirs were filled with water before the shell was built. Had they been left empty, slight changes of shape might have occurred when the water flowed in, with the result that the concrete would have cracked. The forms to hold the concrete around the base of the tanks were braced to the foundations, while the higher forms were raised on derricks which were manipulated from floats on the water surface within the tanks. The result is a landmark of pleasing appearance.

���Before: The unsightly tanks as they looked at the beginning of their metamorphosis After: The dignified and imposing castellated structure at the finish of the operations

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