HI mm
SHI
11
HHOLLYWOOD BLVD.
HOLLYWOOD 28, CALIF-
LARRY EDMUNDS
MOTION PICTURES
IN
EDUCATION
MOTION PICTURES
IN EDUCATION
A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK FOR
USERS OF VISUAL AIDS
BY
DON CARLOS ELLIS
AND
LAURA THORNBOROUGH
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
PHILANDER P. CLAXTON
PROVOST, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA.
FORMER U. S. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION
NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1923,
BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
Second Printing
Printed in the United States of America.
INTRODUCTION
SCHOOLS are old, but the effort to adapt them to the
interests and needs of all children and of adult men and
women as well and to make them take hold on the life
and work of the world in which we now live is new.
The more sincere this effort becomes and the wider and
Clearer the vision of the purposes and possibilities of
education, the keener becomes the search for more effective
methods of teaching and the more willing are we
to pay the cost of satisfactory results, whatever the cost
may be. It is for this reason that we are now paying
twenty times as much for education in the United States
as we paid fifty years ago, more than six times as much
in proportion to population, and are paying far more
willingly than we formerly paid the smaller amount.
The increase in expenditures for education is not
more remarkable, however, than the enrichment of
courses of study, changes in methods, and extension of
equipment for teaching. In these fifty years the work
and play of the kindergarten, nature study, the physical
sciences, literature, sociological subjects, agriculture,
home economics, trades and industries, commercial subjects,
music, physical training, hygiene and sanitation,
have become essential parts of the curriculum. Laboratories,
shops, playgrounds, libraries, maps and charts
in abundance and large variety, museum collections,
plats of ground, plants and animals, pictures, both in
vi Introduction
prints and slides, and films for projection have been
added to the meagre equipment of textbook, desk and
blackboard, and the rod and other instruments of punishment
far more numerous then than now. The chief
value of all this added equipment is to provide an
abundance of helpful concrete material and opportunity
for self-activity in analyzing, organizing, and interpreting
it.
Among these additions to equipment for the increase
of interest and the assurance of success in teaching, the
most recent and probably the most valuable is the motion
picture. Certainly the use of no other means of
teaching has ever increased so rapidly, nor has any
other ever gained at the same time such popularity with
all classes of people, in school and out. Though the
first motion picture machine using films was exhibited
at the Worlďs Fair at Chicago just thirty years ago,
the production, distribution and exhibition of motion
pictures has for several years been one of our largest
industries. The commercial use of motion pictures for
entertainment still overshadows their educational use,
but their value in schools of all grades, especially in
high schools, colleges, professional and technical schools,
and in extension classes, farmers' institutes, women's
clubs, and commercial, civic and social organizations of
all kinds, is gaining recognition rapidly. Many hundreds
of high schools and college lecture rooms are now
equipped with films and projecting machines. When
the results in more effective teaching and in time saving
are considered, the pictures are not costly. If they
were in general use in all schools, the cost would be
only a very small percent of the total cost of education.
When their value is fully understood and the means of
supplying pictures adapted to school use have been bet-
Introduction vii
ter worked out, they will, no doubt, be considered as
necessary a part of school equipment as are textbooks,
maps, charts and blackboards. The perfection of the
means of producing color films, stereoscopic films, and
talking films will hasten this.
Toward this more effective and more general use of
motion pictures in education this book should prove a
valuable aid. Its publication at this time is opportune
in a high degree. The wide experience of the authors
and their knowledge of the principles of education and
of school room practice have enabled them to make a
book sound in principle, practical in application, and
readable. For these qualities I commend it to all who
are interested in this subject. It is fortunate that the
pioneer book in this field is of so high a standard.
The authors are experienced in both teaching teachers
and in selecting and preparing films for educational
use. Mr. Ellis' experience as instructor in preparatory
school, as Chief of the Education Section of the United
States Forest Service and as organizer and director of
the motion picture section of the United States Department
of Agriculture and Miss Thornborough's experience
as film editor for the U. S. Government and as
a newspaper writer and editor have also added to their
equipment for this work.
All the twelve chapters are interesting and valuable,
and it is good to have brought together in one book a
discussion of the history and principles of visual education,
the story of the origin and growth of motion
pictures and their use in education, a critical discussion
of their value and of different methods of using them,
directions for installing apparatus, the kinds of films
now available and where and how they can be had;
but it is quite possible that most readers of the book
viii Introduction
will find chapters six, seven, eight and nine on the
time, place and methods of using motion picture films
the most interesting and helpful. I would like to call
special attention to the thirteen principles listed and
practically applied in chapter nine.
P. P. CLAXTON.
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA,
March 10, 1923.
FOREWORD
THIS handbook has been written in response to an
obvious and pressing need. Teachers intent upon keeping
abreast of advanced pedagogical practice are seeking
concrete, definite information as to the use, for instructional
purposes, of the newest and least tried of visual
aids, the cinema. A book seems in demand which offers
a solution to the very practical problem being constantly
presented: What educational films are available, and
where and how they should be used in teaching.
A demand no less evident is manifested by producers
of educational films, who need to be kept apprised of
the requirements of the school world, in order that
correct pedagogy be reflected in their productions. One
of the factors which has delayed the growth of the
educational film has been the scarcity of producers qualified
both in teaching and in motion picture technique.
A carefully prepared handbook, written by investigators,
possessed of the twofold point of view of the
film technician and the teacher, can not help but aid in
bringing together the two divergent points of view and
in assisting both elements to attain their common purpose.
Such a book should fully discuss the problem
and its difficulties, the shortcomings and limitations as
well as the advantages of the proposed methods, what
others have found out concerning it, and then make
direct recommendations, based upon accepted principles
of pedagogy, correct reasoning, sound investigation,
observation and experiment, as to the methods consid-
ix
x Foreword
ered best. In presenting this work to the educators of
the country, it is our hope that we may be found, in
some small measure, to fulfill the requirements which
we have had the temerity to set down.
Schools in many parts of the land are using films
for purposes of instruction. Such films are growing
in number and improving in quality. Their effectiveness
as teaching material is being investigated under
competent supervision. Producers and users are according
sincere cooperation to one another in their
respective fields. And standards of production and
utilization are being evolved.
This book is dedicated to the motion picture alone,
not in any sense to the disparagement of the slide, the
stereograph, or other form of visual aid, but only because
the film is newest and least used, the methods for
its use least developed, the need of definite suggestions
concerning its use greatest, and the subject large and
important enough in itself to justify a separate treat-
ment.
The motion picture has been accepted by educators
as an important factor in instruction. It remains now
to perfect the methods of their application to school
needs. We hope that this handbook will succeed in
contributing something toward this end, that it will
prove helpful to teachers in their efforts to use this new
medium correctly, and that it will add something of
definite even though modest value to the growth and
standardization of the cinema as a visual aid.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION WITH REGARD
TO VISUAL AIDS (Growth of the pictorial
idea. History of motion pictures. Motion
pictures and education meet.) . . 1
The Photographic Art A New Art First Motion
Pictures Educational.
II. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL
MOTION PICTURE IN THE
UNITED STATES 17
Educational Film Production Films Made During
the World War Private Production Nontheatrical
Companies Production in Educational
Institutions Distribution Problems Retarding
Factors Visual Instruction Associations Educational
Film Magazines Growth of the Movement.
III. OBJECTIONS TO THE USE OF MOTION PICTURES
IN EDUCATION 36
Objections Mechanical Difficulties Fire Hazard
The Question of Expense Films Make Learning
Too Easy Films Make Superficial Thinkers
Films Reduce Reading Films Cause Distraction
Films versus Teacher and Text "Still" Pictures
are Better Proper Films are Not Available
Films are Inaccurate Films are Too Rapid
Benefits Uncertain and Unproven No Established
Method of Use.
IV. ADVANTAGES OF USING FILMS FOR INSTRUCTION
58
Positive Benefits Objections Considered.
V ADVANTAGES OF USING FILMS FOR INSTRUCTION
(Continued) 78
Further Objections Considered Tests Cited and
Discussed Evolution of Motion Pictures.
xi
xii Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
VI. WHERE FILMS SHOULD BE USED IN TEACHING
99
In the Primary Grades In Advanced Grades
In Secondary Schools In Higher Education
Literature, History and Mathematics Chemistry
Dramatic Art Drawing In Professional and Vocational
Schools Specialized Study In Religious
Education.
VII. FILMS AVAILABLE FOR INSTRUCTION . . .117
Theatrical Films Suitable for School Use^Literature
Films History Films Other Instructional
Subjects Non-Theatrical Distribution Industrial
Films.
VIII. FILMS AVAILABLE FOR INSTRUCTION (Continued)
134
Pedagogical Films School Films of the Society
for Visual Education, Inc., Chicago Text Films
Distributed by National Non-Theatrical Motion
Pictures, Inc. Religious Subjects Chronicles of
American History Films Shown to the N. E. A.
Films in Biology Films in Domestic Science
and Home Economics Films in Physical Geography
Films in United States Geography Courses
in New York Schools for Which Films are Available
Domestic Science Civics.
IX. How TO USE FILMS IN TEACHING (In elementary,
secondary and higher education) 159
Methods Recommended Pedagogical Principles
A Lesson with Films in Kindergarten Teaching
Biology ivith Films Teaching Nature Study with
Films A Civics Lesson A Health Lesson An
Entomology Lesson A Few Don'ts.
X. SOME SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED METHODS . 195
In New York Schools In the Newark Schools
In the Chicago Schools In the Detroit Schools
In a Philadelphia School A Journey Geography
Lesson In a Texas School In a Hackensack
School
Contents xiii
CHAPTER PAGE
XL TECHNIQUE OF INSTALLATION AND OPERATION
212
The Ideal Equipment Different Kinds of Film
Laws and Regulations Architects' Plans Types
of Projectors Electric Current Screens Accessories
Principles of Projection How to Patch
Broken Film.
XII. LATE DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
242
Stereoscopic Films Films in Color Talking
Pictures Movies by Radio Animated Drawings
Use of the Cinema in Schools of Europe Con-
clusions.
APPENDIX 261
INDEX , . 275
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE CORRECT WAY TO TEACH WITH MOTION
PICTURES Frontispiece
A projector in the classroom is operated by one of the pupils.
A large wall map reversed is used as a screen. The teacher
is in the rear of the room watching the picture and occasionally
drawing attention to some particular point. (Courtesy
of State Street School, Hackensack, N. /.)
STUDIES OF INSECT LIFE Page 14
(1) From a film entitled "The Alder Bug," suitable for
biology and nature study classes. (Community Motion Picture
Service, Inc.}
(2) From a film showing the wonderful life history of the
ant. Valuable in nature study and biology work. (Pathe.)
(3) The prismatic eye of the fly, magnified many times in
the film, "Our Common Enemy." This is of course enlarged
again many times on the screen. (Pictorial Clubs, Inc.)
A FLOCK OF WILD DUCKS ... . .
Page 30
As shown in the film, "The Witchita National Forest and
Game Preserve," produced by the U. S. Department of Agriculture,
useful in teaching civics, biology, geography, and
nature study.
MOTOR OF AN AUTOMOBILE IN ANIMATION .
Page 42
From "The Elements of the Automobile," a ten-reel production
made by a film company, in cooperation with the War
Department, for instruction work during the World War.
The picture shows every essential part of the motor car in
actual operation, mostly through the medium of the animated
mechanical drawing. (Bray Studios.)
STUDIES OF ESKIMO LIFE . .,.,.. Page 56
The motion picture, "Nanook of the North," gives the student
a marvelous insight into the life of the Eskimo and the
Far North. (Pattic.)
xv
xvi Illustrations
A LESSON IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY . . .
Page 74
An eclipse of the moon, from the film on "The Earth and
the Moon," one of the series of Park Popular Science films
on physical geography. The series develops from cause to
effect through physical geography to the geography of commerce.
(National Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures, Inc.)
WORKING MODEL OF A TURBINE .... Page 88
Mechanigraph model used in the film, "White Coal the Fuel
of the Future." The model is nearly five feet high. On the
screen the water is seen rushing down the pipe or "penstock,"
through the turbine, which of course turns, and out
through the tail pipe. The shaft turns and the dynamo armature
revolves. This picture, made for the Westinghouse Electric
Co., by the Harry Levey Service Corporation, required
something more than 4,000 exposures.
How MOTORS AND GENERATORS ARE MADE .
Page 106
This great aisle in the Westinghouse factory at East Pittsburgh,
where motors and generators are made, is typical of
the subject matter in some industrial films, of great use in
teaching commercial geography and shop work. (Harry
Levey Service Corporation.)
CONSERVATION LUMBERING Page 124
From the film of the Forest Service of the U. S. Department
of Agriculture entitled "Logging Yellow Western Pine." It
shows the methods of logging in vogue in the National Forests
of Arizona and New Mexico, where the timber is cut
under the rules of forestry and conservation.
BIBLE STORIES IN MOTION PICTURES . . : .,
Page 142
(1) Solomon's Court, and (2) The Deluge, as depicted in
"The Holy Bible in Motion Pictures," a fifty-two reel production
made in Palestine and Egypt, and distributed by
National Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures, Inc. This is an
excellent example of the type of film available for religious
instruction, which makes the stories of the Bible live again.
MODERN DAIRYING Page 156
From a rural romance entitled "Milk and Honey." It shows
the various steps of modern, up-to-date, sanitary dairying, the
cement floor barns, sterilizing the vessels, and cooling and
handling the milk. A Department of Agriculture film.
Illustrations xvii
STORKS IN THEIR NEST . .... Page 178
On the roof of a farmhouse in Sweden. The mother stork is
watching the sparrows beneath. (From a highly educational
film, "The Home Life of the Storks," produced by Bengt
Berg.)
THREE TYPES OF FILM , ...
Page 214
(1) The Pathescope type, interchangeable with the "safety
standard" (28 mm.), and used only with slow-burning stock.
(2) The professional standard size (35 mm.), used in theatres
and in most non-theatrical installations. Made in both inflammable
and slow-burning stock.
(3) A strip of the DeForest "phonofilm," on which the
music and the dance are registered side by side on the same
piece of celluloid. The sound, which has been converted into
light waves, is recorded on the shaded portion of the film to
the left of the picture and measures 3/32 of an inch.
IMPROVED PROFESSIONAL PROJECTOR . . .
Page 220
Professional standard type as used in large theatres. Suitable
for school auditoriums, but not for classroom use. This type
is essential for distances of one hundred feet or more and
desirable for shorter distances.
SEMI-PROFESSIONAL PROJECTORS .... Page 230
(1) Semi-professional projector having the same mechanism
as the professional projector of the same make. Suitable for
both auditorium and classroom. Where moderate portability
is a factor it can easily be picked up in one assembly by two
men or boys, or by removing a few screws, can be carried
in two parts by one person. This type can also be equipped
with full professional mazda lighting equipment for throws
of one hundred feet or over.
(2) A type of semi-professional projector, with lantern slide
attachment. This type is light enough to be moved from one
room to another without being dismantled. It is best suited
for use in the small auditorium.
TYPES OF PORTABLE PROJECTORS ... . .
Page 244
(1) The portable suitcase type of projector is the kind recommended
for use in the classroom, and where extreme portability
is wanted. It weighs less than twenty-five pounds, is
self-contained in an asbestos-lined case, and projects a good
picture at seventy-five or eighty feet.
(2) Special type of projector for use with the Pathescope
or 28 mm. "safety standard" film. Safety standard projectors
are suitable for use in classrooms and small auditoriums.
Motion Pictures in Education
THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION WITH REGARD
TO VISUAL AIDS
EDUCATION is the imparting and acquisition of knowledge.
One way in which we gain knowledge and become
educated is by experience. We gain experience
through the senses.
"Seeing is believing" is an ancient adage in which
there is more than a modicum of truth. That a large
portion of the sum total of knowledge gleaned by the
human race has come through the sense of sight is
indisputable.
The eye is the most retentive as well as the most
observant of human sense organs. With many of
the lower animals other senses are predominant, the
sense of smell in some, hearing with others, but in
man, sight is ascendant among his faculties. While
oral methods may have been the first used by man in
the transference of ideas, although there is authority
for asserting that even here the visual was first, it is
certain that visual images were used in the dim ages
of antiquity to convey information and even to teach.
The sand was used as a blackboard in the open-air
village schools of ancient India. And mankind today
is learning from drawings and paintings discovered
in ancient caves in France and Spain the types of animals
familiar to men of paleolithic times, who lived
1
2 Motion Pictures in Education
five or ten thousand years before the dawn of recorded
history.
The earliest records are picture records. The purpose
of these records was to inform, to educate. It
is now generally believed that the cavemen drew pictures
on their walls not as a means of ornamentation
but primarily to impart facts, as to issue warnings.
Certainly their purpose was to convey ideas.
Egyptian hieroglyphics mark the transition between
picture writing and the early alphabets of the ancients.
Pictures are and always have been primarily a means
of conveying information and are in form, antecedent
and purpose essentially educational.
In studying the history of education we see that
educational theory in modern times has followed three
distinct lines. The humanists relied for purpose of
school training on the study of good authors with
their records of human experience. The realists believed
that teaching the child from books was secondary
in importance to bringing him into direct contact
with nature and reality. The naturalists maintained
that the child can be prepared for life only by living.
Foremost among the realists was John Amos
Comenius (1592-1671), who gave the world the first
illustrated textbook, in his Orbis Pictus or The World
Illustrated.
Comenius believed that the child could not learn
through words alone. He, therefore, appealed to the
eye and the mind of the pupil through the skill of the
artist. Words were clarified and impressed by pictures
or by the thing itself when possible. His World
Illustrated became the most popular schoolbook in
Europe and held that place of distinction for nearly
a century.
History of Education and Visual Aids 3
Pestalozzi (1746-1827) and Rousseau (17121778),
representing the naturalist school, taught that
the child should learn life by living and preached a
"return to nature." Froebel (1782-1852), who put
Pestalozzi's theories into practice, believed in developing
the senses of sight and touch and employed visual
aids in his famous kindergarten.
One of the greatest impulses given visual education
has been afforded by the British Museum. Art galleries
and museums are, in a sense, merely visual aids.
The sculpture of ancient Greece and the paintings of
medieval Italy were visual aids to education, religious
and civil. People have made collections of paintings,
statues, minerals and metals, of birds and butterflies,
because of their special interest in these objects, because
they wanted to see, to study, to observe these
things at their leisure and enable others to do so. The
British Museum, which was opened to the public in
1759 and contains printed books, manuscripts, prints
and drawings, antiquities of many nations and people,
coins and medals, and biological and geological exhibits,
is the largest and the oldest existing of these
storehouses of knowledge and has long been a most
prominent and potent factor in the promotion of
visual education.
To Comenius, however, belongs the distinction of
introducing visual education to the modern world.
He may properly be called the father of visual education.
And may we not name as the grandfather the
teacher who first drew pictures in the sands of India
and as the great grandfather that paleolithic man who
first began to build a picture language on stone before
the dawn of recorded history?
It is apparent that visual aids are fully as old as
4 Motion Pictures in Education
education itself. The picture has grown steadily as an
aid in teaching, from the time when earliest man carved
his first crude drawings in stone until the art of
photography and cheap reproduction made pictures
accessible to all.
The Photographic Art
An even hundred years ago, the photographic art
began. In 1822 the first permanent photographs were
secured by a Frenchman named Niepce. As early as
1802 a process by which records could be made by the
action of light was discovered by a certain Tom
Wedgewood, but no method of fixing it was then
known. Photography, considered a recent art, is a
centenarian and visual education is much older.
Out of the photograph quickly grew the stereoscope
and the lantern slide, and all three have found a prominent
and lasting place in the worlďs educational systems.
Blackboard drawings, illustrations in textbooks,
graphs, maps, charts, photographs, stereoscopes and
the stereopticon have long since become intimately
interwoven -in the fabric of pedagogy. The Visual
Instruction Division of the New York State Department
of Education announced that in 1922 it was
circulating something over a half million slides besides
numerous photographic prints,
A New Art
And now has come a new form of illustration,
ushered in with the twentieth century, an art made up
of all the methods of picturization which have gone
before, an art which adapts itself naturally and basically
to instructional use. This new form of picturization
is the motion picture. It combines the principles of the
History of Education and Visual Aids 5
photograph and the lantern slide with the earlier arts
of drawing and has added to them the semblance of
motion. As a result we have a composite which seems
destined largely to revolutionize illustrative pedagogy.
It must be borne in mind that while education has
been developing for several centuries, the motion picture
has only been available for education for the past
few years. It is logical to assume that Comenius and
Froebel would have eagerly seized upon the motion
picture as an aid to education if it had been available
to them. The cinema has disclosed a whole new world
for observation and study. It has brought the miracles
and wonders of nature to the pupil, has shown him the
microscopic life of the ocean, life in the arctic and
antarctic regions, how a plant unfolds, how a caterpillar
becomes a butterfly and many of the long hidden
mysteries and secrets of Mother Earth.
The motion picture has recently passed through
stages that the other arts completed ages ago. A brief
history may be of some value to those interested in
visual instruction. What are motion pictures? Who
invented them? When? Where? How?
What do we mean by "motion pictures"? The definition
of Dr. Rowland Rogers, instructor in Motion
Picture Production at Columbia University, is, "Motion
pictures are a method of communicating thought
by mean of a series of photographs projected in rapid
succession to simulate action."
F. A. Talbot, in his book, Practical Cinematography,
says:
Animated photography is an optical illusion purely and
simply. The eye imagines that it sees movement. Each
picture is an isolated snap-shot taken in the fraction of a second.
In projection the images follow so rapidly that the
6 Motion Pictures in Education
successive views dissolve into one another. The explanation
is persistence of vision. This peculiarity of the eye and brain
remains a scientific puzzle.
Animated photography grew out of still photography,
and its development was gradual. Valuable
contributions were made by a number of the early
experimenters and investigators.
While the development of the motion picture is
new, the idea behind it is old. As long ago as 65 B.C.,
Lucretius in his Rerum Natura wrote of "images that
appear to move," and Ptolemy, the Greek philosopher,
wrote a series of books on optics about 130 A.D., in
which he spoke of persistence of vision and described
simple apparatus by means of which the phenomenon
might be observed. It is the existence of this phenomenon
that has made possible the development of the
"moving picture."
Some see the dawn of the idea of motion pictures in
the nursery toy, "The Wheel of Life," invented in
1833 by W. H. Homer, which proved quite popular
in England and also in America, where it made its
appearance ten years later. This consisted of a hollow
cylinder with vertical slits cut into it and having representations
on the inner surface. By turning the wheels
the drawings or paintings of animals or people in
different positions, seen in rapid succession, gave the
idea of continuity of motion.
It must be remembered that the development of the
motion picture we know today has been made possible
by a number of contributing factors, the most important
being the development of the art of photography,
the discovery of a flexible sensitized medium for recording
photographs, and the invention of apparatus
for taking and showing pictures.
History of Education and Visual Aids 7
Dr. Sellers, of Philadelphia, amusing himself with
this nursery toy, made a series of photographs of his
two sons, picturing one in the act of driving a nail
and the other seated in a rocking chair, rocking. To
show them to better advantage than was possible in
The Wheel of Life, he invented a machine, the Kinematoscope,
patented in 1861. He was the first to
use photographs of real people in continued action
and to arrive at the conclusion that to obtain continuity
of motion the picture should be at rest during the moment
of vision. This is the principle of the intermittent
movement, used today in both motion picture
cameras and projectors. In 1860 Dr. Sellers made
what was probably the first camera for taking pictures
to be reproduced to simulate motion.
A photographic study of a horse race made by the
Englishman Edward Muybridge, in 1872, at Palo
Alto, California, furnished the next step forward.
Muybridge's objective was the analysis of movement.
He secured twenty-four cameras, placed them at the
edge of the race-course, conveniently close together,
with a fine thread attached to the shutter of each and
stretched across the track so that a horse in passing
would break the string and make an exposure on the
sensitized plate.
The results created such surprise and enthusiasm
that Muybridge then took up in earnest his experiments
in pictured motion, which continued twenty
years. He invented a machine, the Zoopraxoscope,
which projected "moving" pictures on a screen, thus
enabling a number of persons to watch the results
simultaneously. Muybridge's machine consisted of a
large glass disc with reproductions of the photographs
taken with different cameras set along its margin. It
8 Motion Pictures in Education
was also Muybridge who, working at the University
of Pennsylvania, succeeded in making the first instantaneous
photographs, an essential step in cinema-
tography.
Muybridge gave twenty-five years of his life to the
cause of pictured motion. He succeeded in taking instantaneous
photographs of rapid action and in projecting
them on a screen in such a way that the spectator
received the impression of continuity of motion.
The first published report of Muybridge's experiments
was received with great interest by artists and
scientists in Europe and America. In 1881 Muybridge
made his first appearance in Europe, addressing a
group of eminent scientists at Paris at the laboratory
of Dr. E. J. Marey, who was soon to make valuable
contributions to the growth of the cinema.
In 1882 Dr. Marey announced the invention of a
"photographic gun," the first camera capable of taking,
through a single lens, the number of exposures per
second requisite for recreating the illusion of motion
when projected. In his book entitled Movement, Dr.
Marey describes his invention as follows:
We united in a single apparatus all the accessories necessary
for chronophotography on fixed or moving plates as well
as for regulating at will the frequency and duration of the
exposures. The weak point of the photographic gun was
principally that the images were taken on glass plates. The
maximum was twelve pictures in the second and had to be
very small. These difficulties may be overcome by substituting
for the glass disc a continuous film very slightly coated
with gelatine and bromide of silver.
This book, published in 1895, also contains detailed
accounts of some extremely interesting early scientific
experiments in pictured motion to which reference will
be made later.
History of Education and Visual Aids 9
While Dr. Marey was making a scientific study of
movement, one Thomas A. Edison of East Orange,
N. J., had become interested in Muybridge's experiments,
and his inventive mind began to work on the
development of pictured motion. To him we owe the
Kinetograph, a recording machine for taking motion
pictures as now used.
Motion pictures may be said to have been formally
presented to the American public at the Chicago
Worlďs Fair in 1893. Here Muybridge exhibited on
his revolving disc machine 20,000 original photographs
dealing chiefly with animal movement, which
were viewed by men of science from all over the world,
and here Edison exhibited his Kinetograph, the first
motion picture machine employing film, which immediately
sprang into popular favor. In the Kinetograph
the observer looked at the film instead of at the
screen, and only one person could see the picture at a
time. The basic invention of motion pictures as we
know them today was here, but more work was needed
to be done on them.
Mr. Edison, in a letter to the authors, refers to his
invention as follows:
I was the first man to invent the motion picture apparatus.
The Kinetograph was the name that I gave to the recording
or "Taking" machine. If you will examine the projecting
machine to enlarge pictures and show them on the screen you
will find that it is nothing but the recording machine reversed,
but it was necessary to add certain details and devices
to make this reversal practical.
The means of throwing pictures on a screen by means
of a moving film was yet to be developed.
Although the art of photography had advanced until
the taking of instantaneous photographs was now pos-
10 Motion Pictures in Education
sible and cameras had been invented by means of
which photographs could be taken in rapid succession
through a single lens, other problems remained for the
early inventors to overcome, namely to find a proper
vehicle to carry the pictures and mechanism for showing
them. Many were the scientists who labored to
discover an adequate medium to receive the photographic
exposures. Edison realized from the first that
a light, flexible medium was needed to replace the
bulky glass plates. About 1888, George Eastman, a
manufacturer of dry plates, in Rochester, N. Y., began
experiments to find something to replace glass plates,
which were both bulky and breakable. He first tried
a transparent paper covered with an emulsion. But
it was not until the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin at last hit
upon celluloid as a base that a satisfactory substitute
was obtained. Its possibilities were immediately recognized
by Eastman, who is largely responsible for its
development.
In 1889 a flexible film became available to inventors
at work on the problem of recording and reproducing
pictured motion. At first negative film stock was used
as positive also, and it was not until 1895 that the
Eastman company began commercially to manufacture
positive film, the demand for which has grown to
millions of feet a month. It is interesting to note that
for some time after the inception of motion pictures
a much wider film stock than that employed at present
was used.
Now that a medium for receiving pictured impressions
was at hand it remained for inventors to find a
means for showing the pictures. C. Francis Jenkins,
a young clerk in the U. S. Treasury Department at
Washington, came forward with a machine which
History of Education and Visual Aids 11
would project on a wall or screen pictures from moving
celluloid film so that these "moving pictures" (the
expression was not invented until much later) could
be seen by a number of persons at once.
Mr. Jenkins' story of his early invention as told the
writer is interesting:
I began working on the development of an apparatus for
recording and reproducing motion in 1890 and the film I
used in my first camera and projector and subsequently was
kodak film, purchased in the local photo supply shops, slit
and joined into long, narrow ribbons by cementing with
collodion. My first exhibitions were in 1892, private affairs.
My first public exhibition was in Washington in 1893, but the
first public performance of which there is any newspaper or
other written account was held on June 6, 1894, at Richmond,
Indiana.
Here on the walls of a jewelry store a showing of
pictures made on celluloid film and projected on a
simple apparatus was given before a small group of
interested relatives and friends a performance that
was afterwards to become famous in motion picture
history. The necessary light was supplied by an electric
arc and the electric current to feed it was obtained
from the trolley wire outside. Not only was it the
first public showing of motion pictures of which we
have record but it was the first showing of colored
films. The subject of the film was a butterfly dance
by a popular vaudeville star, and each separate picture
had been painstakingly colored by hand.
In March, 1895, Jenkins and Thomas Armat entered
into partnership for making projection machines
which would throw pictures on a wall where they
could be seen by a group of people. At the Cotton
States Exposition in Atlanta, 1895, Jenkins and
Armat gave public showings at an admission price
12 Motion Pictures in Education
of twenty-five cents, using two projection machines,
the amusement-loving public's first opportunity to become
movie fans! A fire broke out, destroyed the
equipment and left the two inventors stranded. Soon
afterwards they parted company. In 1896 Armat
and Edison entered into an agreement for the making
of an improved Jenkins-Armat machine under the
name of Edison Vitascope Armat Design. Jenkins
received for his interests the sum of twenty-five hundred
dollars.
On April 27, 1896, New York saw its first motion
picture show, pictures being projected on a screen at
a theatre on 23rd Street, and in June of the same year
the Cinematograph projector, perfected by Lumiere
of Paris, using Edison's "peep-hole" machine as a
model, was brought to New York, and a motion picture
show was given with it at Keith's Union Square
theatre.
From that time on showmen saw the entertainment
possibilities of this new medium and developed them.
First Motion Pictures Educational
It is most significant however, that Muybridge's
experiments, which mark the real beginning of motion
pictures, were scientific in character and results. The
first use of motion pictures, by the founder of the art,
was in education. Moreover, for many years Muybridge's
experiments were conducted at the University
of Pennsylvania with funds appropriated by the University
as a contribution to the advancement of science
and education. In taking up the work practically
where Muybridge left off, Dr. Marey also devoted
his experiments solely to the attainment and demonstration
of scientific facts. Dr. Marey was an eminent
History of Education and Visual Aids 13
French scientist, a member of the Institute and of the
Academy of Medicine, Professor at the College of
France and Director of the Physiological Station,
where most of his experiments in pictured motion were
conducted.
In the preface of his authoritative work on Movement,
previously referred to, Dr. Marey says:
The Graphic method, with its various developments, has
been of immense service to almost every branch of science.
* * * Almost all vital functions are accompanied by movement,
but any attempt to investigate them is beset with difficulty,
for the majority are very complicated or very rapid, but
it occurred to us that many of these problems could be solved
by chronophotography. [This is the name given by Dr.
Marey to what we now call cinematography.]
Some of Dr. Marey's early motion pictures are of
as much scientific interest today as when they were performed.
One extremely interesting one was made to
discover the way the flight of one insect differs from
that of another. Others showed to eager scientists
the locomotion of animals in water the jellyfish,
comatula, eel, skate, seahorse, cuttlefish and starfish.
In another experiment Dr. Marey succeeded in photographing
the successive phases of heart action in the
tortoise under conditions of artificial circulation and
was thus enabled to study the mechanism of cardiac
pulsation. It was now possible to see the beating of
a heart ! This was the first application of motion pictures
to experimental physiology. In recording this
experiment Dr. Marey writes enthusiastically:
By means of chronophotography we were enabled to make
direct examinations of the movements of the heart by a more
subtle eye than our own and one that is capable of grasping
in a moment the sum total of changes which take place in the
cavities of the heart.
14 Motion Pictures in Education
It was Dr. Marey and his associates who first took
pictures of moving objects under the microscope. One
of the earliest experiments showed the movements of
the blood in capillary vessels.
Another pioneer scientific investigator who stands
out prominently is M. J. Carvallo of France, who, as
sub-director and secretary of the Marey Institute, was
probably the first to harness the X-ray to cinematography.
He succeeded as early as 1900 in producing
pictures in motion showing the process of digestion in
the stomach of a frog.
Dr. J. Comandon, also of the Marey Institute, was
probably the first to popularize the educational film.
He made successful X-ray cinematographs of the
bending of the knee, the opening of the hand, the play
of the muscles and also marvelous micro-cinematographs
of microorganisms so minute that two million
of them occupy a cube measuring 1/25 of an inch
across.
It was about this time that the well-known firm of
Pathe Freres first made its appearance. Under its
auspices Comandon did much of his work. So minute
was much of his subject material* that he had to employ
the ultra-microscope in making some of his films,
a wonderful accomplishment in that early day of the
cinema. Some of his magnifications were as large as
50,000 times natural size, a minute organism, much
too small to be seen with the naked eye, appearing on
the screen as large as a dinner plate. These earliest
of microscopic films were shown at the Sorbonne,
where they were pronounced a new and reliable means
of teaching bacteriology and of solving many problems
theretofore impossible of solution.
A film of peculiar interest made in Europe early in
(Community Motion Picture Service')
y
SOLDIER"
ANTS
GUARDING
A3APTIVEk /AV""
(Pathc}
(Pictorial Clubs)
STUDIES OF INSECT LIFE
1. Alder Bug. 2. Ant. 3. Eye of Fly.
History of Education and Visual Aids 15
the century was a picture record of the union of the
sperm and the ovum. Another showed the separation
of the membrane and segmentation of the sea-urchin.
These were made by Dr. G. Ries of Switzerland. In
another film, made by M. Demeny of France, the way
in which the tongue moves in the articulation of consonants
was shown. It was believed that films of such
nature would prove most useful in teaching the dumb
to speak.
Many of these early scientists employed the cinema
in research work and original investigations, with most
satisfying results, but few of the films they recorded
were ever given to the general public because they
appealed to only a limited few.
All of these early experiments and accomplishments
in Europe were in the cause of education and instruction.
The use of motion pictures for entertainment
was a later development. It remained for the showmen
of America to discover the entertainment value of the
film and to develop it into an important industry. It is
obvious that the field of education has first call on the
cinematographic art.
Since the early days of its development theatrical
use has prompted a growth, refinement and perfection
of the art such as education and science could not possibly
have contributed in so short a time. In a little
more than a quarter of a century, the art under the
stimulus of demand for recreation has progressed
from crude beginnings to the fifth industry of our
nation, the most popular form of entertainment in the
world, an art, if you wish to call it such, which helps
mould for good or evil the views and character of the
six million people who are said to attend motion picture
exhibitions in this country every day. While we
16 Motion Pictures in Education
owe the greater part of this development to the recreational
field, educational use of films has never been
entirely abandoned, has been slowly but steadily increasing
and is inevitably destined to become, in the
fullness of time, the most extensive as well as the
most important use to which the cinema shall have
been devoted.
Educators and men of science have instinctively
turned to motion pictures for aid in teaching and
demonstration. Continually, though spasmodically,
has the educational use of the cinema been slowly
evolving. Some educators have made excessive claims
for the motion picture as the coming panacea of all
education's shortcomings, destined to supersede textbooks
and supplant teachers, to furnish a soft and easy
road to knowledge. Others have been equally excessive
and intemperate in discounting pictures as a frill,
a fad, as of no real merit in education. But between
these two extremes have been men and women who
have recognized in the motion picture a valuable supplement
and aid to the imparting of knowledge and
who have been patiently and with much labor and
confidence in the future helping the pictures over the
rocks of early endeavor.
The production of strictly pedagogical films and
the use of films in education have scarcely been
started, but sufficient progress has been made in this
direction to point the way unmistakably.
II
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL
MOTION PICTURE IN THE
UNITED STATES
WHILE in this country of commerce most attention
has been devoted to the development of motion pictures
for the more profitable field of entertainment,
their value for education, with which Muybridge and
Marey first endowed them, was never lost sight of.
The Federal Government was among the first to utilize
motion pictures on an extended scale for instruction.
The U. S. Reclamation Service seems to have been the
pioneer among the bureaus at Washington to take up
this work, and that bureau exhibited at the Jamestown
Exposition 1907 films showing the work of the Government
in reclaiming arid lands.
Educational Film Production
The U. S. Department of Agriculture was soon to
follow and was the first branch of the Government to
establish a laboratory of its own for the production
of educational films. Pictures on plant and animal
production, forestry, plant and animal diseases, home
economics, dairying, food chemistry, road building
and numerous other subjects covered by the varied
activities of the Department were made. That they
have not become more widely known has been owing
to the lack of sufficient funds to provide enough copies
to meet the popular demand. Their use has been
17
18 Motion Pictures in Education
largely confined to members of the Department and
of the State Agricultural Colleges. These films are of
considerable educational value, contain a wide range
of scientific and practical information and have for a
long time probably constituted the largest single collection
of educational films on a related group of subjects,
if we except the geographic or travel films,
which, because of their wide popular appeal for entertainment
and their facility of production, have long
formed the largest numerical group.
The manner of growth and development of this
pioneer educational film work holds much of interest
for those concerned in visual education. The work
was not formally established until 1918, when, during
the writer's tenure of office, it received recognition and
was raised to the dignity of an independent unit.
Credit for starting film work in the Department of
Agriculture should be given, though seldom is, to
Joseph Abel, a photographer in the Bureau of Animal
Industry. In 1909 he made a film of the live-stock
show at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition and,
later, films on the Texas Fever Tick and Its Eradication.
It all too frequently happens that the real
pioneer, the man who struggles against almost insurmountable
odds in original creative work and accumulates
a vast fund of expert and useful knowledge and
experience in the effort is left with his experience and
knowledge alone to comfort him, while newcomers
who merely use his knowledge and build their reputations
on his earlier accomplishments reap the credit
for the entire undertaking.
When the Secretary of Agriculture awakened to a
realization of the importance of the motion picture in
the educational work of the Department, the Section
Growth and Development 19
of Illustrations was authorized to undertake the project,
Abeľs equipment was transferred and his own
work promptly forgotten. Later a governing committee
was formed of which the writer was the member
representing the Forest Service, a bureau of the Department.
Still later, the writer was placed in full
charge of the film activities of the Department and
organized them into a separate division. In this division
were made the first films on forestry in this country,
and, we believe, in the world. Among the more
important and unique films produced were microcinematographs
of plant diseases and analyses of motion
studies of the wear of shoe leather by men marching,
the latter conducted under the scientific direction of
the Bureau of Chemistry for the War Department.
The Department of Agriculture, it is believed, was the
first successfully to combine cinematography and animated
technical drawing, in a film entitled The Barbarous
Barberry, a study of wheat rust.
Other films of special scientific interest built by the
Department were The Seventeen Year Locust, Poultry
Parasites, and Grain Dust Explosions, in which the
explosive character of grain dust in suspension was
demonstrated. Many films of more popular appeal
were produced in that period, such as Milk and Honey,
Wliat a Careless Hunter in the Woods Can Do and
The Home Demonstration Agent.
The filming of this wide variety of subjects was
facilitated by the fact that in the Department of Agriculture
the film efforts of all the seventeen Bureaus
were, as they still are, coordinated in one unit, while
in other Government Departments where film work is
carried on each bureau conducts its own film activities,
notably the Bureau of Mines, the Reclamation Service
20 Motion Pictures in Education
and National Parks Service of the Department of the
Interior; the Bureau of Navigation, Recruiting Division
and Marine Corps of the Navy Department; the
Signal Corps and Army Medical Museum of the War
Department ; the Children's Bureau of the Department
of Labor and the Bureau of Standards of the Department
of Commerce. During the World War, the War
and Navy Departments maintained film divisions for
the twofold purpose of supplying informational pictures
to the public and of instructing officers and men
in the science of war.
Films Made During the World War
The Committee on Public Information, created at
the time of our entrance into the World War for the
dissemination of information concerning the governmenťs
war activities, established a film division which,
according to the report of George Creel, its chairman,
was second only to the newspaper division in spreading
information at home and abroad. The film activities
of this committee were begun, with the cooperation
of the writer, in the motion picture laboratory of
the U. S. Department of Agriculture and functioned
there until it became a well-established organization
and outgrew the Departmenťs facilities. This division
by its own large appropriations and through the
unlimited cooperation afforded by other branches of
the government, the motion picture industry and the
general public was able to produce and widely distribute
instructional and inspirational pictures which
were real factors in maintaining and increasing the
morale and patriotism of our people.
Much of the enormous volume of film produced was
of permanent historical value, though most was of
Growth and Development 21
ephemeral interest and of value only during a continuation
of hostilities. The attention given to motion pictures
by the Government during the war gave them
an impetus, a dignity and an importance as a medium
of conveying information that they never before
possessed.
For a time after the close of the war much of this
film, particularly that made for the public's information,
was available to educational institutions, and
some may still be had from various State Universities
where they were deposited. Because of necessary
governmental post-bellum economies, no provision is
now made by the Federal Government for the use of
these pictures, and the bulk of this material is now
lying largely unused. The stimulus, however, is still
felt. The Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Labor
and Commerce and, to a smaller extent, other Departments
at Washington are carrying on their production
of valuable pictures, and several states, educational
institutions and private companies are yearly
turning out and making available a modest but increasing
number of screen studies and pedagogical
pictures, and these are visibly improving in quality as
time goes on.
Private Production
Many of the large theatrical film companies have
from time to time established educational departments,
and many firms have arisen which are devoting their
time entirely to producing educational films. The latter
are in most cases smaller, but more persistent and
to a much greater extent engaged in original educational
production. The larger companies have devoted
themselves more to readapting their theatrical short-
22 Motion Pictures in Education
length subjects. Most of the original educational production
has been carried on in the smaller independent
companies organized for that purpose. Several of
these are doing work of real pedagogic merit on a
wide variety of subjects. In addition, individuals have
arisen here and there who have made or sponsored
the production of one or more films on a particular
subject in which they were specializing. Such a film
as The Birth of the Dragon Fly (U)* and the film
explaining the Einstein theory of relativity are the
work not of a company engaged in regular production
but of individuals. These small groups have made
some valuable contributions to the steadily increasing
library of films of real pedagogic value.
It is obvious that the production and distribution
of instructional films are the functions of organizations
or individuals specializing in these efforts and
can not apparently be handled properly by theatrical
companies. The latter seem to have little sympathy
with the school angle, are not possessed of the point
of view necessary for success in cooperating with
schools and seem to find the profits in the school business
not large or rapid enough to suit their investment
requirements.
In fairness it must be said that their point of view
has largely been borne out by experience. A wellknown
producing and distributing company which
pioneered in the educational field and produced a number
of worth-while and successful films highly commended
by the non-theatrical user has abandoned the
educational field after a comprehensive study of the
* Wherever practicable the distributors of films mentioned in this
book will be indicated by initials, the key to which will be found
in the appendix, together with the addresses of the distributors
referred to.
Growth and Development 23
situation and consistent trial and effort lasting over a
period of several years.
"It simply does not pay to try to meet the needs of
the non-theatrical exhibitor," said an officer of this
company, discussing informally the educational film
field.
"The non-theatrical exhibitor is usually a poor business
man, he is unreliable, far from a steady customer, he does not
know what he wants, yet he is dissatisfied with what has been
produced, or else he wants us to produce a film according to
his ideas to meet his needs without stopping to consider that
such a film might meet the needs of no other user of educational
films. In addition, his equipment is often poor, he
damages the film far more than does his theatrical neighbor,
and yet is willing to pay Jess than a fifth of the price the
theatrical exhibitor expects to pay. It is because the nontheatrical
exhibitor wants everything for nothing or practically
nothing that we have abandoned, at least for the
present, the non-theatrical field. The few dollars which the
relatively few non-theatrical users of films are willing to pay
for films are not worth bothering with. We have found from
experience that it simply does not pay to pass the films over
the counter to these customers, and it will not be a paying
proposition until the demand for educational films increases
from about 400 requests per day scattered throughout the
entire country to about 4,000 concentrated in key centers."
The foregoing comment on the educational film situation
coming from a well-known producing and distributing
company is significant. It is a severe but in
many cases a true indictment of the non-theatrical
user of films. It is the user of films here described
that hinders rather than helps the cause of visual education.
The cause can be furthered by business-like
methods on the part of educators using films and their
willingness to pay fair rental prices.
Two other of the largest theatrical film companies
started educational departments, one, the big Famous
24 Motion Pictures in Education
Players-Laskey Corporation. Both employed men of
acknowledged ability to carry on the work but abolished
the departments after several months' experience
because these departments did not pay for themselves.
Educational departments have recently been established
by two other large companies, Pathe and Fox.
These have devoted their non-theatrical efforts mainly
to renting the more suitable of their theatrical productions
to the non-theatrical customers and seem to have
made comparatively little progress in the production or
compilation of films designed for instruction.
It is only fair at this point to let the theatrical film
industry speak for itself with regard to the production
and distribution of pedagogical films. Hon. Will EL
Hays, President of the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America, said at the 1922 meeting of
the National Education Association at Boston:
On behalf of our organization I offer to your association
all of our facilities to aid in your experimentation. There is
already a great demand for pedagogic pictures. I propose
that we jointly study that demand and that we jointly find
ways and means of supplying it. Let a committee be appointed
of this association made up of the very best talent
within your ranks ;
let them meet with the great producers of
the country and find ways to use our facilities. We ask you
to aid us and let us aid you in the study of the whole problem
of the use of motion pictures as a direct pedagogic instrument.
Let us together find the means of making classroom
pictures which are scientifically, psychologically, and pedagogically
sound. Not only can we take care of the demand
which now obtains; but the great demand which is imminent,
and which will certainly come, must be met by producers with
a supply that measures up to the ideas of the educators of the
country.
And later he made the following statement:
With the National Education Association and the Federal
Commissioner of Education we are now engaged in the study
Growth and Development 25
of the efficacy of the film in the classroom and in working out
the arrangements to make certain the production of pictures
for classroom work which will be pedagogically, scientifically
and psychologically sound.
Although this sounds encouraging for the future,
attention should be called to the fact that the big theatrical
companies represented by Mr. Hays and whose
organization is thus promising the production of pedagogical
films are not the ones responsible for the bulk
of the pedagogical films, some of very excellent quality,
now available for schools. It has been the small
independent educational producer who has made the
large majority of the pedagogical films now being used
in instruction and from whom we may continue to
expect films of real merit in the future.
Whether or not these statements and plans of Mr.
Hays presage actual production of pedagogical films
on a large scale by the theatrical film companies, they
do make it quite evident that the leaders of the industry
generally realize that the educational film is to become
a very prominent factor in the motion picture
world.
Non-theatrical Companies
In film production, as in book publishing, the manufacture
and distribution of a product for the use of
schools seerm to demand specialization. It is for this
reason that such commercial companies have arisen
and are progressing as The Society for Visual Education,
Inc., National Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures,
Inc., Community Motion Picture Service, Carter
Cinema Company, Visual Textbook Publishers and
other similar organizations, which are devoting themselves
exclusively to the non-theatrical field of pictures.
26 Motion Pictures in Education
It has been mainly through the efforts of such companies
as these and of many of the state universities,
the Federal Government and some of the large manufacturing
companies, that even now a fairly large
quantity of acceptable instructional film is to be had.
Films on commercial, physical and general geography,
zoology, literature, civics, agriculture, hygiene, surgery
and to a lesser extent chemistry, botany, history and
physics are available.
Some of these have been produced primarily for
school and church use. The major portion, however,
was originally made for theatrical use but have been
found suitable also for educational purposes. In many
cases such material has been re-edited to make it suitable
for the school and other non-theatrical use. We
shall have much to say regarding re-edited film later.
Most of the films of greatest instructional value, however,
are those being made primarily for instruction.
Some of the foremost educators in the country are
devoting their time to such educational pictures and
members of the faculties of some of our great universities,
such as Columbia and Chicago, are cooperating
with experienced film producers in building pictures
paralleling standard courses of study in our schools.
Perhaps the most conspicuous and promising example
of these pictures are the films on the history of the
United States, now actually being produced by the
Chronicles of American History, Inc., in association
with Yale University Press.
Production in Educational Institutions
It is interesting to note that ten great Universities
have been or are now directly or indirectly producing
motion pictures. They are Yale University, already
Growth and Development 27
mentioned, Chicago University, the Universities of Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, Michigan, Nebraska,
Wisconsin and Utah.
The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis
has produced analyses-of-motion films on Boxing,
Wrestling and Swimming (NN-T) for use in physical
instruction.
The State Department of Public Instruction at
Raleigh, North Carolina, has produced a film history
of the State. The University of Nebraska has erected
a $20,000 motion picture studio on its campus.
Distribution Problems
One of the most troublesome problems in the introduction
of visual instruction has been that of film
distribution. It is an even greater problem today than
that of film production, for of what use are the thousands
of excellent pictures that may be in the vaults
of producers in New York if the user of films in Texas
or California can not obtain them? Although the
problem of exhibition or utilization of the motion
picture in schools is what we are most concerned with
in this book, the problem of distribution has a vital
bearing and is of concern to all who are using or who
may desire to use films in education. Independent
educational producers have been unable, because of
the lack of an adequate system of national non-theatrical
exchanges, to circulate their products to various
parts of the country except at prohibitive expense for
transportation and with unreasonable loss of time. In
the attempt to meet this difficulty there are growing up
here and there through the country local educational
distributors of motion pictures who are offering to
both producers and users more or less satisfactory
28 Motion Pictures in Education
facilities for the local handling of educational film
product.
Probably the largest non-theatrical distribution factors
up to this time have been the extension departments
of various State Universities or institutions of
similar character. The following institutions are distributing
films in their respective states: The Universities
of California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana,
Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin; the Iowa
State Agricultural College, the Illinois Agricultural
Association, the Kansas State Normal School, the
Louisiana State Normal School, the Department of
Education of Massachusetts, the Mississippi Agricultural
and Mechanical College, the Bureau of Community
Service of North ^Carolina, the North Dakota
Agricultural and Washington State College.
Such of these institutions as the Universities of
Wisconsin and California and the Iowa State College
have large film libraries and are accomplishing considerable
distribution, while many others are making
a rather futile attempt. Ten or more of these institutions
operate visual instruction departments which
circulate motion pictures to non-theatrical exhibitors
within their respective states. The service offered is,
in most instances, rather a community than a school
service and designed primarily for entertainment
rather than instruction. However, many valuable
pedagogical films may be secured from these state distributing
centers and some give special attention to
supplying school needs. Some of the films produced
by and for the Federal Government may also be secured
through the state universities and agricultural
colleges. The work being done in North Carolina in
Growth and Development 29
teaching whole communities by means of films is so
unique that it is worthy of mention here.
The Bureau of Commercial Service, which later
became a division of the State Department of Education,
was organized in 1916 under a voluntary arrangement
entered into by the State Departments of
Education, Health and Agriculture, the State College
of Agriculture and Engineering, the State College for
Women and State Farmers' Union. In 1917 the legislature
appropriated $25,000 for the work "designed
to improve social and educational conditions in rural
communities through a series of motion pictures selected
by the Department of Public Instruction."
Complete portable operating units were organized,
each having a lighting plant, projector, screen and
other equipment mounted on trucks. Ten community
circuits were started. Application for the service came
from the county Board of Education. In applying for
the service the community agreed to pay two thirds the
cost while the state paid one third. To raise their
share the community charged a small admission fee
which, in most cases, was sufficient to meet expenses.
Where there were ten community centers holding two
meetings a month, the work in a short time grew until
there were twenty county units holding 400 community
meetings a month with an average monthly attendance
of 45,000. In one mountain county not over forty in
the first audience of 280 had ever before seen a motion
picture. And in the remote mountain sections people
often walked for eight or ten miles to attend a meeting.
Each program given usually consisted of six reels
made up from comedy, history, literature and agricultural
subjects of both general and local interest.
The Department began at once to collect its own film
30 Motion Pictures in Education
library and in four years' time owned over 800 films.
In addition to purchasing, the Bureau started producing
films of local interest, showing the best and poorest
schools, homes, farms, roads, livestock, etc. These
"county progress" films, as they were called, were first
shown in the communities in which they were taken,
sent around the circle and then placed in the state's
permanent film library. One writer, referring to the
venture, said:
North Carolina has scored a visual success. It is sure to
spread, for there is no finer way of getting a grip on rural
folk and increasing their content with country life. By concerted
effort the best type of educational and recreational films
can be brought to brighten the lives and widen the horizon of
young and old even in the most remote sections of our
country.
While the country should properly look to the State
and Federal Governments to assist and encourage all
worthy educational undertakings, we believe that it
will be the responsibility of the commercial field to
supply the bulk of educational materials, as it has in
the past, and this applies to motion pictures as to other
materials of instruction. Because of the peculiar
nature of the undertaking, the great initial cost of producing
films and the consequent need of large buying
power, the demand for facilities for transferring film
supplies from one locality to another to meet shifting
needs and other considerations, the solution of the
problem of instructional film distribution would seem
to lie with the companies prepared to establish and
maintain national systems of exchanges devoted exclusively
to supplying films to the non-theatrical field.
At this writing at least one such movement is under
way. No doubt other firms will soon follow the
example set.
*
Hr> *:f-..
:
x'*> #.'
:
"
Y*i
'
'*&"
p*f^
?T
5r
^-
E9UI.V.
Growth and Development 31
Not only will such distribution systems place films
within reach of schools everywhere but will promote
and encourage the production of additional pedagogical
film by affording its producers a profitable outlet.
There is bound to grow out of this effort and in
response to an incessant and ever-increasing demand
from users means of placing available educational films
in the hands of those who need them. This in turn
will be such an encouragement to producers as will
greatly stimulate supply. The ball is already rolling,
has acquired considerable momentum and needs only
a reasonable time to reach its destined goal.
Retarding Factors
Lack of an adequate supply of suitable educational
films, doubt as to the character of projector to purchase,
unreasonable and lack of uniform legislation
regarding the use of films in schools, lack of sufficient
funds with which to purchase projectors and films,
lack of proper cooperation between the users, producers
and distributors of educational films, lack of
architectural provision for motion pictures in school
buildings and the conservatism of educators are some
of the factors which have retarded the demand for and
the use of motion pictures in instruction.
Despite these factors, the use of the cinema as a
supplement in school work has developed remarkably
in the past few years until now it has become conclusively
evident that films are to be an important and
an essential part of school work and that in the near
future no well equipped and efficient school will .be
without a projection machine and an adequate appropriation
for films to correlate with class work.
32 Motion Pictures in Education
Visual Instruction Departments
Already many of our most modern and efficient
school systems have visual instruction departments
with supervisors in charge. Such is the case in Atlanta,
New York City, Chicago, Evanston, Kansas
City, Detroit, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Los
Angeles and Newark. Provision is made in these
cities for funds for the purchase of motion picture
projectors and for the purchase or rental of films.
Many other school systems which have not as yet instituted
visual instruction departments and numerous
individual schools in all parts of the country are utilizing
motion pictures for instruction.
Visual Instruction Associations
The schools of New York City were the first in
which the use of films actually conformed to the course
of studies, and such of the New York schools as are
thus using films pedagogically are setting a pace and
a standard for other schools of the country. We invite
a challenge to this statement. We have made it in
good faith and believe it to be true. Much of what
New York City has accomplished in this regard has
been owing to the active cooperation and splendid
spirit existing between the teachers and the educational
film producers and distributors. Under the able leadership
of Dr. Ernest L. Crandall, Director of Lectures
and Visual Instruction, Board of Education, the Visual
Instruction Association of New York was formed.
In this association the several factors essential in the
upbuilding of this movement, film producers, distributors
and users, united their efforts on an equal footing.
This body, through its various committees, has become
a clearing house in which producers and dis-
Growth and Development 33
tributors learn the needs of the users of visual aids;
teachers learn the limitations and difficulties of production
and distribution; competing film makers and
sellers of films and equipment learn to cooperate to
their common good and all work together for the best
interests of the school.
Out of the New York Visual Instruction Association
there was born at the Boston meeting of the National
Education Association in 1922, the Visual Instruction
Association of America, founded to perform
on a nation-wide scale a function similar to what the
New York body has performed with marked success
locally. The National Association has in each State a
vice-president, one of whose duties is to build up local
units in his territory.
Another and older association, the Academy of
Visual Instruction, contains in its membership practically
all of the directors of visual education in the
state colleges and universities as well as other educators.
Active membership in the Academy is restricted
to those interested in visual education who have no
commercial affiliations. The Academy declares that
it is interested in the intelligent furtherance of visual
instruction in all institutions employing visual aids and
includes among its purposes the use of films for community
entertainment.
Educational Film Magazines
There are two magazines devoted entirely to the
non-theatrical field, Educational Screen and Visual
Education, the latter confined almost exclusively to
school work. Other educational motion picture periodicals
which did valuable pioneer work but have since
suspended publication are Reel and Slide, later The
34 Motion Pictures in Education
Moving Picture Age, which in turn has been absorbed
by Educational Screen, and The Educational Film
Magazine and The Screen.
Growth of the Movement
One important indication of the growing place being
accorded motion pictures in instruction is that
nineteen of our large educational institutions having
normal departments for teachers' training are giving
or have given some instruction to their students on the
use of motion pictures for visual instruction.
No less an authority than Dr. John J. Tigert, U. S.
Commissioner of Education, has said:
I for one am convinced that for the future the motion picture
is to forward our campaign against illiteracy as nothing
else that has been adapted to the classroom. No one can long
stay the general introduction of the film into the school.
Certainly the day of the educational film is dawning
and the prophecies of those early inventors and investigators
of motion pictures are about to be realized.
It was Thomas A. Edison who said, "My opinion is
that in time the schools will be the principal users of
moving pictures." And Dr. Marey, in 1895, when the
motion picture was truly in its infancy, stated that this
new medium seemed likely to extend our knowledge
with regard to all kinds of phenomena. "But its future,"
said this pioneer investigator, "depends upon
the correction of the distortion of the image, on the
discovery of a satisfactory means of projecting a much
larger number of moving images on a screen so as to
be visible to a large assembly and on increasing the
number of successive photographs so as to present a
performance of considerable duration." Marey did
not foresee that the realm of entertainment would be
Growth and Development 35
interposed between the wonderful advances in the
cinema for which he was so largely responsible and
the complete fulfillment of his vision. Every one of
the requisites which he laid down as necessary of accomplishment
before the cinema should perform its
full educational function have been fulfilled and more.
The enterprise of the very entertainment world whose
interposition he overlooked has added refinement and
technical development to the art. His dream has come
true and the day is breaking for instruction through
the motion picture, the greatest single element for the
advancement of learning since the invention of
printing.
Ill
OBJECTIONS TO THE USE OF MOTION PICTURES
IN EDUCATION
DESPITE the advance made by the motion picture, educators
are far from unanimous in approving their use
in education. The actual proportion of schools using
them is exceedingly small at the present time, only a
small part of one per cent.
In reply to a questionnaire sent out by the U. S.
Bureau of Education in 1920 only 1,513 schools and
colleges replied that they were using films in any form.
Although this was a long time ago in the annals of the
cinema, and only 10,000 answered the questionnaire,
it is highly probable that most projection machine
owners who received the questionnaire replied. It is
evident that motion pictures have a long way to move
before they can be said to be a controlling factor in our
educational system.
An editorial appearing in the New York Times,
July, 1921, on "Education by the Movies," makes the
point that
At best the current history, science and travel that can be
flashed upon the screen is a smattering. Really to understand
such things requires reading, study, laboratory demonstration.
Princes have found that there is no royal road to
knowledge and Americans may as well learn that it can not
come via the armchair. [And this much discussed editorial
speaking of the modern photoplay continues.] As compared
with the novel and spoken drama, the moving picture story
has certain obvious advantages. It is more swiftly graphic,
36
Objections to Their Use 37
more vivid and immediate in its appeal. But by the same
token its range in subject matter and characterization is narrower.
It tends inevitably toward the familiar, the unconventional,
the stereotyped.
The child who gratifies his love of stories by reading enlarges
his vocabulary, stimulates his power of imagination,
multiplies his points of contact with human nature and sensibility.
That and not the facile delights of the silver screen
provide genuine education. Children brought up on the
movies 'too often lack patience to read, the sense of verbal
beauty, of lifelikeness in character and are rather inclined to
patronize those others who spend long evenings to encompass
the story which the moving picture tells in a few minutes.
And a New Jersey daily, discussing "Movies in
Schools," says editorially:
The motion picture companies have produced thousands of
most educational films. Many subjects may be taught better
with motion pictures than by lectures or lessons. On the
other hand fundamentals can not be taught with pictures.
Visual education is incidental and has the demerit of cultivating
intellectual slothfulness. The textbook, the lecture and
the lesson will continue to be the basic means of imparting
knowledge and training the mind to function.
That films make superficial thinkers and that they
do not stimulate the imagination were opinions advanced
at a recent discussion by High School teachers.
One teacher said:
I think moving pictures over-develop the appeal to the
sense of sight and that on the whole their effect is psychologically
bad. There is too great an appeal to vision and the
other senses are neglected. Besides, pictures inspire a discontent
with life as it is and tend to make one seek "movie
life" where action is quick and results quicker.
Another teacher in the same group had this to say
against movies in education:
I am convinced that so far as school children are concerned,
the motion pictures of today are more of a detri-
38 Motion Pictures in Education
ment than a help. One of my English pupils told me that the
movies helped her so much in her book report that she did
not have to read the book ! The mere depicting of the incidents
(and how frequently the episodes are changed) robbed
that student of the benefits to be derived from reading the
book in question.
So many and so extravagant have been the claims
advanced for motion pictures in education that it is
not surprising that editors and educators have frequently
arisen to protest.
The State Superintendent of Schools of Maryland
wrote to the New York Times to say:
If the movie is more powerful in educational influence in
America than the school, as Commissioner Tigert is quoted
as saying, then we are wasting millions of dollars a year on
the dull prosaic teacher-pupil system when we could turn our
schools into movies and absorb education by sitting and enjoying
ourselves. It is quite true that the movies make a deep
impression on the child at times but there is nothing that can
replace the teacher-pupil method of education.
The disadvantages of the film are summed up by
C. E. Turner, Mass. Institute of Technology, in an
article "An Evaluation of Visual Education," as fol-
lows:
Seeing may do away with the necessity of doing; films
amuse; they make education too easy. Motion pictures use
so much fake photography the pupil will not believe anything
he sees in a film, and they cost too much.
A speaker at the National Education Association
meeting held at Cleveland, 1920, summed up the drawbacks
to the use of films in school work as:
eye strain, the flickering light being hard on the eyes; fire
hazard, the electric current required might prove dangerous
and inflammable, so this puts it under the ban by insurance
interests and an expensive housing is required which re-
Objections to Their Use 39
stricts the use of films to auditoriums and takes them out of
the reach of the class. In addition films are expensive and
made primarily for entertainment or advertisement and the
whole matter up to the present seems like an exhibition of
misfit effort.
A writer in Life goes further, saying:
Motion pictures have revealed themselves the most effective
carriers of idiocy that the civilized world has known.
They have lurked near school houses and seduced the impressionable
minds of the children. They have bought literature
and converted it, by their own peculiar and esoteric
magic, into rubbish.
And in the Outlook we find this diatribe under the
title "The Worlďs Worst Failure":
The movies have borrowed historical episodes and failed to
illuminate them; have ransacked granaries of drama and
fiction and borne off more often the chaff than the wheat;
they have turned Thalia into a hurler of custard pies, dressed
Terpsichore in a one-piece bathing suit and in pursuit of
Melpomene treated the world to unpremeditated tragedy.
Such real characters as movies have portrayed have generally
been filched from printed books and been marred in the
filching.
And in The Bookman we find one of the young intellectuals,
with the courage of his convictions, saying:
Not one scenario has been prepared in this country for a
motion picture with a significant idea. In almost every
instance where good novels and plays and short stories have
been drawn upon for movie material, the ideas have been
distorted and sentimentalized out of all recognition. And the
very worst and most insipid of American fiction has been
gutted for scenarios of widely advertised and patronized
films. Stage successes such as "The Affairs of Anatol" have,
on the screen become nauseating. It would seem that the
most incompetent journalistic hacks, the most illiterate backwash
of the writing profession, are retained to prepare the
scenarios for American film production. Most of the reputable
writers who have sold and contracted to sell the motion
40 Motion Pictures in Education
picture rights to their work, have either ostensibly or actually
taken the attitude that there is no help for the situation, that
the movies are an institution by illiterates and for illiterates
and pocketed the easy money.
While some of these indictments are directed not
against educational films but against photoplays, they
are quoted for the reason that they have an application
to the entire field of motion pictures and should be
considered even in an evaluation of educational films.
Objections
The following is an attempt to summarize succinctly
the more important objections to the use of films in
education :
1. Films cause eye strain.
2. There are too many mechanical difficulties and
projection problems, including proper wiring, current,
etc.
3. Fire hazard.
4. It costs too much to install the equipment and to
buy or rent films.
5. Films make learning too easy. They substitute
entertainment for instruction and passive acceptance
for active effort in learning.
6. They make superficial thinkers.
7. They reduce reading.
8. They destroy the sense of perfection in lan-
guage.
9. They dull the imagination.
10. The introduction of films into a lesson causes
distraction.
11. Films tend too much to replace the teacher-textbook
method of instruction.
Objections to Their Use 41
12. Slides and still pictures are better.
13. Proper films are not available.
14. Films that are available are too frequently inaccurate,
untrue, vulgar or crude.
15. Films are too rapid.
16. The benefits to be derived are uncertain and
unproven.
17. There is no established method of use.
This is a formidable array of objections, which we
shall consider in detail.
Eye Strain
Eye strain deserves the fullest consideration but
does not at this stage of development enter into the
discussion of pedagogical adaptability of the films.
Eye strain from moving pictures may be caused by
faulty projection, old or badly scratched film, or weak
or defective eyes. The problems of keeping the projector
in good order and in proper adjustment and
seeing that it is operated by a competent person are
constantly present and require attention. Users of
films should carefully inspect all films furnished; if
they come from the exchange on very old and bent
reels they should be rewound on good reels kept for
the purpose; old and badly scratched films should not
be used, and the school should not continue to patronize
the company which furnishes films in bad condition.
This, of course, imposes another burden on
the school.
The most serious cause of eye strain, weak or defective
eyes, is a problem of the exceptional child, not
of pedagogical practices. It is one that the individual
principal or teacher will have to meet.
42 Motion Pictures in Education
Mechanical Difficulties
Mechanical difficulties, such as those having to do
with current, wiring, booths, screens, securing the
right kind of projector for a given hall or auditorium
and the required permits from local fire and insurance
authorities are brought forth as reasons why many
schools are not using motion pictures. There are a
number of such difficulties to be considered in installing*
films. To put films into schools does take time,
trouble, thought and investigation and study of the
several problems involved. A number of permits may
have to be obtained. Copies of local rules and regulations
governing the installing and projecting of motion
pictures will have to be secured and studied. The subject
of electric current available will have to be gone
into, and a licensed electrician may be needed to see
that the wiring is done according to local ordinances.
Necessary fire extinguishers will have to be provided
if inflammable film is used. The question of what
kind of projector to buy and what kind of film to use
will require investigation and study. The mechanical
difficulties and problems of insurance have prevented
many schools from installing motion pictures. We
can advise no one to install films who has not considered
these problems and reached some solution.
Fire Hazard
What of the fire hazard? We hear much of the
danger of film catching fire and occasionally read of
great film fires and explosions. What relation have
these reports to the danger of fire in schools and the
safety of children where films are used? These are
exceedingly vital questions which should receive thor-
Objections to Their Use 43
ough investigation before a decision to use films in
schools is reached.
The ordinary motion picture film is highly inflammable.
The film stock which carries the photographic
emulsion is made of celluloid which has a nitro-cellulose
base. There are two kinds of nitrates, the high
nitrates, such as guncotton, which are highly explosive,
and the low nitrates, of which celluloid is one and
which, while it is not itself explosive, is highly inflammable
for the reason that it contains free oxygen in its
composition, and this enables it to burn rapidly in the
air and to keep up slow combustion even where air is
excluded.
Carelessly handled nitro-cellulose film is exceedingly
dangerous. Let us quote what an officer in the
Underwriters' Laboratories, New York City, says:
From the very beginning of the motion picture industry the
fire insurance underwriters took the position that nitro-cellulose
films, being a highly inflammable article, should have
all possible safeguards thrown around it, both when in use
in projection machines and when not in use.
The growing importance of the educational, religious, industrial
and non-theatrical use of motion pictures makes it
doubly imperative that the Underwriters, the State Fire Marshals
and the local fire departments of our cities and towns
should be on the lookout to protect the lives and property
involved in such use of nitro-cellulose film. For years the
proper safeguards have been thrown around its daily use in
places of amusement. Why should not the same safeguards
be demanded in schools, churches, hospitals, asylums, prisons,
manufacturing plants and other institutions?
The danger is not so much in the machine itself many
of the portable machines are safe enough within themselves
but in the handling of nitro-cellulose film outside of
the machine. Furthermore, all devices which are designed
to make the handling of hazardous film less hazardous within
the machine and outside of it, which do not comply with the
laws, are merely evasive and do not meet with the approval of
the underwriters.
44 Motion Pictures in Education
Portable projection machines using the regular theatre film,
without booths, competent operators, and the other fire-pre-
ventive
provisions
of the law, are unquestionably a menace
to life and property.
The future of the non-theatrical field of motion pictures,
if it is to depend upon portable or semi-portable projection
machines largely, lies apparently in the broad development
of the safety idea in machines and film libraries.
The Question of Expense
Film and film equipment are among the most expensive
of visual aid materials. The cost is higher than
for slides, charts, graphs, models or still pictures.
Questions the school superintendent or principal
should ask are: Do motion pictures justify the money
invested in them? Will it
pay us to install them in
this school?
At the present time satisfactory projection equipment
costs from two hundred to two thousand dollars,
depending upon the type of machine desired and the
additional equipment needed. Films rent at from one
to ten dollars and even higher per thousand foot reel
per day, with an average film rental of about four
dollars per reel per day. Prices vary greatly. A program
or series of programs for a term or whole year
are proportionately less and usually range from fifteen
toutwenty-five dollars for a six or seven reel program.
The purchase price of films varies so greatly that one
writer is quoted as saying films could be purchased at
from five to ten dollars a reel for "junk" or used film,
with the sky as the limit. Prints of the U. S. Department
of Agriculture films, for example, can be purchased
for about forty dollars per reel, certain educational
films have been quoted at one hundred dollars a
reel, while others are not for sale at any price and
can only be rented.
Objections to Their Use 45
One school principal, who had not investigated local
rules, ordinances and insurance rates before purchasing
a projector, answered the question "Has it paid
us to install films in our school?" in a most decided
negative. He says:
We find that we cannot operate our machine at all unless
we are willing to pay an extra insurance of over $600 per
year which of course is prohibitive. Consequently we have
a nice white elephant on our hands. You can believe me, I
wish I had never heard of a movie machine in a school. After
spending hundreds of dollars we find that we must put it away
as a bad venture.
And such has been the experience of more than one
would-be user of films. In many cases local rules and
regulations regarding the use of films make them prohibitive
for schools under certain conditions.
Films Make Learning Too Easy
The comment is frequently made by educators that
films amuse ; they make education too easy ; seeing may
do away with the necessity of doing. Interesting
criticisms of the use of films in education were made
by speakers addressing the first class in Educational
Motion Pictures, Columbia University, Summer Session,
1921. One speaker, a prominent school superintendent,
said:
Films do not teach concentration, but rather the contrary.
They confuse because of their variety and continual motion.
The only function of the motion picture in education is to
gather together facts and summarize them.
A former officer of the National Federation of College
Women, writing on "Some of the Pitfalls," makes
the point that the movie has created in the child a
distrust of itself. The wonder and credulity that are
46 Motion Pictures in Education
supposed to be essentially childlike characteristics are
fast disappearing. And a professor of English says:
Failure lies in making a toy of the motion picture in the
classroom, using it to replace effort on our part or on the
part of the pupil. Mere quickness hampers us in gathering
accurate facts and details.
Other writers and observers maintain that the
cinema may prove harmful instead of helpful because
a fundamental principle of pedagogy is that the pupil
should learn by dint of laborious study, that there is
no royal road to learning, and that by our effort to
simplify and facilitate the acquisition of knowledge we
make the school superficial and detract both from
imparting useful knowledge and the building of character
which the struggle for knowledge engenders.
Knowledge is like a rich metal embedded deep in the
earth and which has to be dug for as a miner digs
for gold. The tendency of the modern school, they
tell us, is altogether away from the older ideals of hard
work. Everything is being simplified for the child,
made easy and pleasant, and the pedagogical film is
just another step in the same direction, all tending to
substitute play for work and thereby depriving the
school of its greatest asset, personal effort.
Another phase of this consideration is that the child
of this generation regards the motion picture so definitely
as entertainment that when the picture is introduced
into the classroom he must persist in still
regarding it as recreation rather than material for serious
application. This is pointed out as scarcely the
disposition requisite for earnest attention and effort
to learn which should be present in the classroom. It
is a question whether motion pictures, both because of
their antecedents and because of their essential char-
Objections to Their Use 47
acteristics, can ever overcome their primary appeal as
recreational rather than as instructional material.
Films Make Superficial Thinkers
The objection is made that films produce superficial
thinkers, dull the imagination, destroy the sense
of perfection in language and reduce reading. Examples
have been cited where pupils rarely do parallel
reading if they can see the work in question in a
"movie." It is also true that many entertainment
films and some instructional films make no demands
on the mentality of the beholders. If a pupil is allowed
to replace the reading of the classics with seeing
a film portrayal he will have only half a knowledge
or a distorted one of the subject and the result will
be harmful. No one can intelligently discuss a book
or a play merely from having seen the screen version.
Without a knowledge of the original it is impossible
to know how truthful the motion picture producers
have been in their translation.
Discussing "The Motion Picture and English Literature,"
a professor of English at Brown University
writes:
If in general it is dangerous to supplant books by motion
pictures it is trebly so in literature. A motion picture can
give only the facts of the case in action plus whatever elemental
emotion these facts generate. If the motion picture
accentuated the habit of thinking in bits it would be not a
help but a menace. The best part of a novel can not be transferred
to the screen. A coarsened, syncopated representation
of the plot (as in Treasure Island) can be given, but
that is all.
Another teacher advances the opinion that
motion pictures do more harm than good in the study of
the classics, for the pervading soul of the author is lost and
the original is gone.
48 Motion Pictures in Education
Films Reduce Reading
That the movies reduce reading is a contention often
made. A librarian writes:
The movie is moving the boy away from good literature.
Once he develops the movie type of mind he will be lost
forever to good books. The repose and repression, the atmosphere
and the background that are part of all good books,
will bore him. In motion pictures the boy finds nothing that
calls for the exercise of his mind. He becomes in a sense
the father of the mentally sterile man. The motion picture
simply asks for his eyes, never for his intelligence. And
so he passes in time completely away from the field of books.
Films Cause Distraction
That the introduction of films into a lesson causes
distraction and that the darkness causes disorder are
objections that have to do with discipline and teaching
methods rather than with the medium used. However,
these objections are raised as very serious factors by
teachers who maintain that pupils in the grades will
not behave or be attentive when darkness hides them
from the wachful eye of the master. Furthermore,
the unusual condition introduced by the necessary
darkening of the room causes, they claim, a distraction
which more than offsets the advantage gained by
the showing of the pictures.
Films versus Teacher and Text
State Superintendent of Schools Cook of Maryland,
previously quoted, is quite correct in saying that
there is nothing that can replace the teacher-pupil
method.
The personality of the teacher, his acquaintance
with the qualifications and shortcomings and idiosyncrasies
of the individual members of his class and his
direct and personal interest in them can not be replaced
Objections to Their Use 49
by any pedagogical device, however skillfully designed.
It is as inane to suggest that the cinema will supplant
the teacher as that it will take the place of the textbook,
as Thomas A. Edison is quoted as having predicted.
The combination of the textbook, teacher and pupil
can not successfully be supplanted.
One of the outstanding weaknesses of the film as
known today is its tendency to relieve the teacher of
much personal effort, and while this may be pleasant
for the teacher, it is not good for the class. In using
lantern slides the teacher has opportunity and occasion
to talk upon them. To do this requires that he know
the subject covered by the pictures and that he inject
his own personality into the picture lesson. This
means in turn that he will naturally take more interest
in the slide lesson, familiarize himself in advance with
the pictures and be better prepared to discuss them
than in the case of the film, whose sub-titles make it
self-sufficient and defeat rather effectively any attempt
at lecturing or explaining while the pictures are being
shown. If this be true, is not the use of film less apt
to gain the support of the earnest, enthusiastic teacher?
For that is the kind who desires active participation in
all activities of his class.
"Still" Pictures are Better
An objection that deserves special consideration is
one frequently heard from many visual educators
namely, that the slide, the stereograph or the still photograph
will do all that is claimed for the motion picture
and will do it better, without causing eye strain,
without danger from fire, and with much less expense.
These champions of still pictures tell us that slides are
50 Motion Pictures in Education
available in greater quantity, more easily obtained than
films and have the added advantage that as few slides
as desired or needed to illustrate a given point may
be used, while in the case of the film the whole subject
has to be shown whether or not the entire reel is suited
to the lesson being studied.
The case of the slide versus the film has been ably
set forth by one slide enthusiast, E. R. Barrett of the
Kansas State Normal School, who sums up the case
as follows:
The still picture stays in sight just as long as the teacher
may wish. It may be returned to view instantly. It may be
shown alternately with other pictures for sake of comparison.
Of still objects like the Capitol at Washington, a banana tree,
the Panama Canal, etc., a more comprehensive view may be
obtained from still than from moving pictures. The range
of subjects that may be shown from slides is infinitely greater.
When motion pictures are used in the classroom the picture
determines largely what shall be taught, but with the slide
the subject determines the picture. Operation of the new
stereopticon is as simple as turning on the electric light and
adjusting an opera glass. Many schools make their own
slides and they can be bought at from twenty-five cents up.
And the principal of a public school, resenting some
of the claims made for the film in education, writes to
the editor of the New York Times rather heatedly as
follows :
Five years of experimenting with the moving picture and
the stereoptican have proved the greatly superior advantage
of the still picture, and pictorial aids of any kind are being
used with more and more moderation because of the evidence
that much of the instruction so given (or rather offered) is
accepted merely as passive entertainment. I am glad to have
the facilities for pictorial instruction and know the value
of their occasional use, but the general public, and much of
the educational world, has gone mad over the new and easy
way of pouring instruction into the waiting child.
Objections to Their Use 51
Mr. A. W. Abrams, chief of the Visual Instruction
Division of the New York State Department of Education,
and a recognized authority on the use of the
slide in education, in a letter to the writer says:
We are circulating this year something over half a million
slides, but we are doing nothing whatever by way of
furnishing motion pictures, though I suppose we are giving
at least as much attention as any bureau to attempts to determine
the value and limitations of the educational type of
picture. The thoughtful school administrators and supervisors,
who have the responsibility of directing the work of
our teaching institutions, are not yet very thoroughly impressed
with either the character or the great importance of
visual instruction, particularly when that term is made synonymous
with motion pictures.
And in a published article Mr. Abrams makes these
statements which are worthy of serious consideration:
A motion picture consists of a succession of images projected
on a screen from a film with such rapidity as to
produce the effect of movement. The chief function of such
pictures is to tell a story. They are not well adapted for
the observation of any of the aspects of material things other
than motion. The distinctive place of the motion picture is
in the field of entertainment, though it may have some supplementary
educational value in showing processes when
other related facts are known. There is no possible advantage
to be derived from the motion picture for representing
objects that are static, such as buildings, works of art and
physiographic features of the earth. Motion is sometimes so
characteristic of a living form of mechanical contrivance as
to be in itself an object of interest and when the moving
form can not be examined a pictorial representation of the
movement is distinctly useful.
For educational uses, aside from the question of expense,
the chief weaknesses of the motion picture are the absence of
discussion while observation is going on and a consequent
lack of training in observation and in the power of verbal
expression. The deeper and more significant features to be
observed are overlooked, true mental reaction is weak, and
study is superficial. The same results may attend the use of
still pictures but are much less likely.
52 Motion Pictures in Education
Proper Films are Not Available
There is much truth in the statement that suitable
films can not be obtained by educators. Dr. John J.
Tigert, U. S. Commissioner of Education, writes in
School Life:
The whole matter of producing proper films for school
purposes has been at a deadlock because the producers who
were commercially successful did not understand the needs
of the school, and school men, on the other hand, who have
undertaken to produce, though understanding the educational
problem, did not have the practical experience which is necessary
for success.
Not only have comparatively few satisfactory educational
films been made specifically for the teacher's
needs, but those that he could adapt to his purpose are
not to be had if he lives any distance from a few large
film centers.
The educator living in Maine, Florida or New Mexico
may find that the film he wants can only be obtained
from New York and the cost of transportation,
plus film rental, plus time in transit, discourages him.
Practically the entire attention of the motion picture
industry during the past quarter of a century has been
directed toward providing films for public entertainment
in the theatre, and it is not surprising if the producer
has not found it profitable or attractive to turn
his attention to educational films. Certainly there has
been little or no profit hitherto in the handling of educational
pictures, and comparatively few producers
have had the ability to provide motion pictures of instructional
value even if they were so inclined. In
fact, from specimens upon the screens of some of our
theatres, few picture makers seem capable of producing
worthy examples of even the dramatic art. As
Objections to Their Use 53
for the so-called "educational pictures'
'
frequently
shown in our better theatres and which contain many
gems of value pedagogically, even these are largely a
drug upon the film market and few find it profitable
to make or sell them. Certainly, compared to the vast
number of photoplays and comedies that are being
produced yearly, there is an almost infinitesimal percentage
of true pedagogical pictures, and those which
do exist, owing to the lack of adequate systems of
distribution, are not easily accessible to schools outside
of a few big cities like New York or Chicago. The
Board of Education of Los Angeles, for example, has
been striving for months to obtain the Burton Holmes
travel films for use in its schools but thus far has found
it impracticable to use many of them because they can
be got only from New York. It is to be regretted
that an art conceived in educational endeavor should,
after thirty years, have fallen so far short of adequate
pedagogical accomplishment.
Films are Inaccurate
That films that are available are too frequently inaccurate,
untrue, vulgar and crude is a criticism that
contains much truth.
The early efforts of any art are apt to be crude.
Early attempts at painting can truthfully merit all the
epithets enumerated above. The products of many
early masters of the Christian era were ludicrous expositions
of ignorance of human anatomy. The sculpture
unearthed from the ruins of ancient Babylon,
while amazing manifestations of the advance of the
art of that period, can scarcely be considered altogether
satisfactory representations of their subjects. And
the motion picture is no exception. The minds direct-
54 Motion Pictures in Education
ing the motion picture industry have naturally not long
been schooled in their calling. The cinema has as yet
no traditions to live up to, no principles to adhere to
and has received into its fold many who were failures
in the callings they hitherto followed. The writer in
The Bookman, already quoted, says:
The motion picture industry has behind it a vast deal of
shrewd and adventurous business acumen but not one influential
directive mind above the level of a stock promoter,
not one guiding personality who has revealed more than a
glimmer of aesthetic interests or even of elementary taste.
Whether the movies in this country will ever attract the
first-class artist is problematical. The field is held at present
by ex-chauffeurs and ex-scene shifters who summarily reject
all constructive criticism and are hostile to all ideas which
they stigmatize as highbrow. It is to their interest, obviously,
that the movies remain the tawdry claptrap they are, sentimental
and vulgar episodes in settings which are anachronistic,
flashy, ludicrous, and absurd.
If these invectives be true, it would most naturally
follow that the attempts of these same near-artisans
to produce pictures of educational character would be
even greater failures. And, in fact, many films which
the writers have had submitted to them as pedagogical
had not as much instructional merits as a dime novel or
the comic section of a modern Sunday newspaper.
Films are Too Rapid
We are told that motion pictures move too rapidly,
that no sooner is an object seen on the screen than it is
gone, before the spectator has opportunity to grasp it,
that scene follows scene so quickly that the mind can
not intelligently follow and that the effort of the child
to follow is too great a strain. What habitue of the
"movies" has not suffered from motion pictures running
at top speed? If this is an essential limitation of
Objections to Their Use 55
motion pictures, their pedagogical value is thereby
seriously lessened.
When one realizes that the pupil seeing motion pictures
is seeing sixteen distinct images a second and
about sixteen thousand in fifteen minutes and that the
images are constantly being withdrawn to make place
for explanatory titles which the child must hasten to
read before they disappear, the criticism that the film
is too rapid and that the child can not take in all he sees
might appear to be a just one.
In the course of an article on "Some Psychological
and Pedagogical Aspects of Visual Education,"
Matilde Castro, Professor of Education, Bryn Mawr
College, writes:
The ordinary motion picture even of the less exciting type
moves too fast usually for mental assimilation and the
nervous anxiety is often great because, as a child, remarked
"I just never can keep up with where things are coming
next."
If this is the sort of quickening and vitalizing process
which the motion picture purposes to apply to "dead" subjects
of the classroom it is pernicious not merely because
of the bad hygienic effect upon the child, but because any
condition of tenseness or anxiety is detrimental to learning.
Further, this tempo is bad for memory. Impressions following
each other in very close sequence tend to weaken the preceding
ones. . . . Even when the proper use of films is understood
there will always be an individual problem as to how
many and at what intervals exhibitions should be given to a
particular class.
Another point worth considering, made in the same
article, is that
the motion picture does not by virtue of the fact that it
presents movement and activity avoid passivity on the part
of the child. His attitude may be far from that of giving
dynamic attention. He may be so concerned to let nothing
escape his attention as the procession files by him that he
56 Motion Pictures in Education
inhibits any tendency to think lest it get in his way. Or the
mental alertness may be one of strain and tension, of being
on the jump in order to keep up the pace of the necessary eye
adjustment.
Benefits Uncertain and Unproven
No one knows wth certainty what motion pictures
are capable of accomplishing in our schools, for the
very simple reason that they have not been thoroughly
tried out. True, earnest experimenters have conscientiously
determined the exact percentages of learning
which come to the child through the eye, the ear, the
nose, the mouth, the skin (see Educational Screen,
Dec., 1922) and we have learned very conclusively and
definitely from their tests that the eye transmits to
the mind, under various tests, 40%, 46%, 85%, and
90% of the sum total of mental acquisitions and that,
for example, motion pictures are exactly 2% more or
less efficient (we forget for the moment which) than a
certain type of teacher; but beyond such discoveries
the world really does not know either how to use the
cinema in teaching or what good it would accomplish
if it were used.
Even the tests referred to have been conducted,
for the most part, by student investigators who chose
or had imposed upon them as their thesis the subject
of motion pictures in education and might naturally
feel called upon to build up a case for them, or by
visual instruction experts who might be excused if
they were somewhat prejudiced in favor of their own
chosen medium of instruction.
In a recent article, Dr. Rowland Rogers of Columbia
University asked these pertinent questions:
Can visual aids help reduce pupil mortality?
Can they better existing methods of imparting information?
Pat he Pictures
STUDIES OF ESKIMO LIFE
Objections to Their Use 57
Can they stimulate the studenťs imagination and constructive
thinking?
Can they create the desire to learn to know?
These questions are unanswered. Many years of research,
investigation and observation will be needed to determine the
advantages and limitations of visual aids and the field of their
usefulness.
No Established Method of Use
The motion picture medium has no precedents or
traditions behind it and the methods found useful for
the slide and the stereograph do not apply. The
teacher, accustomed to regard the cinema as entertainment,
is inclined to sit back and just enjoy the film in
the classroom and to allow his pupils to do likewise,
particularly when he does not know what else to do.
Then, too, schools being poorly equipped for classroom
instruction via the film, pupils are often herded into
the auditorium to see "a movie show/' often the entire
school or several classes together under circumstances
absolutely precluding the application of any pedagogical
method even if one were at hand.
The present-day teacher may well ask: Are we justified
in experimenting with our children in so unproven
a field?
Such are the objections presented for the reader's
consideration. Of course, a judgment can not be based
solely upon the negative side of a question. The positive
side must also be weighed before a practical decision
can be reached.
IV
ADVANTAGES OF USING FILMS FOR
INSTRUCTION
IN the foregoing chapter effort has been made impartially
to present all of the objections to the use of
films in education thought worthy of consideration
which a considerable amount of painstaking research
has revealed. The present chapter will weigh in equal
fairness the positive advantages which the use of films
holds forth and discuss the more important objections
offered.
Pictures are able to standardize impressions and
make them clear and complete, uniform, lasting and
specific. By them the abstract can be made concrete,
the absent present. They can bring into the classroom
faithful representations of objects which are too far
distant or too small or too large or too rare or expensive
or dangerous or otherwise inconvenient or
unsuited for direct classroom examination. Pictures
of an object can frequently reach simultaneously and
equally a greater number of spectators than can the
object itself. These capabilities are possessed by the
still photograph, the slide, the drawing, the stereograph,
in common with the motion picture. The latter possesses
some advantages over the still group ; conversely,
the still group presents some over the cinema.
To a greater extent than any still representation, the
cinema is able to present objects as they actually exist,
58
~
'Advantages of Their Use 59
move and have their being, bring distant peoples into
the classroom and show them actually going about their
ordinary pursuits as they really did in the distant land
when the picture was being taken, or, better still, it in
effect transports the spectator to the distant land and
enables him to mingle and live with its inhabitants, to
view the country from the observation platform of a
railroad train as it winds its way through chasms and
valleys and mountains, or to stand beneath the waterfall
many hundreds of miles away and almost feel the
spray upon his brow.
Motion pictures overcome time and space. By
means of them rapid processes can be slowed down
and analyzed ; slow processes can be accelerated ; inanimate
objects animated; dead facts made to live and
pulsate. Attention can be held and concentrated and
the memory more deeply impressed by the moving
image projected on a brightly illuminated screen in a
darkened room than by ordinary teaching methods.
Scientific experiments and demonstrations performed
with ideal equipment and under the best possible
conditions, and operations performed in the clinic
can, by means of motion pictures, be repeated indefinitely
anywhere and at small expense. Microscopic life
can be enlarged many times on the screen, so that what
can ordinarily be seen with difficulty through the
microscope by only one at a time can easily be viewed
on the screen by an entire class. Motion pictures expand
the experiences of the pupils by bringing to them
the whole wide world. Schoolroom instruction can
by this newer medium be made more pleasant, less
expensive in the long run and immeasurably more
efficient.
Motion pictures mean bringing life into the school-
60 Motion Pictures in Education
room things as they are. Rushing rivers, the bubbling
lava, caldrons of great volcanoes, waving fields
of grain, vast forest fires, the mighty ocean and its
pounding surf, the storm clouds all are by means of
the moving picture more than by any other means
brought into the school. It acquaints the pupil with
living, moving specimens of the worlďs animal life;
the deer and bear in the forest, the tiger and elephant
in the jungle, the life in sea and river, the unseen life
under the microscope. The pupil is made to live his
lessons, not just to read about them abstractly, coldly,
distantly in his textbook.
When he studies geography, the cinema transports
him as if by magic to the scenes of his studies where
he lives among the native people. He studies biology,
and the films bring the living animal life of the world
and its native environment to the classroom. Is it
any wonder that school work immediately becomes
more pleasant and more effective ?
The writer has just witnessed a four-reel exposition
of the Einstein theories, which, in less than an hour,
left a clearer, more graphic appreciation of the theories
of this great scientist than two days' study of text
could have given. In fact, the text without the picture
could never have made the theories so clearly understandable.
And the memory of the animations will last
long after the memory of the printed page has dis-
appeared.
Motion pictures can show a projectile slowly traveling
from the gun and leisurely pressing its way
through the target and can analyze one by one the
slow, graceful movements of the racing horse, and, on
the other hand, can show the flower bud opening to
the full-blown flower or the dragonfly emerging from
Advantages of Their Use 61
its chrysalis in the brief space of a minute. The formation
of the mountains and canyons through the slow
processes of the ages can by films of animated drawings
and models be vividly presented to students so
that they will never forget. The electric current passing
through a series of wirings of an electric motor,
the nervous impulses passing between various parts of
the body and to the brain, the circulation of the blood
through the body, can be described in books but can be
clearly and plainly shown in film. Think of what the
child can learn easily, pleasantly, accurately and efficiently
by seeing the actual workings of the whole
venous and arterial system of man!
An experimental demonstration is performed by a
great physicist in his wonderfully equipped laboratory,
where every facility and the most modern and efficient
apparatus are at hand. A motion picture camera has
caught every detail of the demonstration. Thereafter
every student of physics in the world may witness the
demonstration in the film and at less expense to the
school and with more efficient results than though
performed in the laboratory.
A great surgeon performs a marvelous operation.
A few fortunate medical students are gathered in the
amphitheatre. They strain to see every movement of
the surgeon's dexterous fingers as he skillfully makes
the incision, removes a pernicious growth and sews up
the wound. They miss much of his skill and dexterity,
but the operation is over and the lesson, which only
a privileged few could attend, is finished. Students
less fortunate can only read about the great surgeon's
work. But no! Two motion picture cameras have
been at work from advantageous points and have
caught every detail of the operation Students all
62 Motion Pictures in Education
over the world may now witness the unusual operation
performed over and over again by the expert. Hundreds
of students can see it at the same time, plainly,
frequently, and the work of the great surgeon becomes
an immortal teacher of thousands.
If we were bringing the case of Motion Pictures in
Education into the courtroom for trial before an impartial
jury we could undoubtedly secure great masses
of evidence on both sides. In collecting data far more
was found in favor of the use of films in schools than
against their use. All of the testimony against the
film which we could find we gave in the preceding
chapter. We shall now consider these objections and
see what can be said on the other side.
No user of visual aids will deny that there are very
definite limitations to the use of films in schools and
every prospective user of motion pictures should carefully
weigh the limitations and advantages and decide
for himself if the advantages to be gained are sufficient
to justify their use. It is interesting to note that,
where films have been used as a part of classroom instruction,
in the majority of cases the reaction is highly
favorable. The school superintendent of Emporia,
Kansas, says:
I consider the use of slides and films invaluable in teaching
nature study, geography, history and civics. It has also
proved a great help in making the school a social center.
The Superintendent of Schools of Auburn, Nebraska,
writes:
I consider equipment for motion pictures as necessary as
textbooks. We are adding to our apparatus as fast as funds
permit. It is the last word in efficiency in our modern educational
system.
Advantages of Their Use 63
1
But the user of films in education should know how
certain limitations can be overcome. Let us take the
matter of eye strain. We have said that there are
three causes for eye strain from films faulty projection,
old or badly scratched film and weak or defective
eyes. The school can and should refuse to accept and
run films in worn-out condition. There is no good
excuse for faulty projection even on the part of amateurs.
Operating a projector is not a difficult job
and is one which a member of the faculty or a bright
pupil can usually perform with entire satisfaction.
Machines should be kept in good order and in proper
adjustment, and no dirt or dust should be allowed to
collect around the film gate. As for weak eyes, the
abnormal child should not be allowed to determine the
policy for the normal individuals of the class. With
proper film, properly adjusted machine and normal
eyesight, no appreciable eye strain results.
2
To put films into the schools does involve labor,
expense and knowledge of the subject.
To install and equip science laboratories requires the
services of those who know what is needed and of
skilled labor to make the proper installation, and the
same is true of motion picture equipment. No wellequipped
school of tomorrow will go without motion
picture equipment merely because of the mechanical
difficulties. There are mechanical difficulties in installing
light and heat and water and yet what modern
dwelling is without these things? As a matter of fact
there are many types of motion picture installation
which are exceedingly simple.
64 Motion Pictures in Education
This subject will be discussed at length in Chapter
XL
3
The fire danger arising from the use of films seems
from actual experience to be greatly over-stated. No
serious fire has occurred in a properly equipped film
theatre and no serious film fire of any kind has occurred
in any school. This may be due in a large measure
to honest recognition on the part of authorities that
film improperly handled is dangerous but properly
handled is not.
There is no more reason for refraining from the
use of film merely because when misused it becomes
a menace than for depriving a school of electric lights
or heat on the ground that their careless and improper
use is dangerous. Properly handled it is no more
dangerous than the gasoline in an automobile, the
highly inflammable lace curtains at the window or the
flimsy dress of the child. If any of these are permitted
improperly to come in contact with flame danger results.
The school motion picture equipment should
be installed from the standpoints of both safety and
efficiency. The well-appointed school should possess
approved projection equipment properly installed in
accordance with specifications of local fire underwriters
and fire authorities and equipped with all the
requisite guards against the possibility of fire. Where
a lower price equipment must be used the type conforming
to the local fire laws and provided with reliable
fire guards should be secured.
The objections raised on the grounds of fire hazard
refer only to the highly inflammable nitro-cellulose
film, which is the kind now most generally known.
There is also a "safety" film coming more and more
Advantages of Their Use 65
into use, and it is not attended with any fire risk. This
and the entire question of fire hazard will be fully discussed
in the chapter on Mechanics bf Installation and
Operation, to which the reader is referred for more
adequate information on the subject of fire risk.
4
Regarding the prohibitive cost of motion pictures,
William Jennings Bryan had this to say in an address
before the Visual Instruction Association of New
York:
Many schools complain that films are expensive. They
are, but you can afford anything you want if you want it
badly enough. The problem of having plenty of good films
in the schools is largely a matter of determination on the part
of parents and teachers. The motion picture is the greatest
educational institution that man has known and it won't be
long before every school in the country will use motion pictures
because there isn't anything good that can not be taught
by films.
An editorial in the Educational Screen sums up
some of the difficulties in the way of the visual education
movement very ably as follows:
(i) Most school authorities not sufficiently convinced of
its value to make appropriation for its adoption. (2) Hence,
no funds available for the essential equipment. (3) Hence,
no chance for teachers to learn to use it effectively. (4)
Hence, no market for worthwhile material (slides and films).
(5) Hence, no worthwhile producers can afford to supply
them in quantity. (Except in the case of slides. Supply of
excellent slides is well up to the present demand.) (6)
Hence, no final proof of the value of visual instruction is
possible. (7) And many school authorities want "final proof"
before appropriating! The last named closed the vicious
circle.
It makes the solution of the first contingent upon the solu-
66 Motion Pictures in Education
tion of the last a pretty problem since final proof cannot be
given until the preceding obstacles have been removed! It
is a hard situation, indeed, but not without cure. The cure,
in fact, is well started by the progressive schools who have
insisted on getting the money whether they had an appropriation
or not. It can be done.
Money is the fundamental need, in this as in all other
forward movements. The schools did not get their textbooks
without it; nor their laboratories and gymnasiums, their
pianos and victrolas, without payment of the normal price for
such things. It has taken at least a generation for these
school appurtenances to pass from the category of "extravagances"
to that of "necessary equipment."
Visual equipment must run the same course but it is running
it faster. The screen is already "necessary equipment"
to a host of forward-thinking educators. The construction of
new school buildings today without adequate facilities for
screen projection as some school boards continue to do in
complacent devotion to tradition is the purest folly. The
children and parents of a short decade hence will be inclined
to rise up and call such board-members anything but "blessed."
Almost everything worth while is expensive, and
usually the more worth while the higher the expense.
Well-equipped school buildings are expensive. It costs
vast sums properly to train teachers to be efficient.
Modern textbooks are expensive but necessary and
worth while. All these expenses are economies in the
long run because they work for greater efficiency.
The same can be said of materials of visual education.
During America's preparation for the World War, it
was found possible to cut down the training time of
many officers several hundred per cent by the use of
film in those courses for which good instructional film
was available. This was notably true in the motor
transport division, for which an extraordinarily good
film on the Elements of the Automobile (B) was prepared.
This film still stands as probably the best existing
instructional film for shop work.
Advantages of Their Use 67
The cost of films and equipment is far from prohibitive
and will become lower as demand makes quantity
production possible.
Any school that really wants motion pictures can
have them. The educational film magazines are filled
with accounts of "How We Purchased Our Projector."
Here are typical examples:
The University of South Dakota paid for its projector by
selling a number of tickets in advance for pictures to be put
on after the arrival of the machine. Six tickets were sold for
one dollar.
And from Pasadena, California, comes this infor-
mation:
The local school board contributed between $200 and $300
for the purchase of motion picture equipment installed in the
high school. Their two projection machines, booth, motor
generator, stereopticon, screen, wiring and other equipment
represent an investment of $2,000 and this would have been
a much larger amount had not the manual training students
done much of the work under the direction of the teachers.
The bulk of the total cost was raised from the five and ten
cents' admission fees paid by the students.
It is deplorable that any board of education should
be so lax in its obligations to its schools as to make it
necessary for pupils or parents to raise money for motion
picture equipment or supplies. These should be
considered as much a part of school equipment and
supplies as maps and textbooks, and provision made for
them accordingly. And in very few places, today,
even where financial provision is made for films, is this
provision adequate. Los Angeles, with a population
of a half million, appropriates $25,000 per year for
visual instruction in its public schools, while New York
City, twelve times as large, appropriates the same
68 Motion Pictures in Education
amount, with the result that the vast majority of the
seven hundred schools and more in the great metropolis
are forced to go without both the stereopticon and the
cinema.
Expense should not be permitted to stand in the
way of the introduction into the school of so valuable
an aid as either the slide or the motion picture. A
nation which can spend millions on public buildings
and roads and river and harbor improvements and
billions for national defense should find means of giving
to the schools, public and private, every facility for
efficient instruction even including the cinema.
Superintendent E. E. Lewis of the schools of Rockford,
111., says emphatically:
Motion pictures are the swiftest educators known. Classroom
films meet an economic need. It would be absurd for
any board of education to take the position that it can not
afford visual education. In education as well as anything
else, money can always be found where there is a genuine need
to be met. A real teaching film brings out clearly the relation
between cause and effect. Such school films used to supplement
the textbook teach pupils to think. They enable students
to learn more in less time and to remember it because
it has been stamped on their minds through powerful visual
images, behind which is a sound pedagogic method. We want
such films in the schoolroom because they meet a real economic
need.
5
If films were proposed as the sole or main material
of instruction, the objection that they make learning
too easy would have more weight than it has regarding
films viewed merely as an aid. It is not proposed that
motion pictures replace any active effort on the part
of the pupil in the acquisition of learning but that they
serve as a supplement to that effort, insuring the accuracy
of visual conception, emphasizing what has
Advantages of Their Use 69
already been acquired by direct study, putting the information
in more graphic or more readily understandable
form and adding interest and inspiration.
It is true that the film puts the pupil, while viewing
a picture, in a state of passive acceptance of knowledge
rather than prompting him to active effort to learn, but
this is fortunately so. If possible the pupil should be
kept passive and receptive during the showing of the
films, lest, if too actively watching for certain items, he
lose many others which a passive attitude would give
him a better chance of observing. He should be taught
to be observant but not watch for particular, concrete
facts, to the exclusion of others, except where this is
especially desired. Thus the total of active effort in
acquiring knowledge is not lessened but the desire to
learn is frequently increased.
And if motion pictures do make learning a little
quicker and easier for the busy pupil of today, what
is the objection? Our present-day curricula are filled
to overflowing and our children are cruelly and
sorely rushed to acquire the great mass of facts that
are crammed into their bulging craniums. If the road
to learning is made a little easier and more pleasant
via the cinema there will be enough of active effort and
drudgery left to insure the necessary mental training.
The opposition from some quarters to the use of
motion pictures in education is the opposition that anything
new is sure to meet. Because moving pictures
are new they are entertaining. They are entertaining
because of what they can do, and because of what they
can do they have an instructional value as yet unrealized.
The mere fact that they have been used largely
in this country for entertainment alone seems to have
damned them forever in the eyes of some educators.
70 Motion Pictures in Education
But isn't the fact that they are entertaining an argument
in their favor? Froebel based his theory of education
on the fundamental principle of interest, and
there are few children in school today who are not interested
in "the movies." "Pictures universally interest
children," writes a professor of education, who continues,
"and motion attracts attention instinctively. Is
this not an irresistible combination?"
While children may object to educational films at
the motion picture theatres, the same film shown in
the classroom after adequate preparation is hailed with
delight. J. H. Wilson, when Supervisor of Visual
Education, Detroit Public Schools, is responsible for
the statement that "a comedy used in the Detroit
Schools as a filler was rejected by the pupils, who said
they wanted something better an educational pic-
ture!"
No important essential fact should be taught by
the film only. If, however, any fact can be learned
better or more quickly or even more pleasantly through
its aid, then has the film received full justification.
Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard
University, who has gone on record as being
whole-heartedly in favor of the use of films in schools
and colleges, says, "Motion pictures are the only simple
means we have of making clear the processes of life
and industry." And Sir Gilbert Parker writes:
For myself I always believed that it would be to the advantage
of every government to establish films in the day schools.
Some say the pupils would learn too easily. I am a fairly
well educated man, and from the films I have learned much
that I could not learn through books in zoology and geography,
and other sciences, in the scenery and life of places
which I had never visited.
Advantages of Their Use 71
6
That films make superficial thinkers is not borne out
by testimony from practical school men. The principal
of a Philadelphia school writes:
Films tell their own story and supplement the instruction
in the classroom to a degree that is almost impossible by any
other method. Invariably the testimony of teachers is that
knowledge gained from pictures outlasts all other forms possible
in schools. The motion picture outfit is now regarded as
one of the most valuable pieces of educational equipment in
our school building. Forty-two subjects were covered the
first term of school 1921-1922. The motion picture equipment
is also used for parent-teachers' meetings, community
gatherings, Americanization work and evening school.
And an eighth-grade teacher, when asked if her experience
had been that films made superficial thinkers
and dulled the imagination, said:
My boys told me that movies in the schools taught them
to be more observing and to utilize the information gained.
I have found that they develop the powers of observation in
my pupils.
And a fifth-grade teacher, speaking from experience
with films, said:
Motion pictures stimulate interest in a subject, and induce
pupils to do more research work.
7, 8, and 9
Films do not develop superficial thinking if they are
properly used.
To the objections that films destroy the sense of
perfection in language, reduce reading and dull the
imagination, the answer can be given that these objections
might obtain if films were to be the sole or main
method of instruction, but that when they are used only
as supplements to the other already existing methods
72 Motion Pictures in Education
of teaching they should and can be made to have
directly the opposite effect.
If the student reads a play of Shakespeare, studies
and analyzes it, absorbs its beauty of expression, forms
his own conception of its characters and situations and
then sees a film of the play, certainly his reading has
not been reduced, his imagination dulled, his appreciation
of its beauty of expression lessened, or his
thinking processes made more superficial. Naturally,
if the pupil be permitted to replace his reading of the
classics with seeing a film portrayal, a harmful result
could properly be looked for.
Dr. Lindsay T. Damon, Professor of English at
Brown University, writes:
Films must not be used in schools for amusement only or
as a supplanter of the finer things in literature but as a series
of glorified illustrations of action, of entire brief narratives
or of crucial parts in long narratives. The motion picture in
the English class can not be a substitute for work or for
books or for reading. It can be used to catch attention, to
give significant facts, to drive imagination towards big and
fine and true things.
It is a much mooted question as to whether motion
picture representations of literature interfere with the
play of the pupiľs own conceptions, whether if the
student sees a character portrayed in a film his own
conception does not become identified with and limited
by that presented in the film. The same question might
be properly raised with regard to seeing a character
or story presented in the spoken drama or even regarding
illustrations in the text. The latter is, methinks,
more open to objection than either the film or the
spoken drama because the text illustration is seen as the
text is read and the first concepts are formed. The
weight of opinion of teachers of literature seems to
Advantages of Using Films 73
favor both the play and the film. Few teachers of
English would object to their pupils seeing Shakespeare's
plays presented on the stage. Neither could
they more consistently object to their attending a dramatization
either on stage or in film of a novel of Scott,
a story of Poe, or a poem of Whittier. Even a poor
film portrayal has been found to serve as the basis of
a splendid training in analysis and criticism for the
well-prepared student.
Writing of historical films, U. S. Commissioner of
Education Tigert says:
Some have objected that this (the historical film) will
destroy the imagination of the children in school. Well, I
think we have had too much imagination in history already.
Certainly we can find other fields in which to permit the
play of the imagination and every thinking person will welcome
the presentation of accurate knowledge in history
through motion pictures and the substitution of reality for
guesswork.
That films reduce reading is not substantiated by the
facts, but rather the contrary seems to be true.
Members of the Pennsylvania and New York Library
Association declared at their annual meeting that
motion pictures were making readers of many who
cared nothing for books.
A New Jersey librarian reports as an example of
how films increase the demand for the classics from
school children, that a copy of Jane Eyre was on the
shelves for an entire year without a single call, until the
film was announced for showing at one of the local
theatres, and that after the showing there was a steady
demand for the book on the part of school children
for the next six months. And in almost every instance,
particularly in smaller towns and cities and
rural communities, librarians report an increased de-
74 Motion Pictures in Education
mand from children and young people for the printed
books pictured. Peter Ibbetson (FP) was a striking
example of a book rarely called for until its film portrayal,
and many librarians report a heavy demand for
Oliver Twist (FN), Three Musketeers (UA), Count
of Monte Cristo (F), Les Miserables (F), Tale of
Two Cities (F), Our Mutual Friend (FBO), and
other lesser known classics after their film showing at
the local movie theatre. One couple of the writer's
acquaintance, returning from a film showing of the
Queen of Sheba (F), sat up till the wee small hours
poring over the Bible to ascertain how near to the
biblical facts was the film version they had just witnessed.
So it can truthfully be said that the films
have sent some people back to the study of the Bible.
10
Where the introduction of films into a lesson caused
distraction and the darkness caused disorder proved
the exception the rule has rather been that so great is
the interest of the pupils in the pictures that unusual
attention and order is maintained during the exhibitions.
If the teacher has proper control over his class,
prepares his material beforehand not only with regard
to his knowledge of the contents but also as to the
physical handling of the material and takes suitable
measures to effect a smooth and quick transition from
the spoken lesson to the picture and to hold the pupils'
attention during the transition, there will be no distraction
or disorder. The writer's own observation in
showing films to large numbers of children, even
strange children over whom he had no direct authority,
is that almost without exception they were held in
Advantages of Using Films 75
such intense interest by the films that they were unusually
quiet and attentive.
It might well be mentioned here, in passing, that
daylight screens have now developed to a point where
it is possible to project pictures on them in the diffused
daylight of the classroom with thoroughly satisfactory
results. Their use will obviate the need of dark auditoriums
and, more important, the delays and confusion
incident to darkening the room during class. However,
this is not now practicable in most classrooms,
since it requires projection from the rear of the screen.
It is mentioned here only as a future possibility for
most schools.
11
We can not over-emphasize the fact that motion pictures
should be considered as merely one more aid to
education, a supplement to the text and the teacher and
not a supplanter of them.
That films replace the effort of the teacher may be
true in individual cases but it has been found in practice
that the value of a film lesson depends very largely
on the individuality of the teacher and the manner of
its presentation. It is generally the careless or indifferent
teacher who allows the film to replace his own
efforts, and in justice to our teachers let it be said that
there are comparatively few of these. There are, on
the other hand, teachers who lack initiative or who
have not yet learned how to make the film lesson an
integral part of school work. This will be overcome to
a large extent when methods of use are studied and
taught.
A. G. Balcom, Assistant Superintendent of the Newark,
N. J., schools, writes:
Visual aids are a means to an end, they require the human
76 Motion Pictures in Education
touch, they are given the breath of life by the skillful teacher.
. . . The use of film for instruction purposes requires the
highest kind of teaching. We have noted that a film pronounced
excellent and full of interest to one teacher has been
disappointing to another teacher of the same grade. The
instructional qualities of a film evidently depend quite as
much upon the vision of the teacher using it as upon the
film itself.
And this from the U. S. Commissioner of Educa-
tion:
Some have been fearful that those who advocate visual
aids in education are under the delusion of thinking that a
substitute may be found for the teacher in the school. I would
be the last man in America to contend such a thing. The
teacher with personality who is adequately trained, intelligent
and happy in teaching is incomparably the most important
element in any school and will continue to the end of
time. This does not mean, however, that even the greatest
teacher can not be aided by those new agencies which scientific
discovery makes available from time to time. Those who
oppose now the introduction of slides, stereoscopes, and films
into the school because they interfere with the teacher would
have opposed the introduction of the blackboard because it
tended to supersede the teacher in some respects. The blackboard
is as much of a visual aid as the film, the slide, or other
forms of pictorial presentation.
Films when properly used require an added effort
on the part of the teacher, but where such an effort has
been made the teacher has been the first to proclaim
that the result was worth the effort. The suggestion
as to how this effort can best be directed must be left
for consideration in a later chapter to be devoted to
teaching methods.
Far too many claims have been made for the educational
film on the one hand, while, on the other,
critics have frequently jumped to the conclusion that
when one advocates the use of films in schools he
wishes to abolish the teacher and the text. No teacher,
Advantages of Using Films 77
no supervisor of visual instruction, no principal or
superintendent of schools has gone on record as favoring
the use of motion pictures to the exclusion of
teacher, text or any other visual aid, be it chart, map,
exhibit or slide.
But we do maintain, and practically every school man
or woman who has used films in the classroom will
agree with us, that the motion picture "with its alluring,
shifting scene, its compelling reality, its limitless
range of subject, representing the most highly evolved
educational instrument that the present century has
bequeathed," has a very definite place in education.
V
ADVANTAGES OF USING FILMS FOR
INSTRUCTION (Continued)
12
ARGUMENTS presented by advocates of the slide and
the photograph were presented in a preceding chapter.
Here we shall discuss the other side of the question,
though first emphasizing the fact that there are many
subjects which can be taught as well and better by means
of "stills" than by motion pictures. There is no question
but that the slide, the still picture, the map, the still
diagram and the stereograph have their very definite
places which can not advantageously be usurped by the
film. The writers have long been devoted to the use
of these still forms of visual instruction and hold their
value exceedingly high. If an object be not essentially
a moving object there is no valid reason for showing
it in a film in preference to a slide or other still form.
It is a mistake, for example, to illustrate architecture
by moving pictures. If the architecture of the Capitol
at Washington is to be shown, a still or a slide should
be used, but if the purpose for which the Capitol is to
be shown involves certain phases of the activities to be
seen around the Capitol, as, for example, the ceremonies
surrounding the inauguration of a President in front
of the Capitol, a motion picture would teach the lesson
better. A slide showing a distant view of Mt. Shasta
78
Advantages of Using Films 79
might be better than a motion picture of the same still
object, but a motion picture of mighty Niagara with all
of its action and life would be preferable to the still.
In this connection let us refer to the quotation previously
made that "Of still objects like the Capitol
at Washington, a banana tree, the Panama Canal, etc.,
a more comprehensive view may be obtained from still
than from moving pictures." The broad assumption
is made that all of these are still objects. This is
wrong. The banana tree growing and yielding its
harvest to the native fruit gatherers, the Panama Canal
with its locks opening and closing, the water within
them lowering and raising and sending thousands of
ships on their way, are very far from still objects. The
visual educator should distinguish in recommending
the still picture in preference to the cinematographic,
whether he has in mind teaching merely the form of
the tree and the construction of the canal or their life
and growth and use.
The still picture, slide, diagram, chart, map and film
should be used side by side, supplementing one another.
We are devoting this book to the motion picture, not
because we desire in any way to have films preferred
over the other forms of visual aids but because we feel
that the use of the film deserves a separate treatise and
because, being a newer medium, sufficient instruction
and preparation for its use have not yet been given.
13
Five years ago it could truthfully be said that the
dearth of truly educative films was the most formidable
objection to their use. Today there are many excellent
films of instructional value available. Let us pause a
80 Motion Pictures in Education
moment to read what practical school men who have
given visual education a trial have to say.
William Rabenort, Principal of Public School 55,
Borough of the Bronx, New York City, where films
are regularly used as part of the classroom work in
geography, biology and nature study, told the writer
that he had found more good films on these subjects at
his disposal than he could possibly use during any
school year and that since introducing films into the
school system as a part of the classroom work he had
had no difficulty in securing plenty of good films suitable
for his purpose.. His difficulty was rather to find
the time for all the worthwhile films he would like to
use!
Charles Roach, in charge of the Visual Instruction
Service, Iowa State Agricultural College, writes as
follows:
It is now possible to build up complete geography courses
and visit every continent, country and important city and
trade center on the globe by means of films. Teachers of
geography have every possible opportunity to use present
and existing films with practically no change. Science subjects
are next in importance in regard to quantity of films
now available. Zoology, botany, chemistry, physics, agriculture,
home economics, insect and plant life, crystallography
and animal studies are available in news reels and screen
magazines. Industrial films are easily adapted to special
classes.
History, language and literature may not be so easily presented
by films, but the present supply includes features with
plots based on legends, historical facts or works of literature
suited to every class in the school system. With all of this
available material any school may now give Visual Instruction
a trial.
And another practical educator says:
Hundreds of worthwhile programs for the High School,
elementary schools, public or private graded schools and even
Advantages of Using Films 81
the college and university can be made up from the present
stock of prints in the various exchanges. Motion pictures in
schools can be divided into two main divisions, classroom
films, which should be pedagogical, planned to draw out, not
to pour in, and general culture films. There are many general
culture films available.
It is undoubtedly true, and is becoming more true
day by day, that instructional films are now obtainable
in considerable numbers. To be convinced of this, one
has only to study the list of "1001 Films Plus," distributed
by the Educational Screen; the lists issued by
the National Board of Review, which include 354 films
on North American geography, 367 on world geography,
233 on zoology, biology and botany, making a
total of nearly 1,000, besides a long list of industrial
films; the catalogues issued by the Bureau of Commercial
Economics at Washington and by the Industrial
Department of the International Committee of
Y. M. C. A.'s, New York City, each containing three
hundred or more industrial subjects; the catalogue of
films issued by the Department of Agriculture at Washington,
in which several hundred subjects are listed,
and the catalogues and lists issued by the several nontheatrical
producing and distributing companies. From
even a hasty perusal of these lists and catalogues it is
readily seen that there is a wide variety of instructional
films from which to select. It is true that they vary
greatly in excellence. Some are far from ideal but
nevertheless usable and useful. Others are decidedly
good and will set the standard for many years to come.
One reason why there are not more truly educative
films on the market is because the demand from teachers
has not been great enough and prices they are willing
to pay have not been high enough to justify a larger
output on the part of producers. Hon. J. M. McCon-
82 Motion Pictures in Education
nell, State Commissioner of Education of Minnesota,
went to the heart of the problem when he said :
The public has learned to be entertained by the motion
picture. It has not yet shown a disposition to pay corresponding
amounts to be instructed by it. Hence amusement possibilities
have been developed inordinately while the educational
phase has made little progress. There is a large and relatively
unoccupied place in the educational field for the motion picture.
The educational film should be accurate as to fact and
will be compelled to tell its story solely for instruction and be
so accepted. The educational film when it comes into general
use, must come at high initial cost and will stand on textbook
level.
14
The charge that films are too frequently inaccurate
and untrue to life refers rather to theatrical than to
educational films, and though it does have application to
many films purporting to be historical or literary, there
are a sufficient number of well-made historical and
literary films to justify disregarding the other types.
15
When teachers object that motion pictures move too
rapidly for the child, they are, in reality, confusing
rapidity of motion with brevity of scene, which is
quite another and much more easily remedied fault.
Motion pictures do not move too rapidly for the reason
that they move at exactly the same rate of speed as the
original action which they picturize. This statement
is made on the assumption that the film is projected at
the normal rate and is neither an analysis-of-motion
nor an accelerated-motion study. The camera normally
takes pictures at the rate of sixteen exposures per
second. They should be projected at the same rate.
If this is done, the speed of the action as shown is
precisely the same as of the action photographed. The
Advantages of Using Films 83
fault which the critic senses is that many films contain
scenes which do not stay on the screen long enough
not enough of the action is shown. Sometimes this
can not be avoided, as in the flight of a bird. But often
it can be remedied by letting the action continue for a
longer time or by repeating the action two or more
times. Moreover, the film itself can be run a second
and even a third time. The film of abbreviated scenes
shown in rapid succession is typical of the short-length
theatre production. Educational film-producers are devoting
more length to both scenes and titles, to give the
child of slower observation a better chance. Of course
a film should be run at normal rate and not speeded,
particularly if it be an educational film. Dr. Rowland
Rogers of Columbia, referring to the speed of the film
in the sense that it represents sixteen separate mental
impressions every second, or 16,000 in fifteen minutes,
says that this speed stimulates the mind to observe and
react quickly.
16 and 17
The objections most frequently advanced by educators
against the use of films are that their benefits
are uncertain and unproven and that there is no established
method of use. A definite method of use will
be set forth in another chapter. Here shall be presented
some of the evidence of the benefits to be derived
from the use of films, in the form of experiments and
tests. The mass of such evidence, though small, is fast
accumulating.
Although few, if any, exhaustive tests have been
made to determine the teaching value of films and
although the tests which have been made can not be
considered conclusive, such as have been conducted are
presented as contributing factors if not definite proof.
84 Motion Pictures in Education
It must be remembered that tests conducted under experimental
conditions with results tabulated in statistical
form which prove everything to a detached investigator
may be found valueless to the actual worker
in the field. Experiments, having all the outward
appearance of being scientifically and accurately staged,
can be and have been conducted which give equally
convincing evidence on both sides of a proposition.
We make these statements out of an impartial desire to
be fair, in face of the fact that the bulk of the tests
give evidence which is
overwhelmingly in favor of our
own views. These tests are not, to our mind, as conclusive
as deductions made from experience, observation
and reason.
The New York Public Schools began the use of
films in 1920 as supplements to courses in biology,
United States geography and physical geography. So
worthwhile did films prove that the following year their
number and the number of schools using them were
considerably increased. Similar reports come from the
schools of Newark, Detroit, Chicago and the forty or
more other cities in the country where films are systematically
used to a greater or lesser extent in classroom
instruction.
That films save time is claimed by several practical
school men and is backed up by the Director of Visual
Education, Detroit Public Schools, who made the following
interesting time experiments:
The test was made to determine the length of time
required to teach the same subject visually and orally.
The children were divided into two corresponding
groups according to intelligence ratings. The subject
of the lesson was "How We Hear," this film being
selected because of the value of the subject and because
Advantages of Using Films 85
it was new. The film, a short one, was shown twice,
the two showings requiring only thirteen minutes. In
this instance the class was given no preparation, explanation
or assistance in the interpretation of the film,
because of the nature of the experiment. The oral
lesson on the same subject took 55 minutes. The
teacher very carefully prepared and as carefully presented
her subject. Both groups were asked the same
questions. The average grade of the visual group was
64.76 and of the oral group 61.5. The conclusions
drawn from the experiment were that the visual lesson
accomplished better results in less than one fourth the
time required to teach the same subject orally. Four
weeks later a second or memory test was given, with
the same result ; the averages the second time were 63.9
for the visual group and 59.5 for the oral group.
In another test conducted in the Detroit schools the
film story of oranges presented in 17% minutes, covering
agricultural, horticultural and marketing problems
in detail, when compared with the best 30-minute
oral presentation that could be secured, showed, for a
group of twenty-four mentally equal children, an oral
average of 70.8 as compared with a visual average
of 78.
The fact that the visual lesson accomplished better
results in much less time and without previous preparation
is significant.
A test to determine the relative value of film and
text was made under the direction of Eugene E. Nifenecker,
Director of the Bureau of References, New
York City, in seven New York public schools. The
subject was the Geography of South America, and the
pupils were all sixth-grade students. Motion pictures
were used in the control groups. The result showed
86 Motion Pictures in Education
33.9 credits for the class taught visually as against 23.3
for the control groups taught by text alone, another
score for the film!
"The most important advantages of the visual
method are that they save time and increase exactness,"
writes C. E. Turner of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, in his article, "The Evaluation of Visual
Education/' in the course of which he says:
By a fifteen minute film showing and describing methods
of waste disposal in cities results of an all day field trip were
secured. Such a field trip for the class of 1 50 men represents
an expenditure of five months in time for a single individual.
Prof. J. W. Shepherd of the University of Oklahoma
conducted a series of tests at the Madison, Wisconsin,
High School to determine the teaching efficiency
of a motion picture film as measured by results obtained
by the teacher in the classroom. Abstract and
concrete subjects were taught (1) by film only; (2)
by a superior teacher; (3) by an average teacher.
Films alone scored an average of 75.5
The superior teacher scored 66.9
The average teacher scored 61.36
The significant feature of this test is that the film
alone beat the best teacher 6.6% and the average teacher
12.14%. It is not strange then that some there are who
predict that the time may come when the film will replace
the teacher and the textbook, but experience has
proven that the best results of all are obtained by
a combination of the three, accurate text, efficient
teacher and a truly educative film.
J. H. Weber, in his book, Comparative Effectiveness
of Some Visual Aids in Seventh Grade Instruction,
reports a series of interesting experiments. One of the
Advantages of Using Films 87
most significant was conducted to determine the effectiveness
of four different methods of presentation
(1) the study of the printed lesson; (2) the same
lesson presented orally by the teacher; (3) the lesson
depicted by a film, and (4) the film presentation accompanied
by explanatory comments. A summary of the
results gave evidence that "Teacher" scored lowest;
"Study" came next; "Film Alone" scored a little
higher, and "Film-Lecture" made the highest score of
all.
Four films were chosen for the experiment. They
were The Study of a Mountain Glacier, The Earth
and the World Beyond, The Southern States and The
Growth of Cities and Their Problems. The subjectmatter
in each of these was made into a two-page
typewritten lesson. The subtitles were made paragraph
headings. The lessons were made of such a
length that they could be perused slowly and carefully
in ten minutes by normal seventh-grade pupils. Before
each of the four methods of presentation the pupils
were warned that they would have only ten minutes
to get the lesson and that a test would follow.
A summary of the averaged averages made by
all 7B-grade pupils after each of the four different
methods of presentation reads as follows: Study 48.80;
Teacher 48.50; Film 50.48; Film-Lecture 52.17.
Conclusions reached by the experimenter are summed
up as follows:
The averages of the Film-Lecture presentation are almost
invariably higher than any of the other three methods. It
may be safe now to assert that the value of the picture as an
aid in teaching stands proved.
Although the film alone was below the verbal presentations
the really significant difference was between the
88 Motion Pictures in Education
two film presentations, indicating the value of intelligent
direction of the pupiľs attention by the teacher,
and since in a verbal test the pictorial impressions must
be translated into verbal imagery by the pupils examined,
it is remarkable to find that the "film alone" was
almost as effective as either "study" or "teacher."
A "concealed" test, conducted by Mr. Weber, indicated
that "a pictorial presentation, compared with a
verbal presentation, has a manifestly greater influence
upon choice by at least two per cent," which, Mr.
Weber points out, may throw some light on a great
question, "Do our films influence perceptibly the conduct
of the youth of the land?"
Roy L. Davis, graduate student of New York University,
in a series of experiments conducted to measure
the effectiveness of visual aids, seems to have reached
these conclusions: (1) Motion pictures should be differentiated
for pupils of different ages; (2) Pupils
know more about lessons, particularly visual lessons,
with a few exceptions, a week afterwards than they do
at the time.
An experiment being conducted under the supervision
of Dr. Frank N. Freeman, Department of Education,
University of Chicago, and F. Dean McClusky,
instructor in educational psychology, University of Illinois,
is attracting considerable attention and comment.
The sum of $10,000 has been granted by the directors
of the Commonwealth Fund to the University of Chicago
for "The prosecution of research in visual education."
The work, according to the announcements
issued, "will consist of experiments conducted in public
schools to compare the efficiency of visual methods and
especially to study the effectiveness of motion pictures
in comparison with other methods. The particular aim
{Harry Levey Service Corp.)
WORKING MODEL OF A TURBINE
Advantages of Using Films 89
of this study is to discover the types of lessons or the
problems of instruction which are adapted to this new
method of teaching. It is desired to determine whether
or not the production of educational films is proceeding
in the most economical and advantageous direction."
The second part of the study deals with the method
by which the motion picture film may be better adapted
to the purpose of teaching. This phase of the research,
we are told, will consist of a more analytical laboratory
study of the various factors comprised in the motion
picture film, in order to investigate their effectiveness
in detail.
We sincerely hope that the results will be of practical
benefit to those using and desiring to use motion
pictures in education. However, enough proof has already
been assembled to justify any principal, who has
the funds at his disposal, in introducing motion pictures
into the school curriculum, and enough is already
known as to the methods of use so that no one need
refrain from the use of this important medium while
awaiting the outcome of these experiments.
What is the value of all such tests? Do they throw
any light on the subject, Shall we use films in education
?
From the Weber te^st
it appears that the film-lecture
method scores highest, the film alone second and
the teacher alone the least effective of all. The Shepherd
tests indicate that film alone scores higher than the
superior teacher and 12% higher than the average
teacher.
On the other hand a test to "determine the pedagogical
and moral value of the motion picture," reported
by John V. Lacy in the Teachers College
Record, claimed that "oral presentation" and "silent
90 Motion Pictures in Education
perusal" scored higher than the motion picture presen-
tation.
Our answer is that while the majority of tests are
favorable to visual education and may prove helpful
and should therefore be encouraged they are not conclusive
unless supported by reason and sound pedagogical
principles. And all the experiments that have
been and are still to be conducted, be they favorable or
unfavorable, can not alter the fact if logic and sound
pedagogy proclaim that educational films are a valuable
aid to education.
Conclusions
The objections raised to the use of films for pedagogical
purposes are such as will always be raised to new
and progressive methods, and it is well that these
objections be raised. They constitute the acid test
which should be applied to any innovations before they
are adopted, the balance wheel which steadies the
machinery of the school, prevents new ideas from disrupting
the mechanism and makes them prove their
worth before acceptance.
Many extravagant claims have been made for the
use of films in education. They have been hailed as
the panacea for all educational ills and shortcomings.
No less a genius than Thomas A. Edison, for example,
states as his belief that motion pictures will supplant
textbooks. "The only textbooks needed," he is quoted
as saying, "will be for the teacher's own use. Films
will serve as guide-posts to these teacher-instructionbooks,
not the books as guides to the films. Pupils will
learn from films everything there is in every grade
from the lowest to the highest. . . . Films are inevitable
as practically the sole teaching method."
Advantages of Using Films 91
To offset the logical inference of such misleading
prophecies, certain' definite limitations should be set
down as to what the film should and should not be
expected to accomplish in the field of pedagogy.
The film's primary purpose is to teach, to clarify,
to arouse interest, to stimulate to greater endeavor on
the part of the pupil. It is valuable for furnishing a
background, to give atmosphere and to furnish experiences
which the child is unable to gain at first hand.
The film will enable the eye-minded children to keep
pace with the ear-minded children. The film lesson has
proved of great benefit to the backward pupil, to the
pupil with few first-hand experiences, to the slower
intellect, and to all of those who learn more readily
and more accurately by seeing than by hearing.
The film should not be used as a substitute for any
of the tried and true factors, methods, or materials that
have proved their worth in the school, or for the teacher,
the textbook, the map, the photograph, the slide, or
the stereograph, or for study, reading, laboratory
work, or for such actual objects as botanical specimens
which can be brought directly into the schoolroom for
examination.
The cinema should be regarded simply and solely as
one of the many visual aids to instruction, a supplement
to other well-established methods. Further, it
should be used only where motion is essential. Many
so-called educational films are made up of text interspersed
with still illustrations, absolute abominations
which in no way equal in effectiveness a combination
of textbook and still illustration in the form of photograph,
stereograph or stereopticon slide. And there is
no excuse whatsoever for attempting to show in film
such still objects as a building, viewed from the stand-
92 Motion Pictures in Education
point of architecture, a sea shell, a stuffed bird, a statue,
or a painting. Thjse objects can be shown a thousand
times better and much more cheaply in still
pictures.
Films should not be substituted for study, reading
or field or laboratory work. Study trains the mind
and gives a grasp of a subject that no amount of merely
looking at a picture can possibly bestow. In reading,
a person is able to analyze the thought of the author
and give active attention to the ideas covered, while
witnessing a picture is mere passive acceptance of the
thought images which come too rapidly to permit of
much analysis. Films should not be expected or allowed
to take the place of the studenťs own investigation
in field or laboratory. However, films of laboratory
demonstrations performed under ideal conditions
with exceptional equipment and rare or expensive subjects,
or involving hazard or great expense, can often
advantageously supplant such original demonstrations,
especially in schools with limited facilities. But why
use such a film as a botanical picture we have seen,
showing a simple field flower, its various parts pointed
out cinema-wise, when it would be easier, cheaper, more
sensible and infinitely more efficient to bring the original
flower or fifty of them into the classroom for
direct individual study?
Films should not be used without proper preparation
on the part of the teacher and pupil and without having
the/ mechanics right. Even the right type of film,
improperly shown, because of the teacher's lack of
familiarity with the film, or of failure to prepare the
pupils for its presentation, or of poor or incorrectly
adjusted or handled equipment, will stamp the project
a failure.
The screen, the type of machine, the lens, the lamp
Advantages of Using Films 93
should all be correctly chosen and properly installed,
and a teaching method which is pedagogically sound
should be applied to the use of films.
In this chapter it must suffice to establish broadly the
fact that the demands of both mental and mechanical
preparation establish definite limitations to the successful
use of the cinema.
It must not be thought from this discussion that the
use of motion pictures involves any great or serious
difficulties even in the school only moderately well
equipped. These warnings are given rather for the
purpose of establishing moderation and of confining
the efforts of the ultra-enthusiastic exponents of visual
instruction to normal bounds than in any way to discourage
the novice. To adapt motion pictures is comparatively
simple and thoroughly practicable for the
vast majority of schools.
It is gratifying to find that the judgment of our
own leaders in education is confirmed by the well-considered
opinions and recommendations of some of the
foremost educators of France, the country to which the
world owes so much of the early impetus given to the
instructional film. An Official Commission of the Republic
of France, appointed to determine whether films
should be used in education and the best means of
adapting them to that use, has made a most illuminating
report. The Commission made extensive study of the
subject, held many conferences, heard arguments for
and against the use of films in education, visited classrooms
where films were used and conferred with the
film-producing companies. In making its investigations
the Commission appointed three sub-committees, one on
programs, one on technique or choice of apparatus and
films, and one on means of realization, and tried to
94 Motion Pictures in Education
answer these three questions: (1) In what measure
shall films be used and how? (2) What qualities
should films and machines possess that are to be used
in schools? (3) What are the most practical means of
securing films and machines for use in education ?
The Program sub-committee recommended that films
should not replace the teacher but be used as an aid;
films should be correlated, with the lesson; films are
especially adapted for teaching anatomy, physiology,
zoology, geology, botany, chemistry, physics, geography,
history, and industrial processes; stills should
be used with films ;
suitable explanations should accompany
every film used in teaching; teachers must be
instructed how to use films, and the statement was made
that certain good films are now obtainable.
Having decided that films should be used, that they
are obtainable, and that suitable projection machines are
on the market, the Commission further recommended
that the state make necessary appropriations for the use
of them in all branches from elementary schools to colleges,
the expense to be divided between the national
government, the commune, and in certain instances the
college or school. Film libraries should be established,
where possible using normal schools as distributing
centers. The Minister of Public Instruction might well
apply the same rule to films as to books, to establish
a collection passed on by himself.
Conclusions and recommendations of the Commission
were summed up as follows:
(1) Films should be used in all branches of education.
(2) Films should not replace teacher or textbook but
should be used as auxiliaries.
(3) The film should prove especially valuable in the demonstration
of experiments.
(4) It is desirable in instruction to combine pictures taken
Advantages of Using Films 95
at normal speed with slow motion and analysis of motion
pictures.
(5) In principle, the pedagogical film is yet to be produced.
To produce such films the collaboration of competent educators
is needed. While waiting for these especially prepared
films a large number of films already used by teachers with
excellent results can be utilized.
(6) Special conferences should be organized in all normal
schools for the purpose of instructing teachers how to use the
cinema in teaching.
(7) A Commission should be established to examine and
list all 'films which could be used in the different branches
of teaching, this list to be published in all official bulletins of
the Department of Public Instruction.
(8) The Commission should begin the examination of
all projection apparatus which can be used in public schools.
(9) As there is no non-inflammable film available the apparatus
should be equipped with every possible safeguard.
(This condition has happily been remedied.)
(10) As large an appropriation as possible should be
asked of the Government for the placing of projection machines
in all schools as soon as possible. This should be
pursued until all the schools of France are furnished with
this marvelous means of instruction.
The wisdom of these recommendations has been
borne out by practical experience and in most cases
they basically parallel the recommendations made in this
book.
While English conservatism has not progressed as
far towards the use of the cinema for instruction as
either France or the United States, that keen observer
of world tendencies who has come out of Britain, H.
G. Wells, has this to say of the potentialities of educational
motion pictures :
All the demonstrations and experiments that science teachers
will need in the future can be performed once for all
before a camera. They can be done finally. They need
never be done again. Anything that is very minute you can
magnify; anything intricate you can record with extreme
slowness ; you can show facts six inches or six thousand miles
away.
96 Motion Pictures in Education
And Wells does not stop here but goes further,
saying:
All that your teacher need do now is to spend five minutes
getting out the film he wants; ten minutes reading over the
corresponding lecture notes, then he can run the film, give the
lesson, question the class, note what they miss and how they
take it and run the film again and get out for subsequent
study diagrams and pictures -needed to fix the lesson.
This is one of the statements that probably called
forth these pertinent remarks by A. P. Hollis, in charge
of Visual Instruction, North Dakota Agricultural College,
who in the course of a discussion of 'The Teaching
Value of Films," writes:
Somewhere between the familiar over-statements of Edison
and Wells, somewhere at a respectable distance behind the
mere promoter and advertiser type of visual-instructionist,
but still a long way ahead of the stupid or lazy educator who
refuses to grant new ideas a trial the teaching film will come
into its own. And we may be sure and content that it comes
as an aid to the teaching proces's, not as a substitute.
"The four M's Movies, Muscles, Mind and Morals
have taken the place of the three R's," aptly says
Dr. Wm. L. Bodine, Superintendent of Education, of
Chicago.
In future [he says] the cinema will be the ace of education.
Movies are here to stay. They are educators as well
as entertainers. Progressive education calls for picturized
pedagogy. The expansion of visual education is predestined
for the American schools of the future. Future school histories
will be on silver sheets. Travel films will be the progressive
geography of the future. The film school will reduce
truancy. Less truancy now means less expense to the taxpayers
in the maintenance of corrective institutions and prisons.
. . . One important factor in the truancy problem is the
group of pupils who are usually classed as backward. Motion
picture lessons have a good deal better chance than textbooks
and oral explanations to penetrate the dull understanding of
Advantages of Using Films 97
such pupils and reach their interest. In addition visualized
lessons will lend the spice of novelty to school work which
these repeaters have reviewed over and over again. They
will get a new slant on old lessons, and so be pricked into real
enthusiasms and interest
The teachers of teachers in the great training schools,
men and women skilled in teaching science, who are
devoting exhaustive study to the best methods of instruction,
are found among the most ardent advocates
of pedagogical films; Judd, McClusky, and Freeman of
Chicago, Thayer, Fretwell and Hunt of Columbia,
Claxton of Alabama, all add the weight of their authority
to this medium. One of the most constructive and
succinct statements on the subject comes from the pen
of Otis W. Caldwell, Teachers College, Columbia University,
who writes:
There exist fundamental reasons for the use of motion
pictures. It is a matter of common experience that we learn
more rapidly and retain longer when our learning is based
upon first-hand contacts with materials and processes. There
is no better way of putting these situations before the learner
than by motion pictures. But careful thought development
relating to the thing observed is essential.
The relation of visual instruction to reading is also fundamental.
We are interested in reading and read more intelligently
concerning the things about which we already have
some information. Motion pictures concerning travel, industry,
manufacture, social and civic situations, furnish the
stimulus for reading about these matters and the concrete
basis for the interpretation and understanding of reading as
well as increase the intellectual aspects of reading.
No less an authority than Philander P. Claxton,
former U. S. Commissioner of Education, evaluating
the films in education, says:
The re-presentation of action, movements and processes
is the particular field of the motion picture, which thus supplements
in a magnificent way all other methods of presentation
and representation.
98 Motion Pictures in Education
And Dr. John J. Tigert, U. S. Commissioner of
Education at this writing, is quoted as saying:
Moving pictures in the near future will be as essential a
part of the schoolroom as the wall map, the blackboard, or
the spacious-backed geography.
Movies will be just as much a part of the curriculum as
any other study. And pupils will be required to attend the
movies just as they are now required to go to the board and
work out a problem in mathematics or to diagram a sentence.
It is an age of pictures and I, for one, am convinced that
for the future the motion picture is to forward the campaign
against illiteracy as nothing else that has been adapted to the
schoolroom in this era of "new-fangled" things. In nearly
every small town and village, anywhere, everywhere you go
throughout the country, you find the movies. They have come
to stay; they are a part of our life; they are constantly being
enlarged and improved. What can be done with them as a
means of imparting knowledge already has been demonstrated
;
it is for us to use them on a larger scale and adapt them
to the peculiar purposes of education.
VI
WHERE FILMS SHOULD BE USED IN TEACHING
NOT all classes can utilize the cinema in equal amount
or with equal benefit. It is appropriate, therefore, at
this point, to inquire into the question of where in the
school curriculum the use of motion pictures should begin
and in what branches of study their use is desirable.
In the Primary Grades
Do films belong in the primary grades? Will the
kindergarten and first-grade babies be helped by motion
pictures? Are there any films to be had which are
suited to their needs? What is the effect of not being
able to read titles ? Pertinent questions these.
Psychologists and students of pedagogy maintain
that children in the lower grades gain experiences most
readily through the eye. The younger the child the
more easily he learns by seeing and doing. As the
child grows older he learns more through reason, and
the written and spoken word has a greater meaning.
When younger he is too young to deduce. He must
first see and become familiar with his tools before he is
ready to handle them.
This being true, it naturally follows that the motion
picture should prove especially valuable in the lower
grades. If education includes experiences by which
intelligence is developed, knowledge is acquired and
character formed, then the motion picture can be made
99
100 Motion Pictures in Education
an invaluable aid to education by enriching and enlarging
the chilďs experiences. A whole new world is
thus put within reach of the child at his most impressionable
age. Experience has borne out the logic of
this reasoning and convinced the authors that the motion
picture has a very real though perhaps largely unsuspected
value in the kindergarten and primary grades,
where it has been used to a very slight extent up to
the present time.
A series of film lessons and demonstrations was conducted
by one of the authors during the summer of
1922 as a part of a course in Motion Pictures in Education.
At her disposal were some of the best informational
and pedagogical films yet produced, films representative
of the three general divisions mentioned in the
previous chapter and suited to classes ranging from
kindergarten to college. How and where to use these
films to best advantage was demonstrated in a series of
film lessons. We started with the kindergarten and
first grade. An animated cartoon of the well-known
nursery rhyme, Hey Diddle Diddle (NN-T), was used.
One object of the film lesson was to cultivate powers of
observation and perception. When the Magic Pen of
Mother Goose appeared upon the screen and began to
draw familiar objects and little voices piped, "I see the
moon," "I see the cow," "I see the dog and the cat and
the fiddle," it was plain that one object of the film lesson
had been accomplished.
This simple film was scored by theatrical critics as
amateurish and seized upon with delight by the primary
teacher. It was effectively used by the skillful
kindergarten teacher as a reading lesson, a drawing
lesson, a lesson in nature study and a lesson in composition,
and has been used with enthusiasm by teachers
Where Films Should be Used 101
in various sections of the country, who are clamoring
for more of the same kind.
While the range of subjects which can with benefit be
presented in film to the primary grades is naturally
From a series of pictures on Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes,
in which the Magic Pen of Mother Goose draws the pictures,
and then they come to life, to the delight of the tiny tots in
Kindergarten (NN-T).
limited, such subjects, as the nursery rhymes, fairy tales
and simple nature study can, by means of motion pictures,
be greatly enhanced in value and be clothed with
a new significance. Other nursery rhymes similar to
Hey Diddle Diddle are being made, fairy tales like
Cinderella, and other children's classics like Alice in
Wonderland (EK) and Snow White (NN-T) are obtainable
to delight the child mind, and there is an
abundance of simple nature study pictures to be had,
showing, for example, wild animals and their young
and how birds build their nests, both showing mother
102 Motion Pictures in Education
love, which give an appreciation of nature to tots who
have no opportunity of knowing much of nature at
first hand.
There are many such films easily obtainable which
the alert teacher can use to good purpose in the lower
This animated shadowgraph picture of Snow White is an
excellent example of juvenile literature pictures.
grades, films not made for that use but which can be
so adapted by the skillful teacher. A National Forest
film, Summer Fun on Western National Forests, issued
by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, made a
valuable film lesson in both nature study and civics for
fourth-grade pupils.
Teachers who are using films in the lower grades give
interesting testimony of results obtained. A thirdgrade
teacher says:
Motion pictures are of great value in the lower grades as a
basis for Nature work, beginning composition and a splendid
foundation for geography which will be studied in the higher
grades.
Where Films Should be Used 103
And a fifth-grade teacher says:
Pictures are almost the only means many children have of
gaining a knowledge of the topography of a country. Motion
pictures stimulate interest in the subject and induce the pupils
to do research work. Films of different industries are especially
valuable to geography pupils.
And Mrs. Winifred Sackville Stoner, the wellknown
exponent of natural education for the wee ones,
calls the typewriter and the cinema the two educational
fairy godmothers.
If the reader had been present recently at the home of
one of the writers when films were shown for two hours
to his children and their friends, ranging in ages from
four to ten, and had seen the rapt attention which the
children gave to How Birds Build Their Nests, Snow
White and The Animal Circus (NN-T) and heard the
intelligent comments of the children and the protests
when the film party was ended, he would be convinced
that children of tender years both enjoy and understand
pictures built for their age.
It must constantly be borne in mind, however, that
the motion picture should replace nothing in schools
neither the efforts of the teacher, nor the industry of
the pupil, nor the textbook, nor work with objects
themselves, nor with any other aid that has proved
helpful in teaching. The motion picture is essentially
a supplement which makes other educational media
quicker, more pleasant and more efficient.
Since the attention of the lower grades should mainly
be directed towards acquiring familiarity with the three
R's and since this is accomplished only by practice and
drill, which the film can not supply and should not replace,
a definite limitation is established here. Furthermore,
at least one of the three R's is essentially
104 Motion Pictures in Education
oral and aural, another manual, and neither lends itself
fully to instruction by film. It is in such subjects
as geography and nature study that motion pictures
are proving invaluable and such films can be obtained
today by any teacher who will give a little time and
study to the sources of supply. The principal of more
than one school has recently gone on record as saying
he could secure more usable and worthwhile films on
geography and biology than he could possibly use during
a school year.
In Advanced Grades
The .scope of the cinema widens for the pupil as he
advances from grade to grade. When literature unfolds,
when science replaces nature study, when history
and geography come within his ken, motion pictures
can contribute increasingly greater aid to both teacher
and student. In the cities where motion pictures now
have a place in the school curriculum their value as a
teaching aid has been attested by pupil and teacher.
The first report of New York's Curriculum Committee
concludes with these words: "The use of films
under the present plan is proving not only of definite
value but is educationally sound. The school people
who have been using them give their one hundred percent
endorsement." In the New York schools films
are used principally in the seventh, eighth and ninth
grades.
The writer visited one of the New York schools the
past year to observe a film lesson in biology. A lesson
from the text was conducted in the classroom, then the
pupils adjourned to the auditorium where a film on the
Cabbage Butterfly (NN-T) was shwon to all seventhgrade
pupils in the building. The pupils were es-
Where Films Should be Used 105
pecially interested in those sections of the film showing
the insect passing from the larva to the pupa stage and
finally emerging from its chrysalis a beautifully winged
butterfly. They were able by means of the film to see
what they would probably never have been able to see
otherwise. One science teacher endeavored unsuccessfully
for twenty-five years to conduct such a demonstration
in real life for her class without result. The
living insect never performed so that the pupils could
watch the transition from one state to another, which
could easily be seen by the entire class when the film
was shown.
Civics, hygiene, history, geography and agriculture
are also beginning to be taught and taught successfully
by motion pictures in many upper grades.
In Secondary Schools
Up to this time, secondary schools are in general
better equipped for the use of motion pictures than are
the elementary schools. High schools are, for the most
part, in larger and better buildings which contain
auditoriums, and these auditoriums more often contain
motion picture booths, screens, and projection machines
than do the graded schools, and for this reason alone
give proportionately more time to instruction by motion
pictures. And it might be added, in all truth, that there
is no phase of high school work which can not receive
some impetus or inspiration from the cinema.
At the present time motion pictures are being used
to a greater extent in the teaching of biology and
geography than in other subjects, partly because these
subjects lend themselves easily to handling by the
cinema, but more particularly because the vastly greater
106 Motion Pictures in Education
supply of educational and quasi-educational films now
available fall in these categories.
In Higher Education
Methods of instruction utilized in both the elementary
and secondary schools must be utilized also in normal
schools, for here must method be studied and new
materials of instruction investigated.
The Wilson Normal School at Washington, D. C,
and Teachers College, Columbia University, are two
that may be mentioned as giving attention to the study
of the various visual aids and to the use of the newest
of visual aids the motion picture.
The use of films at summer schools is increasing.
During the summer of 1922 method courses in visual
instruction were given at Western Reserve University,
Cleveland; Agricultural College, North Dakota; College
of Agriculture, University of Pennsylvania; College
of Education, Pennsylvania State College ; and the
Universities of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota
and Tennessee. At the last named the course was
confined to the consideration of motion pictures in instruction,
because the instructor felt there was a pressing
need for specialized investigation and study of this
newer type of visual aid. During the summer of 1921
a course in Educational Motion Pictures was given at
Columbia University under the direction of Doctors
Fretwell and Hunt, the first course of the kind. The
writers participated in giving this course, in which were
teachers and students from many sections of the United
States, all intensely interested in this new medium of
instruction.
Short courses in the use of projectors, lasting for
three days to two weeks, have been given from time
Where Films Should be Used 107
to time at different State Universities and Normal
Schools. One of the first was given at the University
of North Carolina.
According to Dr. M. A. Burgess, Teachers College,
Columbia, nineteen Normal Schools, Colleges and
Universities have given courses in visual instruction.
In addition to those already mentioned she includes the
Universities of New York, North Carolina, Wisconsin,
Nebraska, California, Utah, Texas Agricultural College,
Cleveland School of Education, Detroit Teachers'
College and the College of the City of New York.
It is unfortunate, however, that so few teachers'
training schools are teaching or using visual instruction,
even in jurisdictions where the schools supplied with
teachers from such training schools are actually utilizing
this material of instruction. In the Training School
for Teachers in New York City, for example, no training
is given in methods of using motion pictures, although
the students are taught the mechanics of the
subject, how to use a projector, etc. And the New
York grade schools have gone further in utilizing film
for instruction than has any other school system in the
country, so far as the writers are aware !
It is exceedingly short-sighted for a normal school
to send its students forth in this day with no familiarity
with the use of motion pictures or training in methods
for using them. The use of motion pictures in instruction
is advancing with such rapidity that the young
teacher going forth unequipped in this branch of work
is fairly sure of being brought, early in his teaching
career, face to face with the problem of utilizing this
important and, to him, unknown material. Films
should be used in every branch of training school work
which have counterparts in regular teaching. The
108 Motion Pictures in Education
young teachers should not only be well grounded in the
principles underlying the application of this and other
visual aids but should be given practical training and
experience in their use.
The college, vocational, technical and professional
schools present a vast field of their own for motion
pictures.
Particularly in science will the college find in motion
pictures a rich treasure house. Physics, biology, mechanics,
astronomy, applied psychology and even chemistry
are capable of being taught to a considerable
extent on the screen.
Material experiments dangerous to perform or difficult
for an entire class to follow intelligently or which
require rare or excessively expensive apparatus, or very
large or very minute equipment ; phenomena which happen
seldom or are too rapid or too slow in actual occurrence
to follow intelligently; demonstrations which can
be more effectively shown through animated diagrams
or through other devices peculiarly the function of the
cinema these are just a few of the items in both high
school and college science work which can be satisfactorily
presented on the motion picture screen.
Physics films showing difficult or interesting experiments
have proved a time and money saver. Films on
physics showing standard experiments that demonstrate
ways of producing electricity, its identity under
all conditions, the molecular nature of magnetism, the
difference between magnetism and electricity and Faraday's
famous ice-pail experiment, establishing the fact
that positive and negative electricity always appear in
equal amounts, have been produced and are in use in
high school physics classes and in universities.
Dr. Harry B. Lemon of the University of Chicago,
Where Films Should be Used 109
after conducting experiments in using films on electrostatics
and magnetism in demonstrating lecture work,
writes:
As a result of these tests the motion picture film for the
present is established in our laboratory as one of the recognized
methods of undergraduate instruction.
Literature, History and Mathematics
Literature and history are, theoretically, the most
obviously suited college subjects for screen presentation.
Practically, the science films and industrial process
films are proving the more widely used, perhaps
because there is so much excellent material of this kind
obtainable. Good illustrative material in cinema form
can also be found for such comparatively little-studied
subjects as ethnology! And who would think of teaching
geometry by means of the film? Yet it has been
done at the Huntington School, Boston. In the tworeel
film on geometry the titles define a square, a rectangle,
a rhombus and a circle, which first draw themselves
and then spell out their names. The geometry
student reads the definition of commensurable quantities,
which means little to him. But in the second reel
of the geometry film he sees a table appear and upon it
a pint measure and a gill measure and a pitcher of
water. A human hand appears, grasps the pitcher filled
with colored liquid, fills the gill measure and turns its
contents into the pint measure and repeats the process
four times. There is nothing left in the gill measure.
He has been shown the meaning of commensurable
quantities. This geometry film was found helpful in
evening classes as an interest producer and as a quick
and efficient way of reviewing forgotten knowledge.
The writers, however, do not believe that this char-
110 Motion Pictures in Education
acter of film can justify itself. The first reel does no
more than the teacher can do at the blackboard, and do
as effectively and quickly, and the second reel shows
only what can be shown in front of the class, quickly,
easily and more convincingly with a pint measure, a
gill measure and a pint of water. Why go to the
trouble and expense of showing a film? The advocates
of such a film will probably maintain that more attention
will be paid to the film demonstration just because
it is a motion picture, and there is much evidence to
support this contention.
On the other hand, the intricacies of square and cube
root are admirably suited to demonstration on the
screen and we are surprised that no one has yet shown
us such a reel.
Chemistry
Chemistry is another subject that lends itself to film
instruction. Annie L. Macleaod, Vassar College, in
an article, "Motion Pictures in Teaching Chemistry,"
gives this interesting testimony:
It seems to be a fact that a motion picture experiment in
chemistry tends to remain fixed in memory even longer than
work carried out by one's own hands. While motion pictures
can never entirely displace laboratory teaching it may take
the place of part of it. One instructor could handle larger
sections in a laboratory after preliminary training with
motion pictures, and time, apparatus and material would be
saved.
Dramatic Art
The use of motion pictures in the teaching of the
drama is advocated by Donald Clive Stuart, Professor
of Dramatic Literature, Princeton University, who
says:
If there were in every High School and University in the
Where Films Should be Used 111
country a series of films showing the history and development
of dramatic art from its inception to the present day we could
begin to teach and study drama efficiently. Twenty or thirty
films only would be necessary as a beginning.
Some of the greatest dramas have been translated to
the screen, most of Shakespeare's plays and many more
modern dramatic successes, and much of inspirational,
cultural and technical value can be added to the study
of the drama by viewing ably produced photoplays of
suitable character. While the photoplay cannot replace
the spoken drama, here again the cinema is to be used
to supplement, not to supplant.
Drawing
The use of films in classrooms is by no means confined
to this country. In Paris, where films are being
used more and more extensively in education, drawing
is being taught effectively by means of slow-motion
films which analyze movement and hold life studies
literally in attitudes of suspended animation. This is
of inestimable aid toward anatomical precision in art
work.
Films are probably being used to a greater extent
in education in the United States than in any other
country. Not only have they been introduced into the
grammar grades and high schools in public and private
schools in an ever increasing number of cities but they
are also being used to a lesser extent in some of the
foremost American colleges and universities. Results
tabulated from questionnaires sent out to twenty or
more foremost collegiate institutions show that film
is being used for instruction in a wide variety of
courses, including Latin, Greek, home economics, journalism,
agriculture, education, athletics, architecture and
112 Motion Pictures in Education
business administration, also in the military department
and in colleges of medicine.
At the Iowa State Agricultural College, for example,
films are being used as a part of the classroom work in
applied arts, home administration, dietetics, physical culture,
engineering, forestry and in the military department.
Such subjects as shoes, textiles, clothing and
house management were presented by means of films.
The physical culture director used films to teach the
causes, effects and correction of foot troubles. The
domestic science classes visited food factories, famous
dairies and packing houses by means of films. The
engineering department saw industrial processes, mechanical
operations, and technical facts demonstrated.
The military department has repeatedly used motion
pictures to supplement lectures. For mass instruction
the pictures proved most acceptable, five hundred being
given the same instruction as easily as five, and the
magnification made possible by the screen permitted
operations to be seen equally well by all.
At the time this is being written films are probably
being used in education more in high schools and secondary
schools than in either colleges or elementary
schools.
In Professional and Vocational Schools
Under vocational subjects, the industries, trade processes
and activities involving physical effort and manual
skill are easily and effectively demonstrated on the
animate screen. For the professional schools, surgery
affords motion pictures the subject matter for their best
performance. The superb series of clinical films, such
as those produced and distributed by the Clinical Film
Corporation of New York, are perhaps the highest and
Where Films Should be Used 113
best examples of truly educational films which have yet
been made.
Enough has probably already been said regarding
films of the U. S. Department of Agriculture dealing
with farming and related industries to bear evidence
that motion pictures are applicable and available for
agricultural schools and colleges. Films may be obtained
by Agricultural Schools on most branches of
agricultural knowledge from the Department and on
many branches from various state agricultural colleges
and many manufacturers of farm machinery and
appliances and of other commodities used on the farm.
American-made films teaching agricultural methods
were sent to Russia at the close of the World War to be
used in teaching the peasants more modern and improved
methods. Whether or not they reached their
destination we do not know, but we do know they
started and we helped representatives of the Russian
government in their selection.
Schools of forestry, departments of landscape gardening,
veterinary schools, and schools of mines and
many other engineering schools may all find motion
pictures of great use.
Motion pictures are as useful in schools for the deaf
as they are useless for the blind.
Specialized Study
Clubs in and out of schools, devoted to the promotion
of the study of some particular subject or branch
of knowledge, such as classical clubs, literary clubs,
forestry clubs, etc., frequently use films as collateral
material to increase a knowledge or the popularity of
the subject to which they are especially devoted.
Women's clubs, such as those which pursue courses
114 Motion Pictures in Education
of study on travel; benevolent organizations giving
courses of instruction such as the Y. M. C. A.,
Y. M. H. A., the K. of C. and the community centers,
settlement houses and other institutions which exercise
the teaching or study function can use films advan-
tageously.
In Religious Education
In religious instruction no less than in the imparting
of secular knowledge, films have an essential function.
In teaching Bible History in Sunday Schools, for example,
the filmed Bible stories will give a convincing
realism to characters and events not obtainable by any
amount of reading or preaching and will leave impressions
never to be forgotten. Many Protestant
ministers of the gospel are incorporating these Bible
films into their Sunday night services, while Catholic
pastors and Jewish rabbis are also using them for
religious instruction.
They are proving useful not only in increasing an
interest in and a knowledge of the Bible, but also in
solving for many churches the problem of attendance.
Many ministers find a large increase in church attendance
when motion pictures are added to the program
of church service. Dr. Richard Cobden of St. John's
Episcopal Church at Larchmont, N. Y., who is using
two or three Bible reels each Sunday night, has increased
his average attendance thereby from eighty to
two hundred and fifty, more than three hundred per
cent. And his is one of many similar instances.
"I preach the gospel at least as well as I should be
preaching it if I had no pictures," writes Dr. C. S.
Patton of Los Angeles, "and I preach it to one thou-
Where Films Should be Used 115
sand or twelve hundred people instead of to a hand-
ful."
Rev. C. Wesley Boag of Delavan, Wisconsin, made
a six months' study of projectors and film supply before
deciding to equip his church for the use of pictures
and as a result the venture was a success from the
start. He says:
My object was not to draw a crowd, as I already had an
enviable attendance at the evening service, nor was it to compete
with the moving picture theatres of my city; I am on
the best of terms with them. But my object was a sincere
desire to extend and enlarge the service of my church.
Good equipment is the foundation of motion picture success.
The best there is is none too good for the church.
Contrary to general opinion I have no trouble in finding
plenty of good material. With two years of experience I now
declare that I find more good material than I am able to use,
and good pictures for church use are continually increasing
in number.
Financing the project is very easy. Paid entertainments
solved all our problems. I believed in the benefits of motion
picture equipment for the church to the extent that out of my
own pocket I paid all the expenses of installing the equipment.
Get good equipment, give good projection, show big worthwhile
pictures, put the project on a high plane and the financing
will care for itself.
I make use of every special occasion New Year, Lincoln's
Birthday, Washington's Birthday, Flag Day, The Fourth of
July, Armistice Day, Red Cross Day, Fire Prevention Day,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. On Fire Prevention Day for
example I spoke on "Carelessness" and then screened, What
a Careless Hunter in the Woods Can Do (USDA), The Cost
of Carelessness (Pr) and Hurry Slowly (Fo). One month
I featured The Great Things of Nature or The Works of God
and used The Grand Canyon, The Big Trees $nd The Yosemite
Valley. These subjects proved to be of great interest
to those who had visited these places and those who had not.
Another month we had a world tour, visiting China, Japan,
Egypt and France, which furnished a rich fund of sermon
material. A total of 2,079 attended the world tour and this in
a city of 3,016 population ! There is great merit in the use
of motion pictures for churches and it will pay any pastor or
church to give the subject earnest heed.
116 Motion Pictures in Education
We have quoted this pastor rather fully because he
discusses from personal experience the matter of expense,
equipment, available film supply and how he used
it, and answers in a helpful and practical manner many
of the questions asked by ministers who wish to use
films in religious instruction.
In sacred and secular education, for the instruction
of practically every type of student, from the kindergarten
to the professional school, the cinema seemingly
has its function, not as an educational panacea but as
a valuable supplement to most teaching effort.
VII
FILMS AVAILABLE FOR INSTRUCTION
THE teacher or principal who is planning to introduce
films into a given course or into a school system should
study the sources of supply and make a film catalogue
of his own from the catalogues issued by the various
non-theatrical distributors, the lists of the National
Board of Review, the weekly bulletins of the National
Motion Picture League and such classified compilations
as the new "1001 Film Plus," now distributed by Educational
Screen of Chicago.
There are literally hundreds of good films obtainable
today for classroom use. These may be roughly
grouped into three general classes :
(
1 ) films prepared
primarily for theatrical use but containing informational
material of value for schools; (2) industrial
films, made for advertising purposes, but showing the
production, performance, or use of a commodity, service
or organization; (3) strictly pedagogical films made
specifically for school purposes.
Theatrical Films Suitable for School Use
One constantly hears it said by school people that
films prepared for theatrical use are entirely unsuited
to school purposes. Like most generalizations this
statement needs to be severely qualified. While the
great mass of theatrical film is not only unsuited to
school use but definitely subversive of its aims, there
is considerable material among strictly theatrical mo-
117
118 Motion Pictures in Education
tion pictures which will be found exceedingly valuable
for instructional use either in its original or in a modified
form.
LITERATURE FILMS
Many gems of literature have been acceptably translated
to the screen and these lend themselves admirably
to the work of classes in literature. There is a new
Italian production of Hamlet (NN-T) which is superbly
done. The interpretation is very close to
Shakespeare's, the settings are artistic and appropriate
and the acting is of a high degree of excellence. The
production is of a magnitude which no non-theatrical
producer could have afforded to make at this stage of
development strictly for school purposes, yet it is none
the less of inestimable worth in the study of Shakespeare
and an excellent example of the type of theatrical
film suitable for school use.
There are many versions of the classics, however,
too poorly done and many which depart too far from
the originals to be of much educational value. On the
other hand there are a fair number of picturizations
of works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Dumas, Scott and
other masters which merit the consideration of teachers
of literature. Among the more creditable of the literature
films are Dickens' Oliver Twist (FN), Our
Mutual Friend (W), David Copperfield (UFP), Tale
of Two Cities (F), and Scrooge (NN-T), Victor
Hugo's Les Miserables (FP), Longfellow's Village
Blacksmith (F), Evangeline (F), and Courtship of
Miles Standish, Maeterlinck's Blue Bird (FP), Mark
Twain's Tom Sawyer (FP), Huckleberry Finn (FP),
Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (F),
George Elioťs Silas Marner (UW), Shakespeare's
Films Available for Instruction 119
Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet (Ps), Tempest,
Taming of the Shrew, Julius Ccesar, Richard the
Third and the Hamlet referred to above; Dumas'
Three Muskateers (UA) and Count of Monte Cristo
(F) ; Scotťs Lady of the Lake; Cooper's Last of the
Mohicans, The Prairie and Deerslayer (NN-T) ;
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, together with other
well-known classics such as The Adventures of Ulysses
(NN-T), Rip Van Winkle (H), Robin Hood (UA),
Alice in Wonderland (EK), Black Beauty (V),
Treasure Island (FFP), The Copperhead (F), and
such well-known works of fiction as Way Down East
(UA), Sentimental Tommy (FP), Little Minister
(FP), and Peter Ibbetson. The National Board of
Review (address 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City)
issues a list of "films drawn from books for boys and
girls." This list may be obtained for a nominal sum.
It gives also the names and addresses of producers and
distributors from whom the films mentioned may be
obtained.
Literature films mentioned and others now in the
course of production may be severely scored by some
teachers of literature, yet the very faults of such productions
have been turned to profit by the skillful
teacher. For example, the film, The Fall of Troy
(UW), shown to Latin and history students provoked
much discussion. Some questioned the authenticity of
scenes and the development of the plot. The ^Eneid
and history references were searched with avidity by
students, who displayed great interest in checking up
incidents and who enjoyed finding flaws in the work of
the director. Though a film may not be produced as
the professor of literature would produce it, it still
may be used to make a most profitable film lesson if
120 Motion Pictures in Education
the teacher sees the film in advance, knows its imperfections
and prepares the class for them.
The problem is to adapt the present film supply to the
classroom. The first thing to do is to find out what
films are to be had. We have indicated some ways of
obtaining additional information. We advise the practical
teacher to use the best films now available without
waiting for perfection. The film that one teacher
may roundly condemn, another may find worthy of
praise.
HISTORY FILMS
In addition to literature films, there are a goodly
number of historical films based on the lives of such
American patriots as Betsy Ross (NN-T), Nathan
Hale (NN-T), and Abraham Lincoln (S) (FP).
European history is represented by such photoplays as
Hugo's Mary Tudor (NN-T), which is both history
and literature, and other photoplays built around Henry
the Eighth, Danton, Madame DuBarry (K), Napoleon
(Ps) and other characters of history. A recent French
production, well received at its premiere in London,
adapted from The Old Guard, a novel dealing with
the hopeless efforts of Napoleon's Old Guard to put
the late Emperor's son, the Eaglet, on the throne of
France, shows many scenes filmed in historic places
such as the ballroom at Fontainebleau, the courtyard at
Versailles, the Tuileries and St. Helena.
The news weeklies, shown regularly in many theatres,
are patently valuable for the study of current
history and certainly contain no more extraneous matter
than the daily newspaper which is accepted in more
or less good standing among teachers of current history
and economics. Such news weeklies as Fox Newsf
Films Available for Instruction 121
Screen Snapshots, International News, Selznick News,
Kinograms, Pathe News, may be used either in their
original or in re-edited form. In fact Pathe is now
issuing a school edition of its news weekly, which is
proving of real educational value.
OTHER INSTRUCTIONAL SUBJECTS
Many choice bits of biology, physiography and other
science subjects are hidden away in screen magazines
and topical reviews like Pathe Review, Urban Movie
Chats and Kineto Review. These need to be re-edited
and correlated to school use, but to include them in a
general condemnation is short-sighted folly. Many
such subjects, secured by news cameramen all over
the world, could not be produced for school purposes
by aught but a wealthy philanthropist, yet are invaluable
pedagogical material. For example, one of the most
valuable parts of a highly technical film issued by the
Department of Agriculture, that on Dust Explosion
in Mills and Elevators, shows results of explosions
taken by news cameramen on the spot and obtained
from the news weeklies to drive home the lesson of
the film.
The writer is now engaged in producing a series of
text-films on general and physical geography from the
Burton Holmes film library, first released through
theatrical channels. Reels already completed are two
each on Alaska and Hawaii and one each on Volcanoes,
England and Belgium. The library contains studies of
natural phenomena from many parts of the globe made
during the past twenty years. It would be utterly impractical,
if not impossible, to make such pictures "to
order" or just as needed for inclusion in a particular
school reel.
122 Motion Pictures in Education
Urban's Four Seasons, which has had a fairly wide
use in theatres, is a gem for nature study in our schools,
while Bray's Pictographs, originally released in theatres,
contained delightful bits on astronomy, physiography,
biology and other short-length subjects, ranging
from 100 to 500 feet, which now can be ordered
according to subject matter. Some teachers have complained
that the standard reel of 1000 feet taking 15
minutes to show is often unwieldy and contains too
much. They complain further that they must show
the entire reel, containing often much extraneous matter.
Such short-length subjects as Bray has made
available to schools will therefore make a decided appeal
to many teachers.
Pioneers like Charles Urban and J. R. Bray have
long been building up libraries of films of undoubted
educational merit on a wide range of subjects, with
educational showings in mind but so designed and
selected that they might first be acceptable in theatres.
Otherwise their release would not have been commercially
practicable. These films may not be in every
case pedagogically correct in their method of presentation
but they contain much of pedagogical value.
NON-THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION
Most of the films in the theatrical group are obtained
from the theatrical exchanges, but such as we have
mentioned are drifting more and more into film libraries
of non-theatrical distributors and a few have been
added to the growing film libraries circulated by the
extension departments of state colleges and universities.
It is unfortunate that, with the use of films by the
schools broadening out with such evident rapidity and
stability, many theatrical film distributors persist either
Films Available far Instruction 123
in refusing to rent films to schools upon the demand of
their short-sighted theatrical customers, or make no
effort to meet the needs of this new and future field.
Instead, much film of real educational value is being
either actually refused to the schools because some
theatre managers sense a hurtful competition or it becomes
unavailable after the few months of theatre use.
Largely because of this situation and the growth,
present and prospective, of the non-theatrical field, producers
of films having definite instructional value are
now coming to recognize the non-theatrical as their
proper and ultimately more remunerative field. At the
time of this writing the new Martin Johnson series of
South Sea Island films has just been bought by a nontheatrical
distributing company instead of by the theatrical
field in which the earlier issues of this series were
released. It has now come to pass that exceedingly
few educational films, outside the news weeklies, can
be a real financial success, except those which are made
in features proportions, such as Nanook of the North
(P), The Bottom of the World (NN-T), and the
Head Hunters of Malachi (NN-T), and these will be
in demand by the schools long after their usefulness
in the theatre has passed.
Industrial Films
The industrial films, the second and largest of the
three general groups of films available today for
schools, may easily be adapted for special classes and
have been used with more or less satisfying results in
many schools and colleges.
Films in this group, which are made primarily for
the purpose of advertising, range all the way from the
rankest experiments of amateur cameramen to finished
124 Motion Pictures in Education
works of art, rivaling the better class of regular productions.
Some are merely advertisements; others,
while informative to a limited degree are vitiated for
school use by their character or their large amount
of sales promotion. But there are a large number of
films to be had which, though built for the purpose of
advertising, sales promotion or propaganda, are of such
a character that they are of great value for education.
Many of these films are devoted to the great essential
industries of the country mining, the steel industry,
sugar production, shoe manufacture, the making
of automobiles and watches "how-things-are-made"
films. Some contain lessons in domestic science, how
to can fruit or make bread; some show how certain
commodities operate, such as farm tractors and washing
machines; some teach the care of the teeth and
eyes, how to care for the sick, the food value of milk
and a myriad other useful subjects.
One industrial film, which the writer made for a
manufacturer of motor cars, called The Porcelain
Lamp (NN-T), portrays the story of how gasoline
was discovered as an explosive fuel, then gives an
authentic picture of the entire history of land travel
from the earliest form of human transportation to the
methods used at the present day and finally shows how
the various parts of the modern motor car perform. The
particular make of car of the manufacturer for whom
the picture was produced, is, of course, used as the
example of the modern automobile, but this factor is
greatly subordinated. The film has proved to be of real
educational value to classes in history, manual training
and for general information in school assemblies, and
is a good example of the industrial film that can be
and has been satisfactorily adapted to school use.
Films Available for Instruction 125
Many such industrial films, financed by large commercial
firms, are far more complete and ably done than
the more economically made pedagogical films, which,
though designed primarily for instructional use, have
been hampered in their making by insufficient funds.
Educators owe a very real debt of gratitude to business
corporations for the many high-class films they have
rendered available for education at no expense to the
educator, for industrial films are obtainable free except
for transportation.
The brains of business are discovering that there
is no way of shoiving the results of their efforts so
graphically, so clearly, so convincingly and withal so
truthfully and effectively as through skillfully built
motion pictures. Such pictures can go to the very heart
of an industrial process, analyze and lay bare the most
intricate inner workings of its machinery of production,
demonstrate, through the use of the ultra-speed
camera, analysis of motions too rapid for the eye to
take in at natural speed, present in animated mechanical
drawings and diagrams processes so rapid that they
must be slowed down perhaps 100 or more times to be
discernible or so intricate that no direct photograph
can reveal them, show in graphic concrete form abstruse
generalities, and display the subject matter so
impressively that a lasting concept results.
But their scope is not confined to showing processes ;
they go deeper, portraying the development, the evolution
of an industry, the influence which it has had upon
the history and growth of a country or upon civilization
itself and its significance in the commerce of the world.
They truly present the romance of business, the marvelous
story of world commerce, the great driving force
126 Motion Pictures in Education
which molds the destinies of nations and controls the
guiding body of world development.
Films of this character are being made by leading
motion picture producers for commercial institutions
of national and international scope and reputation.
Pictures produced under these combined auspices must
necessarily be of excellent quality from the standpoint
of film technique and of high educational value.
Are they suitable for school use and are they available
for that purpose? Do they treat of subjects in which
the schools are interested? Do they treat of them in
a way that will prove acceptable and helpful to the
schools? Does the fact that they carry a certain
amount of advertising make them less acceptable or
valuable for school use? And can they be obtained by
schools and other educational institutions?
Schools are certainly concerned with the elements
entering into commerce. If education is a preparation
for life in a world of commerce and industry, pupils
should be given an insight into industrial and commercial
processes. It is well that the pupils be taught
how coal is mined, how copper and iron are mined,
smelted and manufactured, how iron and coal are used
in making steel, how steel, in turn, is made into locomotives
and ocean liners and pen-knives and a thousand
other things which help keep this old world busy and
moving.
Geography and history, civics and economics are
made of just such stuff, and the practical application
of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, metallurgy,
and other sciences is found in these very industrial
processes. It is for these reasons that classes are taken
on field and factory expeditions through glass manufactories,
sawmills, textile mills, paper mills and
Films Available for Instruction 127
power plants in order that they may see concretely
and at first hand how various commodities are made
or other industrial results are produced. But such
excursions take time, and no school is able to show
its members more than a very few of such plants. Industrial
films have been and are being made which
show industrial processes and the production and use
of commercial products far more clearly, graphically
and thoroughly than any trip through a plant could
possibly reveal. Other films of this general nature
are designed to spread health, sanitation and safety-first
propaganda, to make known to the citizens of a state or
a city how its institutions are organized and directed
or to accomplish some similar purpose.
Certainly these subjects are of interest to schools
and have a place in their courses of study. The animated
mechanical drawing is one feature of industrial
films which is of outstanding instructional value. This
is a device which reproduces on the screen in striking
clearness the most complicated of mechanical and other
involved processes and is capable even of presenting abstract
ideas in concrete, diagrammatic form and operation.
By this device the inside operation of machinery,
as of an automotive engine, the movement of a current
of electricity, the nervous impulses of man, the movement
of the heavenly bodies, molecular motion, and
even involved mental processes can be shown clearly,
simply and vividly. Its accomplishments and possibilities
for effective instruction make it invaluable for
school use.
The second question, as to whether industrial films
treat their subject matter in a way acceptable and helpful
to schools, can not be answered categorically. Industrial
films differ radically in quality and treatment
128 Motion Pictures in Education
The correct production of an industrial film demands
other qualities than are called for in photoplay production,
not necessarily greater but radically different.
The photoplay is produced usually under ideal conditions,
with proper lighting and settings, professional
actors and competent staff; the industrial often under
exceedingly difficult ones, poor lighting, next to impossible
settings, camera-shy and self-conscious actors,
incompetent cooperation and outside interference, and
the director and cameraman must, if they are to produce
a successful result, not only overcome these difficulties
but create a picture which will be clear, graphic
and of compelling interest. The producer of an industrial
of merit must combine with his motion picture
art the qualities of a pedagogue and a salesman. Some
industrials are made by those who are skilled cameramen
and little else. Of course, it is assumed as an initial
premise, that the photography of an industrial is
beyond reproach, though it must be admitted that many
are impossible even from this standpoint. Others are
beyond criticism as pictorial presentations of processes
but have neither pedagogic qualities nor ability to hold
the interest of the spectator, much less create a graphic
or lasting impression. And so the gamut of faults
might be run for many pages.
Industrial pictures containing glaring shortcomings
of serious nature are of course not suitable for instructional
use. Schools should, therefore, first assure
themselves of the character of their source of supply,
if they would save themselves the task of endless advance
film inspection or the danger of imposing an
altogether unsatisfactory product upon their student
bodies. Fortunately there are many excellent industrial
films in existence produced by experts of recognized
Filma Available for Instruction 129
ability in the industrial film field, who have not had to
spare expense or pains in building their pictures and
have had the cooperation of business firms with large
capital and every disposition to enable their producers
to construct a film of the highest possible merit. Films
produced under such auspices have a decided advantage
over many strictly pedagogical pictures made
under the stress of rigid economy for a school market
as yet but meagerly financed. The presence of advertising
will not in itself render a film unsuited and unacceptable
for pedagogical use. Rather will it add to
its authenticity. When a class visits a manufacturing
plant to see how pins or automobiles are made, they do
not avoid those which have their name plates on the
doors, and an industrial film is merely the factory
brought into the school. Of course, advertising can be
so blatantly overdone that it overshadows all else, in
which case we have not a picture but an animated house
organ. The writer has in mind, however, the moderately
conservative type of truthful presentation.
The truthfulness of the presentation is a factor
which should be carefully weighed. Obviously nothing
which savors of the rabid exaggerating press agent has
place in a school. Assuming, however, that the school
is receiving its industrial film service from a producer
who adheres to the slogan, "Truth in Advertising," the
fact that the film bears acknowledgments to the manufacturer
is an asset rather than a liability. Besides
adding authenticity it usually, if made by a competent
producer, insures quality, and enables the school, in
most cases, to obtain a valuable product for no more
than transportation costs, and this is an important
factor at a time when the schools are exceedingly short
of much-needed appropriations. In this connection
130 Motion Pictures in Education
schools and other exhibitors should certainly not be
charged for industrial films for which the manufacturer
has already paid. It scarcely seems ethical to
levy a service charge for a product already financed
by the advertiser.
This brings the writers to the last consideration. Can
industrial films be obtained by educational institutions ?
They are available from many sources. In most cases
the commercial manufacturers who have films themselves
will gladly lend them. The film producer can in
most cases either lend the film himself or put the inquirer
in touch with his clients from whom the film
may be obtained. If the producer be a large concern
and distributes his own productions directly, the school
is able to obtain a regular service from him and is saved
the trouble and inconvenience of having to depend upon
many different and widely scattered sources of film
supply. Some industrials may be obtained from Extension
Departments of State Universities.
The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce at
Washington has, in cooperation with the Bureau of
Mines, supervised the production of a number of industrial
films relating to essential industries, particularly
the metallurgic industries of the country. Most
of these films have been financed by private capital but
contain a minimum of advertising. They may be obtained
by educational institutions from the Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, D. C,
or the Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa. The library
contains such subjects as The Story of Corborundum,
the Story of Copper, The Story of Petroleum, Mexico
and Its Oil, the Story of Sulphur, Alloy Steel, Oxygen,
The Wonder Worker, Water Power, Compressed Air,
Transportation, The Story of an Electric Meter, Ma-
Films Available for Instruction 131
chine Tool Manufacture, The Story of Steel, Abrasives,
The Story of Portland Cement and The Story of a
Watch.
Large manufacturing concerns such as General Electric
Company, Schenectady, N. Y. ; Western Electric
Company, New York City; Northeast Electric Company,
Rochester, N. Y. ; International Harvester Co.,
Chicago, 111.; National Cash Register Co., Dayton,
Ohio; U. S. Steel Corporation, New York City, and
the various railroad systems have some excellent industrial
films for free distribution. Industrial films
produced by different companies and business organizations
may also be obtained through the Industrial
Department of the International Committee of Young
Men's Christian Associations, Madison Avenue, New
York City, and from the Bureau of Commercial Economics,
Washington, D. C., which is not either directly
or indirectly connected with the Government but is entirely
a private commercial enterprise.
A fourteen-page list of industrial films, arranged
alphabetically, has been compiled by the National Board
of Review, New York City and may be had for a nominal
sum. The Board of Review does not produce or
distribute films but does furnish information regarding
the theatrical films they review and some non-theatrical
films. We recommend that the educator who is planning
to use industrial films secure this list and also
the catalogues of the Bureau of Commercial Economics
and of the Y. M. C. A.
There is so much of value to be found in the large
group of industrial films that time and effort to locate
them are well spent. In making application to distributors
of industrials it is well to make the request early,
six weeks or two months in advance, and also to give
132 Motion Pictures in Education
a second, third and fourth choice in case the first film
mentioned is in use elsewhere. Film libraries are much
like book libraries the subject wanted is apt to be out
when another borrower calls or sends for it; therefore
the advisability of putting in the order or request early,
or better still of making out the film program for the
entire school year during the summer vacation.
It is very common for schools to find all manner of
fault with the film exchange when they can not get the
film they want when they want it ; yet when one wants
a certain book from a library one does not hold the
librarian responsible when the book is in use elsewhere
and no copy is available. The initial cost of films is
considerably greater than that of books; so the exchange
is less likely to have enough copies always to go around.
A list of industrial films that have been used by
schools would be too long to give here but the following
are examples of industrial films used in the New York
Public Schools for classroom instruction during 19221923:
From Cow to Consumer (Ps), Blue Monday
(NN-T), Our Daily Bread, Story of the Orange (A),
Cheese Making, Oral Hygiene.
The Franklin School, Port Arthur, Texas, has used
the following industrials in a course in visualizing
geography: Conquest of the Forest (SGE), Shoe Making
(DW), Cotton Cloth (AM), A Woolen Yarn
(SGE), Tale of a Thirsty Towel (ARC), Coal Mining
(YMCA), Story of a Stick (LB), From Texas
Trail to Your Table (A), The Spirit of the Corn
(CP), From Mine to Mint (BCE) and The Sugar
Trail (BCE).
And at New York University, in a course in Industrial
Processes, the School of Commerce, offered for the
first time in 1922, the subject matter is being presented
Films? Available for Instruction 133
entirely by motion pictures. Each picture used in the
course is accompanied by an adequate explanation of
the principles involved. Starting with the basic industries,
such as oal and iron mining and steel making,
the course presents in detail the various stages through
which raw materials pass until they come out finished
products.
It is apparent that for several years to come, while
the strictly pedagogical film field is developing, the correctly
produced industrial film will be a leading popular
type of film for use in the schools and that when the
pedagogical film does come fully into its own, as it is
coming surely and rapidly, the industrial will remain
its most valuable supplement. And for use in commercial
education it will never lose first place, for it contains
the prime essentials of the highest type of instruction
in the industrial and business life of the world.
VIII
FILMS AVAILABLE FOR INSTRUCTION
(Continued)
Pedagogical Films
THERE is a third group of films usable for instruction
in which should be included not only those films
which have been actually photographed for instructional
purposes solely or primarily but also those which have
been thoroughly correlated and edited for school use.
Examples of specially made pedagogical films are
Magnetism (SVE), a series on Physical Geography
and Athletics (VT), and the Park Popular Science
films on Physical Geography (NN-T), a series treating
first of the geography of the universe and then
developing logically from cause to effect, and which
consider the earth as a planet, explain time, the seasons,
storms, ocean currents and the Gulf Stream. Later
reels treat of commercial geography presented as growing
out of physical geography.
Of the films which have been correlated and edited
for instructional purposes, good examples are the text
films on Alaska and Hawaii (NN-T), recently compiled
by the writer. These pictures, each two reels in
length, are divided, as are some of the standard textbooks
on geography, into three parts, treating first
of the physical character, then of the resources and
industries and finally of political geography and history.
The films are introduced by animated maps which
establish the locations and characters of the territories,
principal cities, mountains and other features. The
134
Films Available for Instruction 135
titles are written from the standpoint of the teacher
of an upper grade.
A fairly large number of films in the two classes of
pedagogical films have made their appearance and
others of varying grades of excellence are now appearing
with a moderate degree of rapidity. Most of such
films are on the subjects of commercial and general
geography, biology, hygiene and agriculture, with
fewer on civics, physical geography, literature, physics
and history, and fewer still on such subjects as chemistry
and mathematics.
A clear distinction must be made between the true
pedagogic films prepared from the teaching angle and
informational films on the subject of travel, natural
history, animal and plant life and others fundamentally
educational but prepared for entertainment. These informational
films are undoubtedly of use in education
as collateral material or even for direct instruction,
but they have not the direct and effective teaching value
possessed by that small but increasing group of pictures
prepared as teaching media. Good examples of
this type of film are The Trap Door Spider (PC), The
Lincoln Cycle (C), and American Author Series (U).
The classified lists of some of the larger distributors
of pedagogical films may be helpful. To give a complete
list of such films in a volume of this character
would be impracticable. The following will, however,
give a fair idea of the kind of films obtainable.
SCHOOL FILMS OF THE SOCIETY FOR VISUAL
EDUCATION, INC., CHICAGO
Foundation and Settlement of the United States
French Explorations in North America
English Settlements in North America
136 Motion Pictures in Education
Struggle of French and English for North America
Breaking Through the Appalachians
War of the American Revolution
Settling the Ohio Valley
The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Trans-Mississippi Trails
Across the Rockies to the Pacific
Economic History of the U. S.
The Steamboat in U. S. History
Canals in U. S. History
Railroads in U. S. History
Reclaiming Arid Land by Irrigation
Immigration to the U. S.
The Panama Canal and Its Historical Significance
Civics
A Citizen and His Government (2 reels)
Growth of Cities and Their 'Problems
"Hats Off" A Story of the Flag
Health and Sanitation
Getting Acquainted with Bacteria
Waste Disposal in Cities
Unhooking the Hookworm
Mathematics
Animated Geometry (2 reels)
Physical Geography
The Earth and Worlds Beyond
Study of a Mountain Glacier
The Work of Rivers
Study of Shore Features Low Shore
Study of Shore Features Bold Shore
Formation of Caves in Limestone
Formation of Volcanoes and Geysers
The Story of Coral Growth
A Study of Niagara (2 reels)
Regional Geography
New England (2 reels)
Middle Atlantic States (2 reels)
Films Available for Instruction 137
Southern States (2 reels)
Central Plains (2 reels)
Great Plains
Western Plateaus
Rocky Mountains
Pacific Mountains and Lowlands
Nature Study
Where Plants Live
The Monarch Butterfly
Samia Cecropia, the Giant American Silkworm
Pond and Stream Life (2 reels)
The Mosquito
Toads
Wasps
Physics
Famous Experiments in Electricity and Magnetism (Produced
at Ryerson Physical Laboratory, University of Chicago)
(6 reels ready)
Magnetism
Electrostatics
Electromagnetism (2 reels)
Electromagnetic Induction
High Frequency Currents
TEXT FILMS DISTRIBUTED BY NATIONAL NONTHEATRICAL
MOTION PICTURES, INC.
NEW YORK CITY
BIOLOGY
Text-Films (one reel each)
Microscopic
The Microscope and Its Uses
Blood Circulation (i reel and 3 reels)
Insect Life
The Blue Bottle Fly
The Cabbage Butterfly
The Silk Worm
Bee Culture
138 Motion Pictures in Education
Bird Life
The American Fish Hawk
Birds of the Sea
A Day with the Sea Gull
How Birds Build their Nests
The Peregrine Falcon
The Sea Birds' Paradise
Web-Footed Swimmers of Mountain Lakes
Winged Hunters, The Merlin
Botany
Field Flowers
Aquatic Life
Zoology Aquatic Life
Mammals
The Reindeer
Elephant- Seal Hunting
Wild Life Studies North America
Wild Life Studies Africa
The Bottom of the World
Life in the Antarctic
Wild Animals and their Young
LITERATURE
Shakespeare's Hamlet 7 reels
Dickens' Dombey and Son 6
Homer's Odyssey 5
Homer's Odyssey 3
Dumas' Corsican Brothers 5
James Whitcomb Riley's The Adams Boys I
"
James Whitcomb Riley's Little Orphant Annie 5
Hugo's Mary Tudor 5
Tense Moments from Great Stories
(one reel each)
Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare
Macbeth, Shakespeare
A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens
Bleak House, Dickens
Scrooge, from Dickens' Christmas Carol
Fagin, from Dickens' Oliver Twist
Nancy, from Dickens' Oliver Twist
Vanity Fair, Thackeray
Films Available for Instruction 139
HISTORY AND PATRIOTISM
Betsy Ross 5 reels
Nathan Hale 5
Daughters of the War 5
The Red Peril '.
5
Is America Worth Saving? 2
Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge 2
Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge 5
Prehistoric Americans i
Text-Films
Historic Cape Cod I reel
Historic Monterey I
Historic St. Augustine I
"
Historic Virginia I
"
Battlefield of Gettysburg 2 reels
Battlefield of Chickamauga 2
"
U. S. GEOGRAPHY
Burton Holmes Series
Alaska (Text-Film) 2 reels
Alaska 6 single
Hawaii (Text-Film) 2
Hawaii 5 single
Philippines 30 single
Cliff Dwellers of America I
National Park Series Text-Films (one reel each)
Grand Canyon of the Arizona
Yellowstone National Park
Rainier National Park
Pike's Peak National Park
Battlefield of Gettysburg
Battlefield of Chickamauga
Crater Lake National Park
Other Scenic Wonders (Text-Films (one reel each)
Mt. Lowe, Calif.
Beauty Spots of New Hampshire
Hudson River
Lake Mohonk, N. Y.
Lake Placid, N. Y.
Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Watkins Glen and Ausdble Chasm, N. Y.
Thousand Islands
Columbia River, Ore.
Mt. Hood, Ore.
140 Motion Pictures in Education
Willamette Falls, Ore.
Delaware Water Gap, Pa.
Mt. Baker, Wash.
Mt. Takoma (Rainier), Wash.
Delles of Wisconsin
Heart of the Blue Ridge, W. Va.
Regional Geography Text-Films (giving physiography, resources,
industries and principal cities) (2 reels each)
New England States
Middle Atlantic States
South Atlantic States
E. North Central States
E. South Central States
W. North Central States
W. South Central States
Mountain States
Pacific States
GENERAL GEOGRAPHY
Text-Films (treating of physiography, resources, industries
and politics)
Australia 2 reels
China 2
"
India 2
"
Races of Mankind 2
"
Burton Holmes Travel Series
300 single reels on 48 countries
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Text-Films
The Evolution of a Solar The Seasons
System Gravity
The Mystery of Space The Kingdom of the Storm
Earth and Moon Ocean Currents
Night and Day The Gulf Stream
Time Volcanoes (Burton Holmes)
The Bottom of the World
COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY
One reel each
Evolution of Travel
Evolution of Wash Day
Rebuilding French Industries
Reclamation and Water Projects of the United States
Films Available for Instruction
The following industries:
Airplanes (U. S. A.) Lace (Philippines, Belgium)
Automobiles (U. S. A.) Pottery (U. S. A.)
Bananas (Fiji Islands) Rice (Philippines, Siam,
Batik Cloth (Java) Formosa, Japan, Java)
Coconuts (Philippines) Rubber (South Seas)
Coal Mining (France) Salmon fishing (U. S. A.)
Coffee (Hawaii) Salt (Philippines, Formosa)
Copra (Samoa) Silk (Japan)
Dairying (U. S. A.) Sugar (Hawaii, Java, PhilipGold
Mining (Alaska) pines)
Hats (Philippines) Tires (U. S. A.)
Linen (Sweden) Tobacco (Philippines, Siam)
Lumbering (U. S. A.) Whaling (Atlantic Ocean)
Lumbering (Siam) Wheat (U. S. A.)
HEAI/TH, HYGIENE AND ATHLETICS
How Are Your Teeth? I reel
Walking to Health I
"
U. S. Naval Academy Series
Boxing Instructions 2
"
Swimming Instructions I
Wrestling Instructions I
"
Sport Reviews 26
"
Single reels on every branch of athletics
Home Nursing
The Eleventh Hour 2
"
Her Penalty 2
"
The Educational Department of Pathe has issued
a series of Screen Studies accompanied by Teachers'
Aid leaflets. The number of subjects especially edited
for school use is small. They are as follows:
Ants: Nature's Craftsmen. I reel (Nature Study).
Athletic Movements Analyzed. 2 reels (Slow Motion).
Felling Forest Giants, i reel (Lumbering).
Yosemite, Valley of Enchantment. 2 reels (Natural Color).
Brer Rabbit and His Pals. I reel (Rodents).
Animal Camouflage. I reel (Resemblance and Mimicry).
Birds of Prey. I reel.
Molluscs, i reel.
Crayfish and the Stickleback. I reel.
Our Four-Footed Helpers, i reel.
Mealtime in Birdland for Parents and Babies. I reel.
142 Motion Pictures in Education
Pathe is also producing a series of Historical Scenics.
The first three have been released. They are: Land
of our Forefathers (The Settlement of Jamestown, 1
reel), The Pilgrims of New England, and The Dutch
Settlement in New York.
The Pathe Review contains much educational material
which is being used in schools. It would prove
even more valuable in teaching if short lengths on a
single subject were obtainable, instead of full reels on
several different and often unrelated subjects.
The Fox Film Corporation has recently established
an Educational Department. The educational film
library includes, in addition to theatrical subjects like
Les Miserables and Tale of Two Cities, a dozen or
more reels of Fox News material re-edited for school
use. Among them is an excellent reel on Volcanoes,
and others on Fires and Fire Fighting, Old Spain,
Ancient Rome, Japan Today, and Bird Life.
The large library of Bray Productions, Inc., which
has been built up during more than ten years, contains
short lengths, ranging from less than one hundred feet
to a full reel of a thousand feet, on a great variety of
subjects grouped under the generic headings: Philosophy,
Sociology, Natural Science, Useful Arts, Fine
Arts, and History. The complete list is too long to
give here. A catalogue can be obtained on request.
The Community Motion Picture Service of New
York, the Ford Motion Picture Laboratories of Detroit,
the Carter Cinema Company of New York and
the Visual Textbook Publishers of Los Angeles are
among other firms distributing films for school use.
A complete list of such firms will be found in the
Appendix.
(.National Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures, Inc.)
BIBLE STORIES IN MOTION PICTURES
1. Solomon's Court. 2. The Deluge
Films Available for Instruction 143
Religious Subjects
Of great interest to denominational schools as well
as to Sunday schools and churches are the films of the
Bible. There are now being distributed two series of
very beautiful films on the Old Testament, several wellmade
picturizations of the birth, life and death of the
Saviour, such as The Eternal Light (CA) and Behold
the Man (P), and several series of films on the Holy
Land and on home and foreign missions. Some of the
Parables have been filmed and another series of these
is about to be made and there are many modern religious
photoplays to be had, such as The Stream of
Life (PI) and The Burning Question (CA).
One of the Old Testament series referred to above
(NN-T) is a series of fifty-two reels made on original
locations in Palestine and Egypt and covers most of the
great events recorded in the Old Testament and in a
stupendous fashion. The series includes such episodes
as Creation, Cain and Abel, The Deluge, The Stories of
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Esau, The Story of
Joseph, Moses, Ruth and Solomon. Some of these
films, which are entirely non-sectarian, are being used
in the public schools solely as literature, and the New
York Board of Lectures recently used the Joseph and
Solomon episodes as a feature of the Sunday afternoon
sacred concert and dramatic recital which marked
the opening of the observance of drama- week in the
city schools.
Mr. Roy L. Smith, pastor of Simpson Methodist
Church, Minneapolis, summarizes the case for the motion
picture in the church so well that we can do no
better than to quote him at length. He says:
The objection that pictures in the church is an endorsement
of pictures everywhere is easily answered. The chil-
144 Motion Pictures in Education
dren are going everywhere anyhow. They are seeing the good
and the bad. If the church does nothing to teach the child to
discriminate, then the church herself is at fault. But does
the church's use of selected pictures give sanction to all moving
pictures? No! The church organ does not sanction
"jazz." The Sunday School library is not an endorsement of
"yellow backs" and "dime novels." The church orchestra
does not lend approval to the lewd in music. Thus far the
church has either ignored the question, condemned pictures
wholesale, or begun in a modest way a campaign of education.
I believe the latter is the wiser course and have organized our
work accordingly.
Where Film May Be Used I. Instruction in doctrinal beliefs;
2. Implanting the moral virtues; 3. Biblical history,
customs, geography and stories; 4. Home and foreign missions;
5. Church history; 6. General educational purposes for
special organization meetings such as boys' or girls' clubs,
men's meetings, etc.
Pictures possess certain advantages and values that should
appeal particularly to the educator in the religious field.
Scientists and psychologists have long declared that eighty-five
per cent of our education comes through our eyes. Religious
education, until late years, however, has appealed almost exclusively
to the ear. Pictures that adequately present the
message will be found to have unusual advantages because of
their natural and scientific appeal.
The stories of Bible heroes and incidents are being produced
in larger quantity than in former years.
Much of the biblical material is only partially understood
because of the ignorance concerning the social conditions
under which it was written. Many films are now obtainable
which faithfully depict oriental life in such a way as to make
the Bible times re-live before our eyes. The habits and customs
of the Orient have changed so little during the last two
thousand years that modern pictures serve almost perfectly.
The use of film in connection with women's work presents
unusual opportunities. Practically all churches have women's
guilds, missionary societies, or other similar organizations. I
have found that a portable machine makes it possible to take
missionary films, educational reels, etc., right to the homes
where the meetings are held and the use of pictures has been
a considerable addition to their regular programs.
We are frequently questioned as to the results obtained
from our picture programs. Perhaps the best answer is the
action of our official board, which has constituted the com-
Films Available for Instruction 145
mittee of management a permanent organization of the church
and made it answerable to the governing body of the church
on the same basis as the Sunday School. This means that we
are definitely committed to the work. Our Sunday School
has increased one hundred per cent since the introduction of
pictures, both in attendance and enrollment.
The production of strictly pedagogical motion pictures
is increasing as the market for them expands and
the quality as well as the quantity grows. It is expected
that the next few years will witness a keen rivalry in
pedagogical film production.
Among the most promising of the productions under
way is a series being produced by "The Chronicles
of American History, Inc." in cooperation with Yale
University. A series of one hundred subjects in American
history is planned. The first subject, Columbus
and the Discovery of America, has been completed but
is not to be released until the first group of nine subjects
is completed. The films are being exceedingly
well made, with great attention given to accuracy of
detail and to teaching value.
The schedule of the pictures planned and actually in
the process of making has been announced as follows :
I. THE MORNING OF AMERICA
NINE PLAYS IN TWENTY-TWO
Reels
1. Columbus ..................................... 3
2. Pocahontas (Jamestown) ....................... 3
3. The Pilgrims .................................. 2
4. The Puritans .................................. 2
5. Peter Stuyvesant ............................... 2
6. William Penn ................................. 2
7. Maryland ..................................... 2
8. The Gateway to the West ....................... 3
9. Wolfe and Montcalm ........................... 3
146 Motion Pictures in Education
II. THE WINNING OF INDEPENDENCE
PLAYS IN SIXTEEN REELS
10. Lexington ( Paul Revere) ...................... 3
11. The Declaration of Independence (Bunker Hill)... 3
12. Saratoga ( Burgoyne) .......................... 2
13. Valley Forge (Lafayette) ...................... 2
14. Vincennes ..................................... 2
15. Benedict Arnold (Rochambeau) ................ 2
16. Yorktown (Greene and the Carolina Campaign).. 2
III. THE YOUNG REPUBLIC
Six PLAYS IN SIXTEEN REELS
17. Benjamin Franklin (The Treaty of Peace) ........ 3
1 8. The National Domain (John Sevier) .............. 2
19. The Constitution (Washington) ................. 3
20. Alexander Hamilton ........................... 3
21. Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates ................ 3
22. Marshall (The Steamboat Case) ................. 2
IV. THE VISION OF THE WEST
EIGHT PLAYS IN TWENTY-TWO REELS
23. Daniel Boone .................................. 2
24. Lewis and Clark (Louisiana) ................... 3
25. The Battle of Lake Erie (Perry) ............... 3
26. Monroe Doctrine .............................. 2
27. Old Hickory ................................... 3
28. Old Oregon (Astoria) ......................... 3
29. The Alamo ( Sam Houston) ..................... 3
30. The Gold Rush and the Vigilantes ............... 3
V. THE CIVIL WAR
Six PLAYS IN EIGHTEEN REELS
31. The Fight for Kansas .......................... 4
32. Abraham Lincoln .............................. 4
33. Grant and Farragut ........................... 3
34. Stonewall Jackson ............................. 3
35. Jefferson Davis (The Emancipation Proclamation) 2
36. Lee and Appomattox ........................... 3
Films Available for Instruction 147
VI. THE AGE OF POWER
FIVE PLAY'S IN TWENTY-FIVE REELS
The transformation caused by the inflow of immigrants
and the development and utilization of mechanical power on
a great scale; picturing invention and the mechanical revolution
and the America of today.
Another admirable film, on Christopher Columbus
and the Discovery of America, made partly in Spain
and partly in this country, a film which is detailed, accurate
and well done, is now in completed form and
will probably be released within the next few months.
To say that all so-called pedagogical films now on
the market are suited to school use would be as wrong
as to condemn all not made for education. Judicious
selection must in all cases be made, with the consideration
in mind that it is short-sighted and unreasonable
to expect perfection in teaching films at this stage of
their development. Do we refuse to use textbooks and
dismiss teachers because they have not yet attained perfection?
There are some exceptional films as well as
exceptional teachers; there are also some that are only
fair and others that are poor. Why demand "perfection
or nothing" in a product of such recent birth
as the cinema?
If the film you are considering using has much of
good and helpfulness in it and will make more effective
the teaching you are doing, meet the producer half
way and use the helpful films he has to offer, until a
more satisfactory production is made. The producer
is probably doing his best to meet your needs under
exceedingly discouraging conditions, and by your cooperation
and constructive criticism you will enable him
the better to meet your needs later.
148 Motion Pictures in Education
Some pedagogical films made by educators, who
have loudly condemned types of educational films
already produced, have proved to be equally unsuited
for school use "educational misfits," as one director
of visual education pronounced these teacher-produced
films brought to his attention. Their educator-producers
were obviously wholly ignorant of the essentials
of film production and the result was as unsatisfactory
as the films they themselves so roundly condemned.
Films Shown to the N. E. A.
The Visual Instruction Association of America, at
its first meeting held July, 1922, at Boston, in connection
with the National Education Association, exhibited
a series of carefully selected instructional films, all of
which had been used in the public schools of Greater
New York during the year 1921-22. The list appropriately
illustrates the types of films now being used
with success and is therefore given in its entirety.
GEOGRAPHY MANUAL TRAINING AND
/XTVT mx
Reel9 DOMESTIC SCIENCE
Hawaii (NN-T) 2 Reel$
Yellowstone (U) i Mitchell Car (M) i
Niagara (SVE) i
Daily Bread (SVE) I
Seasons (VT) ya
Pantry Cow (PSC) .... I
Yosemite (P) Soap Manufacturing (K) i
Volcanoes (NN-T) i Fire Prevention (F) .... 2
Bottom of the World
(NN-T) 3 PHYSICAL EDUCATION
The Kid Comes Through
BIOLOGY Athletic Movements' (P)
'
i
New York Aquarium (K) I
Ants (P) i ENGLISH LITERATURE
Wasps (SVE) '.'. i Washington Irving (U) . I
Baby Song Birds (P) . . . 2 Longfellow (U) I
Films Available for Instruction 149
Civics
News Reel No. 53 (P).. I
Immigration (W) I
Gethsemane (Ge) I
Knights of Cross Roads
(A) 2
Bell of Atri ( AHS) I
JUVENILE
Hey Diddle Diddle
Cinderella (I) 3
Our Mouth (Gr) I
How We See (B) i
Physical Fitness (W) ... I
The Board of Education of the City of New York
issued the following list of films used in its schools,
paralleling the regular curricula, during 1921:
FILMS IN BIOLOGY
SUBJECT
1. Structure and Life Activities
of One-Celled
Animals
2. Adaptation to Environ-
ment
3. Moths and Butterflies
4. Study of Bees
5. Insects Harmful to Man
6. Aquatic Life
7. Birds and Their Young
8. How Life Begins (Ca)
9. How Life Begins
10. The Eye
11. Ear and Speech Organs
12. Care of the Feet
13. Oral Hygiene
14. Circulation and Breath-
ing
TITLE OF FILM
Life History of the Amoeba
(U)
Behind the Microscope
(NN-T)
Adaptation (A)
Beaver (E)
Cabbage Butterfly (NN-T)
Cecropia Moth (C)
Honey Bee (Ca)
Bees (NN-T)
House Fly (Ca)
Mosquito (C)
Chaffinch and Young (C)
Sea Swallows Birds at
Home (A)
Through Life's Windows
(WF)
How We See (B)
Living Voice (B)
How We Hear (B)
Foot Follies (E)
Mouthful of Wisdom
Oral Hygiene (B)
Circulation (NN-T)
Work of the Lungs (B)
150 Motion Pictures in Education
FILMS IN BIOLOGY (Continued)
SUBJECT TITLE OF FILM
15. Conservation Forests of the Future (CC)
16. Civic Biology I. Keeping a Big City Clean
(A)
Scientific Milk Production
(Sh)
Health Department (A)
17. Museums and Aquarium Bits presented by various
producers to the American
Museum of Natural History
(AM)
Aquarium (K)
FILMS IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE AND HOME
ECONOMICS
SUBJECT TITLE OF FILM
1. Milk From Cow to Consumer (Sh)
Milk, Nature's Perfect Food
(W)
The Pantry Cow (DM)
2. Cheese Dairying Industry (U)
Why Eat Cottage Cheese
(USDA)
Cheese (Ar)
3. Oleomargarine Oleomargarine (Ar)
4. Orange Story of the Orange (Su)
5. Sugar The Sugar Trail (GE)
6. Flour and Bread American Ace Flour (GF)
Hecker's Flour (4 reels)
(HM)
Our Daily Bread (GE)
7. Marketing Cheating the Garbage Can
(ANM)
Mrs. Brown vs. H. C. of
Living
8. Home Nursing Every Woman's Problem
o. Laundry Soap Making (K)
Blue Monday (NN-T)
10. Home Efficiency Square Deal for His Wife
(WE)
Making Mother's Work
Easier (I)
Films Available far Instruction 151
FILMS IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE AND HOME
ECONOMICS (Continued)
SUBJECT
11. Child Welfare
12. Fruit
13. Meat
14. Marketing
OF
Our Children (E)
An Equal Chance (WF)
Strawberry Raising
(USDA)
Sheep Raising (Cut Part I)
(USDA)
Honor of the Little Purple
Stamp (USDA)
Behind the Breakfast Table
(NY)
FILMS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
SUBJECT
I. Evolution of a Solar
System
2. The Heavens, the Planets
and Their Satellites
3. The Earth and Moon,
Moon Phases and
Eclipses
4. Time and the Seasons
5. Storms and Trade Winds
6. Ocean Currents
7. Polar Regions
8. Glaciers and Icebergs
9. Rivers and Waterfalls
10. Erosion
TITLE OF FILM
The Eternal Question
(NN-T)
God Divided the Night from
the Day (NN-T)
The Mystery of Space
(NN-T)
Parts I and II (NN-T)
Time (NN-T)
Story of the Seasons
(NN-T)
Kingdom of the Storm Parts
I and II (NN-T)
Ocean Currents (NN-T)
The Gulf Stream (NN-T)
Bottom of the World Reels
I and II (NN-T)
Bottom of the World Reel 3
(NN-T)
Great Rivers (C)
Great Falls (C)
Ausable Chasm and Dells of
the Wisconsin (C)
Rivers and Tides (SVE)
152 Motion Pictures in Education
FILMS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY (Continued)
SUBJECT
ii. Volcanoes
12. Geysers
TITLE OF FILM
The Why of Volcano (E)
The Valley of 10,000 Smokes
(E)
Volcanoes and Geysers
(SVE)
Yellowstone (NN-T)
FILMS IN UNITED STATES GEOGRAPHY
SUBJECT
I. New York City
2. Niagara
3. Making of Books and
Shoes
4. Lumber Industry
5. Transportation
6. Milk and Sugar Indus-
tries
7. Southern States
8. Cotton Industry
9. Mining
10. National Parks I
11. National Parks II
12. Colorado
13. Mining Industries of
U. S.
14. Indian Life
TITLE OF FILM
New York, the Magnificent
(A)
America's Gateway (U)
Niagara Falls (SVE)
Making of Books
Making of Shoes (KS)
Winter Logging in Maine
(C)
Spring Logging in Maine
(C)
Conquest of the Forest (GE)
Water Transportation (C)
Land Transportation (C)
Dairying (U)
The Sugar Trail (GE)
Southern States (SVE)
Land of Cotton (GE)
Mining Iron and Steel (C)
Mt. Rainier Park (C)
Glacier National Park (Pr)
Yellowstone Park Old
Faithful (Ca)
Yosemite Valley (Ca)
Colorado's Wealth (A)
Colorada's Wonders (A)
Terra Cotta (TC)
Oil (So)
Quarrying (Ed)
Pottery The Potter's Wheel
(GE)
Aboriginal Inhabitants
(NN-T)
Films Available for Instruction 153
FILMS IN UNITED STATES GEOGRAPHY
(Continued)
SUBJECT TITLE OF FILM
15. Irrigation Elephant Butte Dam
(NN-T)
Making the Desert Blossom
16. California California (U)
17. Orange Industry Story of the Orange (Su)
1 8. Panama and Hawaii Panama Canal (U)
Hawaii (2 reels) (NN-T)
19. Alaska Alaska (2 reels) (NN-T)
20. Philippines Round About Manila (NN-T)
Philippine Industries (NN-T)
In addition the following have also been used during
the year by the New York Board of Education. These
are copies of the film lists sent to schools at the beginning
of the spring term 1922:
COURSES IN NEW YORK SCHOOLS
For Which Films are Available
DOMESTIC SCIENCE
( Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Years)
SUBJECT
Milk as a Diet
Dry Milk
Manufacture of Headcheese
Cottage Cheese Nutrition Value
Orange Growing (3 or I reel)
Beet Sugar
Bread Making
Thrashing Wheat, Making Flour, Bread
Child Welfare (P.M.) (2 reels)
Child Welfare (P.M.)
Soap Manufacture (2 reels)
(Chemical combination shown in small quantities, wholesale
production, distribution)
Laundry (From primitive through modern methods)
154 Motion Pictures in Education
Western Potato Farm
Tuberculosis Prevention (P.M.)
N. Y. State Dept. of Foods & Markets (P.M.)
Economy in Buying (P.M.)
Economy in Cooking (P.M.)
Labor Saving Devices (P.M.)
Home Efficiency (P.M.)
Home Nursing (P.M.)
Western Strawberry Industry
Port of New York
(Need for better port facilities and port transportation)
Spaghetti
(Process of making spaghetti industrially)
NOTE: (P.M.) means suitable also for Parents' meetings,
i reel takes about twenty minutes to show. 2 reels
can be comfortably run in a forty-minute period.
CIVICS
(Ninth School Year)
NOTE: Where two reels are indicated it means a full
class period of forty minutes; by having class assembled
and ready very promptly, 3 reels may be shown.
1. The City's Water Supply (2 reels)
a. Planning and bettering a city's water supply
b. How New York City gets its water from the Catskill
Aqueduct
2. Protecting the Food of the City
Department of Markets Film Behind the Breakfast
Table
3. Disposal of City Wastes (2 reels)
Street Cleaning Department
a. Snow Removal
b. Waste Disposal
4. Guarding the Health of the People (2 reels)
Health Department
a. Better Babies
b. Milk Inspection
5. Public Provision for Recreation (2 reels)
State Conservation Commission
Animal and Forest Conservation
Training a Forester
Reforestation
Forester in Action
Fish Preserve
Films Available for Instruction 155
6. Protection of Life and Property (3 reels)
Fire Department
Training a Fireman
Answering a Fire Alarm
Fire Prevention
Police Department (2 reels)
Attempted Burglary
Apprehension of Criminal
Trial in Police Court
Police Record
Finger Prints
7. Public Education
a. Typical Grammar School classes actually conducted
shop work, domestic science, assembly, etc.
b. High School of Commerce
c. Work with Crippled Children
d. Open Air Classes for Cardiacs
8. Practical Citizenship Knights of the Crossroads (2 reels)
Produced under the direction of A. J. Balcom, Asst.
Sup't. Schools, Newark, N. J. Shows how school
boys cooperate with traffic squad in preventing accidents.
Real scenes, not faked splendid film.
9. Communication and Transportation ( 2 reels)
The Port of New York
(Port Authority Film)
10. City Planning
Washington, D. C., including aeroplane view showing
the city plan.
11. Making Citizens
"The Making of America." Film showing immigration
from foreign countries, where the immigrants settle,
what they contribute to our national life, etc.
From the foregoing syllabi it may be seen that
courses in home economics, physical and United States
geography, biology and civics are being plentifully supplemented
with film. In fact, the only reason why more
films on these subjects and films on other subjects
were not included in the syllabi is that the appropriation
was too small for the purpose. Other suitable and
usable films were to be had.
This does not by any means imply that these films
156 Motion Pictures in Education
were ideally suited to the courses in which they were
used or were pedagogically perfect or could not be
improved upon. It does mean that the New York
Board of Education has had the practical wisdom of
making the best use possible of the best films obtainable
and that it has not set its motion picture standards at
an impracticable height. Since it could not, at this
time, find in all cases the exact character of film needed,
it was willing to take the best to be had and willing to
meet the producers half way and cooperate with them
to improve their product.
The films selected were gathered from the libraries
of a number of producers, whose cooperation has made
possible the helpful and practical film courses now being
used in the New York schools. These films were selected
for their teaching value from hundreds viewed
by members of the Curriculum Committee. Reports
of this Curriculum Committee are most encouraging.
One report refers to the "increasing interest in the production
and use of motion pictures for instruction" and
"a favorable change in attitude of some producers
toward the use of pictures in the non-theatrical field."
The films selected for use in the New York schools
ably represent the three general classes of films suitable
for school use, theatrical, industrial and pedagogical.
For example, Sir Ernest Shackleton's Bottom of
the World (NN-T) was made for theatres and used in
the schools in its original form. Some were re-edited
from original theatrical material, such as the Burton
Holmes text-film on Alaska ; some are distinctively advertising
industrial films, such as those on the manufacture
of soap and shoes; others, like How Life Begins,
Wythe's Civic pictures, Park's Popular Science
Series and the agriculture films produced by the De-
Films Available for Instruction 157
partment of Agriculture were made in accordance with
pedagogical principles, strictly for educational use.
About forty cities in the United States are using
films today as a part of the classroom work, but New
York City has been taken as an example because,
though working under a smaller appropriation for
visual instruction than many other cities, more systematic
work seems to have been done there in the use of
films directly correlated with courses of study than in
any other place. The account of what any of the other
thirty-nine cities has done is equally full of interest.
By the time this reaches the teacher the number will
perhaps be much greater. Visual education is here.
Not only are hundreds of useful and helpful films available
for instruction but out of the mass of good, bad
and indifferent material the better films have been culled
and put to work. What New York has done is an
encouraging example.
No attempt has been made in this chapter to exhaust
the list of films which might be used in schools. The
few examples given represent only a small fraction of
the total number available. The teacher desiring to
obtain lists of all available material is advised to apply
to the following sources:
(a) The various educational film distributors listed in the
appendix.
(b) The Departments of Agriculture, Labor and Commerce,
Washington, D. C.
(c) State Universities having visual instruction departments.
(d) The weekly bulletins of the National Motion Picture
League, 1819 Broadway, New York City.
This league is an impartial voluntary and capable body
which reviews all films before release and issues classified
weekly lists of those reaching a high moral standard.
1[e) The Visual Instruction Association of America, 157 East
67th Street, New York City.
158 Motion Pictures in Education
( f ) The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, 70
Fifth Avenue, New York City.
This Board supplies lists of educational films of the
companies whose films they review.
(g) The Educational Screen, 5 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago,
Illinois.
(h) The list of "1001 Films Plus" distributed by Educational
Screen and containing nearly 5,000 films, together with
lists of distributors and addresses of exchanges. This
will be exceedingly helpful to the teacher.
With these lists at hand the teacher, the principal or
supervisor can readily see what films are available, but
since new films are constantly being issued he should
keep informed of the new productions through the
pages of the educational film journals and the catalogues
of the distributors.
IX
HOW TO USE FILMS IN TEACHING
Methods Recommended
WE have discussed the limitations and advantages of
motion pictures in education, what subjects can be
taught by motion pictures, where films can be used
to best advantage in the school curriculum and the
types of films available. Now we come to the most
important problem confronting those interested in the
use of films in the educational system HOW should
films be used in teaching? What are the best methods?
There are two distinct ways of arriving at a sound
teaching method: (1) by experiment, and (2) by the
application of well-established pedagogical principles
to the problem. A careful combination of the two
ways is to be the basis for the recommendations to be
made in this volume. Either way unsupported by the
other is apt to lead to error. In the first method the
conditions of the experiment are apt to be unfair, inaccurate
and not representative of situations usually
present. Further, by this method, an average result
from the average of pupils of the number concerned in
the experiment is arrived at, a result in itself unscientific
and open to inaccuracy. There is no average pupil
and conditions are nowhere exactly the same. The
human element is an essential element too often overlooked.
The child is not a standardized machine responding
to fixed rules of practice, or a chemical agent
159
160 Motion Pictures in Education
reacting definitely; and experiments conducted by one
teacher or a group of teachers on one or several groups
of children, especially under experimental conditions,
can not establish a rule having definite or assured application
to other groups. Moreover, experiments can
be so conducted that either side of a proposition can
be proved equally convincingly. Experiment alone,
while it may point the way, is not conclusive. Advocates
of the experimental method claim that conditions
can be controlled and that the resulting curves of averages
are reliable. While the writers are not convinced
of either premise, the results of experiments will be
presented for consideration.
Under the general term "experiment" may also be
grouped the results obtained by teachers in the use
of motion pictures in actual, every-day school work.
These results we believe more valuable than tests
which, no matter how conscientiously performed, are
conducted under experimental conditions. These conditions
may approximate, but it is not reasonable to
assume that they can duplicate, ordinary school conditions.
When results of experience are checked up by
tests conducted by the same teachers in the same school
and in the same subject matter and with the same
bodies of pupils as are the factors of "the results of
experience," the evidence is many times more valuable.
The second method, that of applying established
principles, also has its limitations. The dangers latent
in this method are faulty judgment in the selection of
the principles, improper application of the principles to
the use of the new materials, wrong premises, and
faulty logic in the drawing of conclusions.
A combination of the two methods, logic borne
out by experiment, while still subject to human error,
How to Use Films in Teaching 161
nevertheless affords opportunity of verifying the one
fry the other. This is the plan to be employed in this
chapter. We shall apply such accepted principles to the
instructional use of motion pictures as are applicable
and then check up the result by the more impressive
experiments which have been made and by the experiences
of established schools. This, we feel, is the most
efficient way to reach definite and sound conclusions on
the basis of which practicable and substantial recommendations
can be made.
Pedagogical Principles
Following are some of the well-established principles
of teaching accepted by educators which have a definite
application to the use of motion pictures in education:
1. Since education is the harmonious unfolding of
all the faculties and since knowledge is received
through sense impressions, the more senses utilized in
conveying knowledge the better the result.
2. The pupil must be prepared in advance for the
use of materials. The pupil should become familiar
with his tools and know what he is going to handle
before he handles it.
3. The teacher also should be fully prepared, "three
times as well prepared" as the pupil.
4. Present the lesson so as to arouse interest and to
stimulate to greater endeavor.
5. More material than can be well assimilated should
not be given at one time. (Mtdtum, non multa.)
6. Utilize materials of instruction so as to develop
all the faculties of the mind.
7. Present lessons in an orderly and systematic way,
so as not to cause confusion or a complex of impres-
sions.
162 Motion Pictures in Education
8. Vary the methods of teaching and the teaching
materials used, in order to utilize such methods and
materials as are best suited in each instance to accomplish
the purpose of efficient instruction.
9. Dramatize the lesson, visualize it.
10. Repetition is an important practice in memory
training. Vary the method of repetition.
11. Discussion drives home the lesson. By oral review
the teacher can discover which pupils are deficient
in the powers of observation.
12. Written review fixes facts in the pupils' minds.
The essential principles here set forth can be summarized
in four words which every teacher, who has
studied methods, knows: Preparation, Presentation,
Discussion, Application, or Hear, See, Say and Do.
The child should be prepared for, or hear about, what
he is to see; after seeing it he should then discuss it
and then apply it.
Every user of visual aids should
keep these principles constantly in mind, for they have
a very practical application to the use of motion pictures
in education. The teacher should prepare the film lesson
adequately, present it ably, discuss it intelligently,
draw the children into the discussion and have them
apply the lesson to every-day life.
Any teacher should be able to apply these simple
rules intelligently, but additional suggestions and concrete
applications and specific recommendations may
prove helpful at this point.
The paragraphs below point out the application to
motion pictures of the general pedagogical principles
on the preceding page in paragraphs bearing the same
numbers.
(1) The first principle, that the more senses which
are employed the better the result, does not mean neces-
How to Use Films in Teaching 163
sarily that the several senses should be employed simultaneously.
While some might imagine nothing more
delectable than having all five senses administered to at
once in a luxurious movie palace where entrancing
music delights the hearing, soft comfortable upholstery
administers to the sense of feeling, delicate perfume
pleases the smell, the munching of chocolates tickles
the palate, and a beautiful picture completes this joy
ride of the senses, such a combination attempted in the
classroom might result in distraction and confusion.
In the one case there is a blending of sense impressions
which forms a harmonious unit ; in the other a discord
is sounded. But if, in the school, a lesson, say on
oranges or the orange industry, is first heard about,
then seen in a film or other form of picture, then the
subject matter is felt, then tasted and smelled, the facts
of the lesson are apt to be driven home clearly and the
memory of it made strong and persistent.
(2) After viewing the film or studying the film outline,
the teacher should adapt it to the peculiar needs
of his class and make a set of questions to be asked
the pupils during the discussion. The questions should
be specific and should stimulate thought on the part
of the pupils.
The class should be prepared in advance for the film
and told what phase of the lesson the film will illustrate,
so that he may know what to look for. The value
of the best of pedagogical films will be enhanced by
proper preparation, and the very faults of a film can
be turned to good account if the pupil is told in advance
that the film is imperfect or inaccurate and if he is
thereby taught to exercise his critical faculties in a
constructive way.
Although Mr. J. J. Weber deduced from his experi-
164 Motion Pictures in Education
ments already referred to that the use of the film first
followed by the lesson is two per cent more efficient than
the lesson followed by the film, the weight of authority
and experience seems to point the other way. As far as
we have been able to ascertain, the majority of users of
visual aids have found that the lesson first followed by
film is the common practice and certainly it is upheld
by sounder pedagogical principles.
While in no way conclusive, it is significant that in
the face of the findings, the 476 Seventh A grade pupils
participating in the test, when asked which method
they preferred, voted 259 for the lesson first and film
afterwards to 217 for the film first. This is particularly
interesting to the authors, who are convinced
that according to all laws of approved pedagogy there
should be proper preparation before the film showing
and that the showing should be followed by discussion.
Even when the film is used to give a background or
furnish "atmosphere,
"
or to put pupils in a receptive
frame of mind for the lesson to follow, there should
be preparation for the film on the part of both pupil
and teacher. We can not emphasize this too strongly
or too frequently.
(3) The teacher should, if possible, see the film in
advance, in order to determine how it can best be correlated
with the lesson he is teaching. If this is not
possible he should study the outline, title-sheet, or,
better still, the continuity-sheet, which gives both titles
and brief descriptions of scenes following the titles.
An increasing number of non-theatrical film producers
and distributors are supplying outlines with their educational
films.
(4) The principle is enunciated by no less an authority
than Ernest L. Crandall that the film in school work
How to Use Films in Teaching 165
should never be shown as entertainment but as part
of the regular work of the class. We^do not construe
this to mean that the film should not be given as a
pleasant way of learning. We think that one of the
great benefits of the films in school work is that they
do make learning less of a drudgery and more pleasant
and entertaining. If presented in this way more interest
and enthusiasm are aroused in the work and
consequently more active participation and earnest endeavor
engendered in the pupil. The film lesson should
be looked forward to as one of the joys of the day
and a recompense for less pleasant and more irksome
and burdensome parts of the school routine.
(5) During a given class period, show only films
on a single theme or on related themes. Too many
will confuse. Short lengths are preferable, especially
for younger pupils. Impressions come so quickly in
motion pictures, sixteen images a second, that the eye
and the mind can, with profit, take in only a limited
number of impressions in a given time. A younger
child can not concentrate for long at a time and should
be served his film lesson in small portions. Five hundred
feet or even less, taking from five to ten minutes
to show, is a good length for younger pupils and from
500 to 2,000 feet for older pupils, except in story films,
which may, and usually do, run longer five or six or
eight reels.
(6) Most uses of the cinema in school work are
predicated on the development of the understanding.
The use of films can also serve as a valuable factor in
memory training. To accomplish this the taking of
notes during the showing of the film should be dis-
couraged.
Not only will the effort used in remembering what is
166 Motion Pictures in Education
seen in the film be valuable memory training, but on the
other hand taking of notes defeats their purpose because
the pupil will lose many things while recording
one, so rapid do impressions succeed one another and
because notes taken in the dark while looking at the
film often cannot be read.
(7) The presentation of the film should be clear,
with the best projection obtainable, and should be introduced
smoothly with the least possible confusion
or delay during the course of the lesson. The teacher
conducting the film lesson should not attempt to run the
projection machine, since this will tend to distract the
attention of the class and also of the teacher. One of
the pupils, trained for the work, should take entire
charge of projection, if held in the classroom. All
preparations should be made ahead of time, before the
class convenes, so that at a given signal, the shades will
be drawn down, if that be the method employed in
darkening the room, and the projection of the picture
started immediately without adjustment of the machine,
focusing, threading of film, or other performance
causing delay or distraction. All the preliminaries
should have been seen to in advance, the film threaded
and actually tried out on the screen to make sure it
is right side up and right side towards the lens and
properly focused and framed on the screen. Delays,
adjustments and other causes of distraction seriously
interfere with the efficacy of the film presentation.
If the picture is shown in the auditorium either one
of the especially trained pupils, or another teacher or
the engineer or janitor should operate, unless, of course,
a man is employed specifically for the purpose.
Too much stress can not be placed upon the importance
of good, clear, bright projection in a properly
How to Use Films in Teaching 167
darkened room, and a smooth, quick transition from
the lesson to the picture.
The film should be shown without lecturing or with
only an occasional remark by the teacher to emphasize
a point or to keep attention active and directed. It has
been a mooted point among educators as to whether
or not it is better to talk while the film is being shown.
To show it practically in silence is considered better
pedagogy. Not only are the images coming so rapidly
that it requires all of the pupils' powers of concentration
to see what is passing before their eyes, but the necessity
of listening to the teacher may prove an unnecessary
distraction that is confusing, the result being that
the pupil has a less clear idea of what the film showed
or what the teacher said than if he heard and saw
separately.
Mr. Rabenort is one eminent authority who differs
with us in this connection. He maintains, and he has
the results of experience in his school behind him, that
well-directed questions asked during the film showing
will direct the pupiľs attention to points which he might
otherwise miss and further that if the pupil expects
questions he is more alert. We agree that the pupiľs
attention is kept alert, but rather in listening for and
expecting the questions than in viewing the film. A
passive attitude, we believe, is better for acquiring the
greatest number of mental impressions.
In the same connection, Mr. Rabenort brings up another
interesting point. Though devoting to motion
pictures about one-fifth of the time spent on courses
in which films are available, he desires to use still more
films which are accessible to him. He is unable to
devote more time to them in these courses and suggests
the substitution of oral descriptions by the teacher to
168 Motion Pictures in Education
replace the titles in the film, thus affording time to
run more film. It is a suggestion worth weighing,
particularly when it comes from an experienced and
practical teacher.
(8) Stereopticon slides will serve as valuable complements
to motion pictures and will introduce a pleasant
variation, particularly if the slides are colored.
But more important, the slide affords the better opportunity
of studying the details of an object in repose.
Well-colored slides of a country introduced at the end
of a series of cinema landscape views are especially
pleasing and impressive. If a film on Paris is shown,
and the teacher desires the class to give more attention
to the carvings on the doors of Notre Dame Cathedral
than could be shown in the film, or to paintings in the
Louvre, then slides of these subjects will give what the
film can not. Slides also afford the opportunity of
studying an object in color not possible with the film.
On the other hand, it is to the film and not to the
slide that the teacher must look for detail in action or
operation. Fifty slides, say on the harvesting of wheat,
can not be shown in less than twenty minutes. In less
time than that one reel of film can be shown containing,
in addition to four or five minutes of explanatory titles,
ten thousand or more separate views of the methods
used in wheat harvesting and these in motion.
(9) Many efficient teachers carry the practice of
dramatizing and visualizing lessons to a high degree of
effectiveness and are able through these means to make
what would otherwise be dull and prosaic intensely
interesting and compelling. The film affords the means
of doing this as few other devices can and fits in well
with displays of actual materials, photographs, stereographs,
slides, graphs, charts, visits to factories, field
How to Use Films in Teaching 169
trips and other means that may be employed to make
a dull subject live.
If, for example, a class in civics is studying the work
of the government in game conservation, a film showing
birds, deer and other wild game on game preserves in
the Coconino or Pisgah National Forests would be the
next best thing in teaching value to going there, and in
some respects even better, for it is often quite difficult
to find the game when it is wanted, and camera men
in order to obtain such a picture have frequently spent
weeks or even months in the endeavor.
(10) Show the film twice when possible and quiz
between showings. A second showing will clear up
incomplete impressions and permit pupils to observe
details overlooked during the first showing. It is often
advisable to stop one or more times during the course
of a single reel to ask questions.
Many films are available as summarizers and can be
used profitably in reviews. Of their very nature they
cover a broad area in a short space of time and vividly
recall, through direct presentation and the association
of ideas, a multitude of facts regarding their subject.
The film may be shown both in the original course and
again in the review, or, in the case of certain films,
may be used as summarizers only. Good examples of
films well suited for review are the Peters' text-films
on China and India (NN-T), two reels each, which
summarize the outstanding points of entire countries
in twenty-five minutes. Regarding this text-film on
China, Prof. Balcom, Assistant School Superintendent
of Newark, said that it was the best example he knew
of instructional film, since it gave in two reels, simply
and logically arranged, all that a general student needed
to know about the country.
170 Motion Pictures in Education
(11) The film showing should be followed by class
instruction. This organizes and fixes the information
given in the film and offers opportunities for the socialized
lesson when desired. If the film is shown in the
auditorium it is best to hold the discussion also in the
auditorium while the impressions are fresh.
(12)
A written review the following day or later is
excellent for driving home the lesson and for fixing
visual images. It has been found that a second showing
several weeks or a month later, followed by a written
review, is an excellent practice. At the present stage
of visual education this is rarely practicable. If the
pupil knows he may be called upon for a written review,
it has been found that his powers of observation
in a single showing are strengthened and stimulated
and that he is more attentive.
The methods we have set forth are necessarily of a
general nature. The users of visual aids anywhere can
apply these general principles to his own peculiar situations
and needs. Each teacher must, with these broad
principles as a guide, feel his own way and establish
the finer details of his own procedure.
But let us pause here and show how a series of film
lessons on different subjects and in different grades can
be conducted and how individual teachers have worked
out some of the problems that arise in the use of
motion pictures to meet the exigencies of their own
glasses.
A Lesson with Films in Kindergarten
(As conducted by the writer before a class of primary
teachers studying methods)
The subject of the film was Hey, Diddle, Diddle,
one of the Magic Pen of Mother Goose series, an ani-
How to Use Films in Teaching 171
mated drawing, in which a magic pen appears on the
screen and draws the familiar figures in the old nursery
rhyme, which appear to come to life and perform the
wonders related in this child classic. The film was
run off for the teachers the day before it was to be
shown to the children. The teachers observed it carefully
with a view to giving a brief summary to the
children before the picture is shown to them, and prepared
the following list of questions to ask after the
film showing:
(1) Did you ever see a cow? Describe it.
(2) What does the cow do for you?
(3) Why ought children to drink milk?
(4) Do you like dogs? Why?
(5) Are cats as useful as dogs? Why?
(6) Is the moon always round? Why?
Another group of kindergarten teachers might make
out an entirely different set of questions, but this list
is given because it was actually used in a special film
demonstration lesson and shows how application can be
made to the every-day life of the child and how even
kindergarten children can by means of the film be
stimulated to think.
The following day the film was shown in the classroom
to about forty kindergarten and first-grade children.
It was the first film showing for this class, and
the children were as interested in the portable projector
as in the picture itself. The teacher therefore arranged
to show the film twice. She explained the picture in
advance, telling the pupils to notice carefully what the
magic pen drew, as later she would ask them to draw
what they had seen. While the film was being rewound
for the second showing the children were sent to their
seats and allowed to draw for five minutes. After the
172 Motion Pictures in Education
second showing of the film the questions listed above
were asked. The answers elicited showed a surprising
amount of thought on the part of the pupils. Not only
did the little ones prove most responsive to questions
asked, but observed and remarked upon many features
not covered by the queries. They recognized the characters
when only partly drawn, they were surprised at
the dog, the cow, the cat, the dish and the spoon coming
to life and were most impressed by the action suiting
itself to the words of the rhyme, the climax coming
when they saw the cow jump over the moon. The
picture undoubtedly left a new impression a visualization
of the words, which, before viewing the film, were
little more than words.
This lesson given for a kindergarten class, with a
large observation class of primary teachers, was voted
a decided success both by the class of teachers studying
methods and by the children.
A first-grade teacher who has used films in the lower
grades, said:
I've been amazed at the direct help movies have given us.
Nature and fairy story films helped most. They have brought
us the illustrative material we need and are a wonderful help
in observation.
Teaching Biology with Films
Now let us take a biology film suitable for the seventh
or eighth grade. The subject of the film is, we'll say,
The Life History of the Monarch Butterfly (SVE).
The class has been studying the subject. They know
what the larva is, the pupa stage, the chrysalis. The
film, in this instance, is to be used as a review. The
teacher announces that a written review is to be given
on the subject and that a motion picture which will
show them phases of development they have been un-
How to Use Films in Teaching 173
able to see for themselves will be filmed in the auditorium.
The day before the written review, all of the
seventh-grade biology pupils are taken to the auditorium
to view the film.
The teacher who is conducting the film lesson gives
a brief history of the work in biology studied by the
class up to that point and tells what points the film
will touch upon. The teacher has been unable to view
the film in advance in this instance but has studied the
outline and list of titles. She views the film, which
is shown in silence, as intently as the pupils because
she will make out the questions that evening for the
written review on the morrow, and the questions are to
be based on both the film and the textbook.
The teacher makes mental note of the points she
hopes the film will emphasize and watches carefully
to see if it fulfills her expectations. She wishes to
learn if the pupils saw in the film what she saw and so
makes this a socialized lesson. The discussion is led
by the pupils instead of the teacher. They bring out
points she did not see. There is a question in dispute
and in order to settle it the teacher arranges to have
the film run again up through the disputed scene. The
time being" up, the teacher announces a written review
for the following day. She carefully makes out the
quiz questions before leaving school. The next day
a brief ten-minute discussion of the film lesson is conducted
prior to the written review, which consumes the
remainder of the study period.
Teaching Nature Study with Films
At the present stage of film production it is often
necessary to adapt available films to the classroom
work. Here is an example in point:
174 Motion Pictures in Education
A grammar school has arranged, through the Extension
Department of the State University, to secure a
series of Department of Agriculture films. The first
film on the list is The Wichita National Forest and
Game Preserve in two reels, described in Department
of Agriculture Circular 233, as follows:
Witchery of the Wichita; weird rock formations and
scenic wonders of this little-known Forest; birds, bison and
an Indian buffalo hunt; wild turkey and deer.
This description is sent by the principal to all grammar-grade
teachers, who are invited to remain after
school for a half hour to witness the showing with a
view to using the film in their classes. The majority
of the teachers remain. The film sounds as if it had
educational possibilities and would be entertaining. It
proves to be both.
One of the grade teachers decides that she can use it
to advantage as a Nature Study subject and makes out
the following questions to ask her class:
1. There were six birds shown in the film. How many can
you name?
2. How many have you seen in this section?
3. What do birds do for man?
4. How can you attract them to your home? What means
did the Forest Ranger's wife use to attract them?
5. How many animals did you see in the Wichita National
Forest? Name them.
6. Why does the U. S. Government protect wild game and
birds?
7. What is a bison? Describe it.
8. What is the difference between deer and elk?
9. In what parts of the United States are deer still to be
found ?
10. Have you ever visited a government preserve?
Another teacher decides to use the same film as the
basis for a geography lesson on Oklahoma and the
How to Use FilTYis in Teaching 175
Southwest, another uses it for a civic lesson, each
making out his own list of questions to be used in the
discussion and application of the film to the lesson and
to every-day life.
Since the film is to be shown to the pupils of several
grades it is decided to project it in the auditorium
during the study period.
Each teacher prepares his class for the film in his
own classroom on the day before the showing. In one
room a talk on National Forests, with maps of the
181 National Forests in the United States, is made.
In another, a lecture on forestry and forest preservation
is given. A lesson on birds and bird protection
is held in another grade. Elementary geology and
different rock formations form the preliminary preparation
for the film showing in still another classroom.
In order adequately to prepare the pupils for such a
film the teachers find that preparation on their own
part is necessary. Film lessons usually mean more
rather than less work for the teacher, but the film
usually arouses the interest of teacher as well as pupil
and their desire to learn more about the subject of the
film. The teachers, at an after-school film-showing,
discuss their plans and decide on a fifteen minutes' general
discussion in the auditorium following the showing.
A general discussion on civics, nature study,
forestry and geography, "with a written review on the
specialized subject, is held in their respective classrooms
the following day.
The film is shown, as planned, to a large group of
students previously prepared. One teacher keeps order
while another conducts the general discussion. The
one film has been made to serve a variety of purposes.
Though not made primarily for classroom work and
176 Motion Pictures in Education
not correlated with any textbook, the Wichita film was
made by the United States government to teach a
lesson, and was applied by skillful teachers to teach
lessons on civics, geography, conservation and nature
study, with excellent results.
A Civics Lesson
Films prepared especially for the purpose of teaching
civics have been used successfully in various schools
of the country. The Wythe Civics series (Wy) in
thirty lessons is an excellent example of the pedagogical
film prepared for specific classes and grades. Accompanying
the films is a teacher's manual giving the lesson
story, lesson plan, problem questions, project work
and book reference for teacher and pupils. These outlines
have contributed largely to the success of the
lesson. They are so thorough and complete and have
proved so helpful to teachers that a specimen copy is
given here in its entirety, to show teachers who are
planning to use these or similar films what can be done
with a film lesson.
CITIZENSHIP AT SCHOOL
LESSON 9 SCHOOL INDUSTRIES
Two boys, John and Frank, aged six years, lived in the
same city. Physically and mentally they were very much
alike. John was led to understand that he was a part of the
home circle and must enter into its responsibilities as well as
enjoy its privileges. In diverse ways, he did his share,
small as it was, to help in meeting the duties of home-making.
With Frank it was different. Participating in the privileges
of the home and not assuming any of the responsibilities, he
came to take it for granted that father would produce the next
meal, the next movie ticket, the next ice cream cone. If these
were not forthcoming, Frank was out of patience. A request
to build the fire or to work in the garden offended him.
On entering the kindergarten both boys were shunted out of
How to Use Films in Teaching 177
the field of production. In preparation for world activities
they hurried along from kindergarten to elementary school, to
high school, and through the university.
Unfortunately, there was no place in the educational program
for productive education. The state seemed but little
concerned to create a respect in the minds of the children for,
or to establish the habit of, industry.
Despite the wide educational indifference to the increasing
number of non-producers the steadying influence of John's
home training kept him in the field of industry. He capitalized
his school training. He made it productive both at home and
in the neighborhood.
Both boys graduated from the university, each prepared,
supposedly, to take part in productive activities. Unfortunately,
Frank, scholastically trained for commercial life, had
not established the habit of work. Charged with a first-rate
opinion of his power, he sought long for the position which
he thought the business world owed him. Finally, forced to
work, he drifted from position to position, becoming a dissatisfied,
dangerous non-producer. John, on the other hand,
having capitalized his training at odd hours during the session
of the school and at vacation time, on graduation merged into
the business world, an efficient worker at the start.
Thus it is that 40,000,000 Johns have come to do the work
for and furnish the necessities of life for 60,000,000 Franks.
In other words, in this country 40,000,000 producers are doing
the work for 60,000,000 consumers. Numbered among this
great body of consumers are 20,000,000 boys and girls. They
consume at least one-seventh of the foodstuff of the land
and produce but little. This great army is marching onward
to fill our places in Congress, in the schools, in the
churches, in business. To what extent the generation is improved
will depend upon our children's habits of thinking and
acting.
Ten million boys and girls of this army of consumers are
physically and mentally able and very willing to produce a
part of that which they use and consume. Certainly the nation
should formulate a program to set our boys and girls to work
making effective their school training and capitalizing their
enthusiasm, energy and powers for production.
THE; LESSON PLAN
Civic CONTENT :
I. Production at school.
a. The garden.
178 Motion Pictures in Education
b. The manual training and domestic science departments.
c. Miscellaneous efforts.
2. Use of products for profit, convenience and pleasure.
a. The cafeteria.
b. Products of manual training and domestic science work
for school and home use.
c. Results from practical application of other departments.
3. Suggestive methods for teachers.
a. Education through doing what the child desires to do.
Developing inherent interests.
&. An outlet for school industries. Motivation of school
industries.
c. Organization of children's spare time for productive in-
dustry.
GENERAL TOPIC AIM : To establish habits of industry, of production;
to teach that production is a first step in good
citizenship, each child should produce a part of that which
she or he consumes; to train the hand, the eye, the brain
through doing.
SPECIFIC LESSON AIM: To motivate school industries; to set
the children to work.
MOTIVATION :
Physical characteristics :
( i ) Boys and girls at
work; (2) concrete projects involving activity.
LESSON PSYCHOLOGY: (i) Appeal to the creative and social
instincts; (2) exercise of play spirit; (3) imitation of
adults.
TEACHER'S PREPARATION: (i) Familiarity with the lesson
story and synchronized paragraphs; (2) acquaintance with
the film; (3) mastery of civic content.
THE LESSON STORY
It is lunch hour. Several boys and girls are sitting on
benches near the schoolhouse eating their lunches. The
principal joins them.
Concerned about the cold, hastily-eaten lunches, he asks the
children if anything can be done to serve warm foods at
school. A bright boy suggests that a portion of the output of
the school garden be used. Whereupon the girls volunteer
eagerly to prepare the vegetables and other foodstuffs.
Encouraged by the quick response of the children, the
principal leads the way to a vacant room and suggests that
the boys and girls install a cafeteria. Accepting the opportunity
to give definite practical direction to the industrial and
productive phases of the school work the principal leads the
children to organize their manual training, gardening and
O Bcngt Berg
STORKS IN THFTR NEST
How to Use Films in Teaching 179
domestic science work around the cafeteria. These types of
school activities become means to an end rather than an end
in themselves. They borrow interest from the creative cafeteria
project.
Under careful supervision the plan quickly develops. The
equipment for the cafeteria, from benches to curtains, is the
work of the boys and girls. Before the first meal is served,
the children, in pride, survey the completed project. The
whole school is on the qui vive for the formal opening.
The menu for the opening day and the remainder of the
week is carefully worked out by the domestic science classes.
With a teacher in charge the first meal is prepared. Louise
weeps as she peels the onions. With pots simmering and the
fireless cookers steaming, the door is opened to a hungry,
anticipating line of boys and girls.
Filing past the appealing foodstuffs and selecting those
which their fancy pleases to dictate, the line breaks into
sociable groups which gather around the tables.
We leave this happy gathering of boys and girls proud
of their achievement, enjoying the fruits of their efforts.
THE LESSONS
1. Method of approach. Look about the room; where did
the glass, lumber, bricks, etc., come from? Discuss the production
of shoes, neckties, suits, dresses, etc., worn by the children.
Who does the work of the world ? What are the children
doing to produce a part of that which they consume, wear,
or use? Why should not each child, physically and mentally
able, produce a part of that which he consumes ? Why should
father and mother shoulder all the family responsibilities?
What is the school doing to pay its way?
2. Show the film. Discussion should not parallel film
action. Anything that distracts the attention of the children
from the film will tend to defeat its main purpose, that of
motivation. Aural and visual senses acting together hinder
each other.
3. At the close of the film the minds of the children will
be alert, awakened. Have the film story reproduced to insure
proper interpretation of the important scenes.
4. Due to inaccurate observation, a second showing of the
film may be necessary.
5. Set the minds of the children at work mining out the
civic content of the lesson through probing questions. When
a principle is extracted, apply it to the civic life of the
children at school, at home, and in the community.
180 Motion Pictures in Education
6. Devise a method whereby the classroom impulses will
direct conduct. In other words, we suggest that the children
start some form of productive work both at school and at
home. The resultants of such enterprise might well be used
to help to relieve the economic stress, both in the homes and
the school. A determined effort to "incorporate" the school
as a business institution, to capitalize and to give a practical
outlet to school training, would measure high in educational
and civic returns. A surplus left after serving the homes
and the schools could be marketed to the general public.
Individuals could be encouraged to follow the lead of special
interests in industry and later to establish a market for their
products. The most nearly satisfied worker is the one who
has commercialized a hobby.
CONCRETE SUGGESTIONS:
Art Department. Paint and crayon sketches for home and
school use. Creation of market (i) for sketches of Mother
Goose rhymes done in water colors for nurseries; (2) for
leather and cardboard novelties; (3) for such a novelty as
artificial flies used in trout fishing.
Manual Training Department. Furniture and fixtures for
the home and the school. Establishment of market for surplus
school and home products. Interest the children in the
creation of simple novelties which may be marketed readily.
Science Department. Establish simple industries such as
the making of lens, kites, etc. ; organize small business groups
to serve the patrons of the school spray shrubs and trees,
attack the ant problem.
Agricultural Department. Production of foodstuffs at
home and at school for home and school purposes. Production
at home of young fruit trees, roses, sweet peas, etc.;
raising of high-grade poultry, rabbits, and the like. Creation
of market for surplus products.
Domestic Science Department. Cookeries for home and
school use with establishment of market for the surplus.
Individuals to develop a market among friends for special
dainties.
We do not wish to urge commercialization of our children
but we do think it very desirable that the boys and girls shall
establish the habit of work by helping a little every day to
do the work of the world.
LESSON QUESTIONS
I. What concerned the principal as he noted the pupils
eating their lunches?
How to Use Films in Teaching 181
2. What did the pupils think about the suggestion for warm
lunches ?
3. What did the girls volunteer to do?
4. Is there a vacant area in your school where a cafeteria
might be established ?
5. How did the boys and girls busy themselves in the
project?
6. What was done with the vegetables ?
7. What is a fireless cooker ?
PROBLEM QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the value of home and school gardens.
2. What is to be gained by eating warm lunches?
3. Where is the most sanitary location for public eating
places ?
4. What is an "economy menu"? What must be borne in
mind in making one?
5. What are the advantages of a fireless cooker?
6. What is gained by the cafeteria method of serving meals?
7. What is meant by the statement, "Prices are governed
largely by the supply and the demand"?
8. In 1920 sugar was 27^/2 cents a pound. In 1921 it sold
for 6 l
/2 cents a pound. How would you account for the
difference in price?
9. Define economics, capital as used in business life, unionism,
corporations, partnership, socialism.
10. What do you think of government ownership of public
utilities ?
11. How do you account for the strife between capital
and labor?
12. What is being done in the state to protect the worker?
PROJECTS
1. Plan an economy menu for one week for your home.
For a school cafeteria.
2. Bring in plans and suggestions for making a fireless
cooker, or better, make one.
3. Give somewhat in detail a plan for a cafeteria, including
arrangement and management.
4. Visit industrial plants.
5. Make a comparative price list of foodstuffs a year ago
and now. How do you account for the change?
6. Compare wages paid a year ago and now. How do you
account for any difference which may exist?
182 Motion Pictures in Education
7. Make a list of industrial activities which might be undertaken
by the school. By individuals.
8. Organize business groups in the school to undertake industrial
activities such as destruction of household pests,
care of shrubs and trees, etc.
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE WEEK
FIRST DAY. Use of film lesson and discussion.
SECOND DAY. Discussion of subject matter in the class
text. Assignment of problem questions and project work.
THIRD DAY. Library or study day.
FOURTH AND FIFTH DAYS. Field trips and discussion of
assignments.
PUPIĽS READING
THE CHILĎS FOOD GARDEN Kilpatrick
World Book Co., Yonkers, N. Y.
ROBINSON CRUSOE Defoe
THE STORY OF FOODS Forrest Crissey
GARDEN STEPS Ernest Cobb
LIFE OF LUTHER BURBANK
How WE ARE FED Jas. F. Chamberlain
UNITED STATES FOOD LEAFLETS
THE PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE C. A. Stebbins
Macmillan Co.
HOUSEHOLD ARTS FOR HOME AND SCHOOL. .Cooley and Spohr
Macmillan Co.
TEXT REFERENCES
COMMUNITY Civics Ames and Hldred
Macmillan Co. Chap. I, P. 22.
COMMUNITY Civics Field and Nearing
Macmillan Co. Chap. 21, P. 236.
AN ELEMENTARY Civics McCarthy
Swan & McMullin. Chap. 10, Pp. 92-3. Chap, n, Pp.
126 and 129.
THE NEW Civics Ashley
Macmillan Co. Chap. 3, Pp. 38-39. Chap. 15, Pp. 302, 304,
306. Chap. 19, Pp. 379.
Some splendid results from the citizenship film series
have been noted in the Los Angeles schools where they
How to Use Films in Teaching 183
were used for seventh-grade work throughout the
school system. Each lesson is built around an interesting
story involving the personalities of a boy and a
girl of the same age as the children for whom the lessons
are intended.
A Health Lesson
"A satisfying project was worked out in the foreign
district with the lesson Physical and Mental Fitness,"
writes a member of the Los Angeles Visual Education
Department:
The picture is full of action and when Emile, the class
representative who failed at the try-outs through his own
negligence, is given an opportunity to make good and wins
the race for his school, the children reach the highest point of
enthusiasm. A discussion of the beneficial effects of health
habits followed the picture and as a result the class voted to
keep health score cards for a month as Emile and Louise did
in the picture. But one of the best reactions came from the
principal of a school located in a foreign district. She stated
that although the lessons were given in the seventh grade
only, their effect had carried through the entire school. Four
months had elapsed and the children were still living up to
the ideals gained during the citizenship film lessons.
An Entomology Lesson
Few realize the work that has been done by producers
of educational films to aid the teacher in the use
of the films. "Teachers' Aids/' for example, have
been issued by the Educational Department of Pathe.
This contains a list of the titles, additional information,
suggested questions and problems and references. A
Teacher's Aid on the film Ants: Nature's Craftsmen,
reads as follows:
APPLICATION
NATURE STUDY ZOOLOGY ENTOMOLOGY
THE TITLES (as they actually appear on the screen) :
i. ANTS: NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN.
184 Motion Pictures in Education
2. FROM THE SERIES OF FASCINATING NATURE STUDIES ON
WONDERS OF LIFE IN THE
3. PLANT AND ANIMAL WORLD.
4. Ants present a most interesting and extensive study because,
next to man himself, the wonder of their seeming
intelligence is not surpassed in the Animal Kingdom. Even
Man could well take some lessons from them about Community
Life.
5. Although there are about 5,000 kinds of ants they all include
the three usually well-distinguished types of individuals :
Queens, Males or Drones, and Workers
6. First, may we meet the "lady of the house," the Queen,
who is sometimes responsible for starting, alone, the whole
colony.
7. Yes, those are wings that you see. Both the male and
queen have them for their mating flight.
8. After the flight, as soon as the Queens are to become
mothers, their wings are shed, many times by the assistance
of the other ants, the workers.
9. A closer view, with the wings off. The males, which we
do not see here, go out of existence shortly after the flight
or "Wedding Trip."
10. The worker or neutral. These are the ones that do all
the real work. Technically they are females by construction.
11. Nothing is of greater value to her than the feelers or
antennae, with which she examines and recognizes all objects.
12. Her sole tools are her jaws and feet. Notice the two
strong shears.
13. Watch this one make her toilette. They are exceptionally
clean.
14. The kind of ants we are studying here live in "houses"
or mounds like this. This one is composed mostly of bark,
twigs, and some soil and grasses.
15. Although some mounds are large above ground, the
main dwelling place is underneath. Here we find chambers
and galleries arranged in irregular stories one above another.
1 6. They may look like a crazed crowd to us but these
marvels of industry perform their remarkable feats of engineering
with order and perseverance.
17. In order to do this, how do they "talk" when they don't
even make a sound? Watch them communicate with their
feelers.
1 8. In proportion to its size, the ant is ten times stronger
How to Use Films in Teaching 185
than man. It drags a match which for us would correspond
to a log.
19. After the Queen has laid the eggs, the next important
stage of development is the larva. We find these down in
the center of the nest. Watch us dig for them.
20. Here we see these little live black creatures in their
natural size, showing how greatly the other scenes are mag-
nified.
21. Now, a "close-up," greatly magnified, showing different
stages of development. These are naked pupae.
22. They are enclosed in these silky envelopes called cocoons,
made by themselves. Inside takes place the transformation
into adult ants.
23. The workers take care of these cocoons, containing the
pupae, by moving them around to spots of a warmer temperature.
Watch how they handle these bundles, larger than
themselves.
24. The result of patient careful handling, signs of life.
Note the one on the right.
25. Their greatest work is to bring life to the future generation.
Now comes the marvellous step of the workers,
feeling and knowing the time of hatching, and aiding in
tearing open the cocoons.
26. The young ants, fully grown, come into the world.
27. The care of the new ants by the workers does not
cease with their emergence from the cocoon. The Nurses
feed them, the pre-digested food passing from the mouth of
the feeder to that of the new adult ant.
28. Not only this, but the workers also groom them.
29. Ants eat both animal and vegetable food. There is
hardly a production in the floral kingdom that does not yield
some product to these busy, hungry searchers. They go by
caravans to seek the sap of trees.
30. They are fired by as fierce and high a passion for the
hunting of live game as ever inspired human followers of the
chase.
A good capture the caterpillar is the victim.
31. After the manner of human cannibals they feed upon
their vanquished foes.
32. The fly above, to the left, is carefully watched.
33. One ant pulls its trunk, another one its leg; the workers,
which have no grip on the victim, harness themselves to
their sisters to aid them in their efforts.
34. Here is an example of individual defense. Queen visits
186 Motion Pictures in Education
Queen, but the visitor is told she does not belong to this
Kingdom.
35. Not only are ants wonderful workers but the greatest
students of them tell us that they are really fond of what
we can tell by no better name than athletics and play. Watch
this clever gymnastic performer.
36. Ants have great courage. Even if attacked by terrific
odds, they are on the job ready for defense.
37. When marauded by these two human hands, we find
great excitement. The surface fairly buzzes. Their whole
attitude unmistakably says, "Our Home has been attacked!
Rally to defense 1"
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :
Ants may not be considered of a very deep economic importance.
But they are of some benefit in ( I ) their power to
hasten the decomposition of organic substance. They dispose
of a tremendous quantity of dead insect and animal matter.
(2) In some cases they destroy other insect pests of plantation.
(3) Their cocoons are used for bird food. Negatively
speaking, there are many cases where they themselves are
great house pests, as most housekeepers know. But why is it
that these tiny creatures have warranted the most careful and
searching study of scientists? It is mainly on account of the
phases of their life that are developed around their behavior
as social animals. It is here that appear most clearly and
fully the habits which have drawn to these insects from the
earliest ages the attention of man, and has won for them a
high reputation for wisdom. Through this film will be seen
the marvellous wonders of these little insects as they are
worked out through: the establishment of their homes; procurement
of a livelihood; protection from enemies; preservation
and nurture of the young and other communal dependents ;
perpetuation of the species; the promotion of Community
Life.
Many books could be, and are for that matter, written about
these interesting creatures, but in this very limited space are
simply added a few of the high spots of interest, besides
those touched on in the film itself. Regarding their mounds
and homes: The cones are thoroughly honeycombed with
tunnels and rooms, streets and galleries, which are the actual
living quarters of the commune, and form, each mound in
itself, a densely populated city. This one mound that we see
in this picture with several similar ones directly around it
How to Use Films in Teaching 187
make up a "city" that would probably surpass in numbers of
inhabitants the whole tremendous population of China.
Regarding Individuals and Structure: Although there is
more often only one Queen in a colony there are some species
and colonies where there have been found all the way from
one to thirty Queens. The antennae of the ants probably
surpass in sensibility anything at the command of higher
animals, or even man. Their removal produces a disturbance
in the anťs intelligence. It can no longer find its way or
recognize objects. Regarding their work: There seems to be
no trace in any quarter or in any act of a chief engineer or
local foreman, or "gang-boss," or of any feasible organized
directing body or official supervisor or regulator or prompter.
On the surface (as far as human intelligence discerns) it is
a "go-as-you-please" arrangement which nevertheless is dominated
by some occult principle that brings orderly results out
of seeming chaos. Regarding Metamorphosis: May we once
for all get perfectly straight and clear in our minds the four
well-marked periods through which ants and other insects
such as Bees, Wasps, Moths, Butterflies, etc., pass. First,
that of the egg, laid by the mother. Second, the larva (caterpillar
or worm). Third, pupa or chrysalis (many times contained
in the cocoon as in the case of some ants). Fourth,
the perfect full-grown adult insect. Regarding their relation
to other insects, and plants: Some other insects, especially
beetles, live at times in nests of ants these are sometimes
advantageous as scavengers. Ants have many enemies. They
themselves and still more their young are a favorite food of
many animals. They are attacked also by numerous parasites.
Bees and wasps, the two insects most similar to ants in
community life, and some other insects, repay the floral kingdom
which gives them food, by helping to distribute the
pollen. But it is very much doubted if ants can be credited
with such reciprocation.
Out of the billions and trillions of ants that exist in this
world, if one loses his life, it is not much in the vastness of
nature and is easily replaced. But it is an atom in the worlďs
order that no human power can restore.
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS
1. Why are ants important and interesting?
2. What do we mean by "social animals"? What other
insects are especially like ants in this respect? Give other
examples of community life, outside of the insect world.
Contrast these with "solitary animals."
188 Motion Pictures in Education
3. In what ways do ants resemble men? In what ways
can they give men pointers about work or community life?
4. Discuss the structure of ants and their homes. What
three main types of individuals? What organ of her body
is probably of greater use than any other? Why? What
are mounds or ant-hills made of ?
5. Talk over all the different kinds of work of the ant
what divisions of labor?
6. Describe in detail the distinct stages of the metamorphosis.
What do ants feed on?
REFERENCES
Ants, Their Structure, Development and Behavior By Wm.
M. Wheeler Columbia University Press, N. Y.
Ants, Bees and Wasps By Sir John Lubbock International
Sci. Ser. Appleton & Co., N. Y.
Nature's Craftsmen :
Popular Studies of Ants and other Insects
By H. McCook, Harper & Bro., N. Y. and London.
Economic Zoology By Kellogg and Doane Published by
Henry Holt & Co.
Practical Zoology By Hegner Published by Macmillan.
Zoology, Descriptive and Practical By Colton Published
by Heath & Co.
A Text Book in General Zoology By Linville & Kelley
Published by Ginn & Co.
The "text-films" issued by National Non-Theatrical
Motion Pictures, Inc., are designed to be in themselves
complete treatises on their subjects and to fit so closely
into the standardized courses of study as not to need the
accompaniment of extraneous descriptive matter. In
addition to pictures, they contain animated maps whereever
needed or appropriate. Following, as a sample,
is a list of titles of a typical text-film, that on Alaska:
1. ALASKA
2. Alaska is a territory of the United States. It occupies
the northwest corner of the North American continent and is
separated from "The States" by a portion of British Columbia.
3. (General map of North America with pointer pointing
to Alaska, followed by a map of Alaska.)
4. Physical character.
How to Use Films in Teaching 189
5. Its land area is nearly 6,000,000 square miles, one-sixth
that of the United States proper.
6. Alaska can not be reached from the United States entirely
by rail, so we approach by water from Seattle, Washington
. . .
7. ... and take an inland water course toward southeastern
Alaska, through Wrangel Narrows.
8. Alaska is very mountainous. The Alaskan Range extends
from the Cascade Mountains . . .
9. ... across southern Alaska to the Aleutian Islands, a
chain of about 150 half-submerged mountains reaching almost
to Siberia.
10. (Map of Alaska, showing southern Alaska, the Aleutian
Islands and the Siberian coast, all indicated by pointer which
also indicates the Siberian coast, the Arctic Circle and Mt.
McKinley.)
11. Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America
20,464 feet high, lies in the Alaskan Range.
12. The mountainous regions around the Canadian boundary
of the main portion of Alaska are drained by the mighty
Yukon River and its tributaries.
13. The half of Alaska north of the Yukon is a treeless
plain, swampy near the coast, except near the mouth of the
river, where it is mountainous.
14. The climate is cold in winter and reaches a temperature
as low as 50 below zero.
15. The summer climate is pleasant and fruitful, especially
in the southern portions.
16. In the Arctic Circle the summer days are long. This
picture on the Yukon was taken at 10 P.M.
17. This is a land of glaciers. We are now approaching
the great Taku Glacier.
1 8. The mighty ice wall of Taku Glacier extends 200 feet
above the water and many hundred feet below.
19. Icebergs born of Taku Glacier.
20. History and Political Geography.
21. The aboriginal inhabitants are Eskimos in the north
and Athabascan Indians elsewhere. Many native Indian
children are now in American schools.
22. The totems, to be found throughout southern Alaska,
are the heraldic family-trees of the natives.
23. These old Russian cannon and the old Russian Trading
Post at Sitka are relics of Alaska's first white owners.
24. An old church of the state religion of old Russia, the
Greek Orthodox faith.
190 Motion Pictures in Education
25. In 1867 the United States purchased the territory from
Russia for $7,200,000, and the Stars and Stripes have floated
there ever since.
26. Sitka was the old Russian capital.
27. Old Juneau is the new capital.
28. The population of the entire territory is about 65,000
and the towns are small. Important among them are Skagway
. . .
29. ... Haines where Fort William Seward is located
. . .
30. . . . and Fairbanks, the metropolis of the interior.
31. The discovery of gold in 1885 to 1889 brought thousands
of prospectors who built large cities, now deserted.
32. Ruins of White Pass City once a camp of 30,000 gold
seekers.
33. The stampede trail up Dead Horse Gulch. The V in
the sky line is the famous White Pass, just above Skagway,
through which so many prospectors came in the early days.
34. Natural Resources and Industries.
35. Mineral and metal deposits are extensive and rich. Coal
and gold mining are the principal industries. Most of the
gold is now obtained by hydraulic mining.
36. Alaska ranks second in gold production among the
States and territories of the Nation.
37. This huge stamp mill is near Juneau, where some of the
richest gold mines in the world are found. Rich coal deposits
await future railroad development.
38. Vast forests of valuable timber lie in the southern
portion.
39. Salmon fishing has long been an important native in-
dustry.
40. The primitive salmon wheel of the Indian has been
replaced by great modern traps.
41. Many parts of the coast are thickly inhabited by furbearing
seal, now under government protection.
42. Whaling is an old-time industry, and whaling vessels
are still to be seen in port.
43. The harpoon gun.
44. Fur-bearing animals such as the fox which were
formerly hunted, are now also raised on ranches.
45. Though the growing season for plant life is short, the
soil in the southern half is fertile and its products profitable
and of rapid growth, because of the long days and the surface
irrigation from the thawing ground.
How to Use Films in Teaching 191
46. The largest and most luscious berries in the world are
raised near Haines.
47. Alaska possesses practically unlimited water power, an
invaluable asset for her future commercial growth.
48. Improved transportation facilities have already started
Alaska on the way to commercial wealth.
49. The Lynn Canal is a much used thoroughfare.
50. And vessels ply regularly along 2,000 miles of the
Yukon through the heart of Alaska.
51. Railroads are being built.
52. Wonderful engineering has conquered a wilderness.
53. But we can never forget that the dogs which pulled the
sleds over the frozen snows played as great a part in Alaska's
early civilization as did men.
54. These "Huskies" are still essential to travel.
55. Our Alaskan trip ends at the boundary between Alaska
and Canada, where we behold two friendly flags.
The Pathescope Company of America, Inc., which
distributes "safety standard" films, has issued a very
full descriptive classified catalogue of their educational
pictures, with numerous cross references. In addition
to descriptions of the films the catalogue contains a
list of 'titles and in some instances "elaborations" or
descriptions of some of the scenes following the titles.
Such a catalogue enables the teacher to study the film
carefully in advance of its use. Here is a sample page:
COTTON ITS MANUFACTURE
The antiquity of the cotton industry has proved unfathomable,
but it is thought that the cotton industry was imported
into Europe in the tenth or eleventh century, and by the
middle of the thirteenth century we find it flourishing in
Spain. In the new world it would seem to have originated
with the discovery of America, as the wearing apparel in use
included cotton fabrics. The growing, handling and transportation
of cotton and the manufacture of cotton goods ranks
as one of the worlďs greatest industries, furnishing a livelihood
for more than a million people, whose wages total about
$500,000,000 a year. There is an annual production of over
twenty-five million 5oo-lb. bales of cotton, and in the United
States alone some thirty-five million spindles are turning in
192 Motion Pictures in Education
cotton mills, the value of the manufactured products amounting
to $1,877,919,000 in 1920. Annual crop in Latin America,
385,000,000 Ibs. Mexico, 200,000 500-lb. bales. Virgin Islands,
United States, produced 778,000 Ibs. of Sea Island cotton
in 1913.
MANUFACTURE OF COTTON CLOTH
Title i Cotton, From Seed to Wearer.
Title 2 Panoramic view of the plant of the Amoskeag Mfg.
Company at Manchester, New Hampshire, U. S. A.
Title 3 Fifty-three main buildings containing 143 acres of
floor space.
Title 4 -Beginning the process of making cotton into cloth.
Breaking the cotton bales and feeding into machines called
"openers."
Title 5 64,600,000 pounds of cotton are consumed each year.
Title 6 Cotton coming out of ''openers" into belt conveyor.
Title 7 Cotton entering suction pipe on the way to dye house.
Title 8 1,500 ft. suction pipe and bridge containing same.
Title 9 Cotton arrives at the dye house. Ready for bleaching
or dyeing.
Title I o Vacuum bleaching and dyeing machines in operation.
1,200 pounds of cotton are bleached or dyed in each
vat.
Title II Lowering the 2,000 Ib. steel cover.
Title 12 The pumps which force the bleaching or dyeing
liquor through the cotton.
Title 13 Centrifugal extractors removing moisture from cotton
which has just come from bleachery or dyeing machines.
Title 14 Water, expelled by centrifugal force, runs out at
bottom of machine.
Title 15 Suction pipe taking cotton to dryer.
Title 1 6 Cotton arriving at dryer.
Through the use of "teachers' aids" now being issued
with educational films, it is possible for every teacher
to study his films in advance. If the distributing firm
issues no teaching suggestions with its films, it will
usually furnish lists of titles on request and every
supervisor of visual instruction, principal or teacher
who is planning to use a film as part of classroom instruction
should have such a list of titles. He can then
prepare his own film lesson far more ably than any
How to Use Films in Teaching 193
outsider, unfamiliar with local conditions. The suggestions,
however, for conducting film lessons as given
in the foregoing pages are excellent and worthy of
study.
The teacher about to introduce the use of films should
ascertain from the principal or supervisor of visual
instruction what films suitable for his class are obtainable
or make an independent study of the film field and
secure the films he thinks he can use to best advantage.
After he studies the film itself he will know whether
it will serve his purpose best as a preparation for the
lesson or project, or should be incorporated in the lesson
itself at a certain point or whether it will serve best
for review.
No set rule can be laid down in this regard. The
method of use depends on the film, the teacher and the
class. Sometimes one method is best, sometimes another.
It has been found that two different teachers
using the same film in the same grade will get splendid
reactions in the one case and poor reactions in the
other. Again the identical method may be employed
with two entirely different films with varying results.
Each teacher must adapt to his own use the general
methods here set forth. The personality and ability
of the teacher are able to enhance the value of the film
an hundred fold by the manner of its presentation.
A Few Don'ts
In conclusion, we wish to emphasize another point,
namely: It is better not to use films at all in education
than to misuse them. Here are a few don'ts that may
help the prospective user:
Don't use films just to pass away the time, or because
a film is available.
194 Motion Pictures in Education
Don't use films to arouse interest, then neglect to
take advantage of the interest aroused.
Don't use films unless they have some bearing on the
subject studied and don't fail to apply the film to the
particular lesson or project.
Don't use films because you think it may save the
teacher a lot of time and thought and work. Films,
if properly used, will mean more, rather than less, work
for the teacher until he knows his film material and
finds the best way to adapt it to his special problems.
Don't use films under any circumstances without
some preparation. A poor film lesson is worse than a
lesson without films.
X
SOME SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED METHODS
IT will be interesting and helpful to learn something
of the methods actually employed in school systems
where visual instruction, through the use of films, is
being successfully applied.
In New York Schools
Although several school systems have employed
motion pictures for instruction for a longer time, the
Board of Education of New York City has probably
gone further than any other school system in the country
in the utilization of films as a definite part of the
curriculum. The work is handled under the supervision
of a director of visual instruction and an assistant who
furnish both slides and films to the schools equipped
to use them. Up to the time of this writing, about
seventy-five of the seven hundred schools in Greater
New York have standard-width projectors and about
two hundred of the safety standard machine. The
seventh and eighth grades are up to this time the only
groups being supplied regularly with films for use in
their class work. The subjects covered, as already
noted, are biology, geography, civics and home economics.
These were chosen because the film subjects
most readily available fitted into these grades best.
The Curriculum Committee of the Visual Instruction
Association, of New York, made up of producers,
distributors and producers of films, with sub-commit-
195
196 Motion Pictures in Education
tees on the various subjects covered, cooperate with
the visual instruction department of the city schools
in selecting and recommending the films to be used.
Lists of subjects, such as given in Chapters VII and
VIII, are furnished to the principals of schools having
projectors, in order that their teachers may indicate the
subjects which they desire illustrated by films. These
films, preceded by suitable study outlines, are delivered
to the school on the day before they are to be shown.
Following are suggestions issued by Dr. Ernest L.
Crandall, Director of Visual Instruction, to the teachers
of the New York schools who are making use of films
for instruction:
The showing of the films should not be a novelty, an unusual
diversion, but one step in an orderly process of instruction,
planned to teach some concrete, definite topic in the
course of study.
The ideal usage would be to screen the films in the classroom
during a recitation period. The next best procedure
is to assemble all the pupils studying the subject in the auditoriu
n. Pupils of other grades should not be present if this
is avoidable.
The main points covered by the film should be brought
out in previous classroom discussion and brought home by
classroom work both oral and written, following the showing.
The teacher should have the greatest possible familiarity with
the subject matter of the film. Previewing is the best means
of acquiring this familiarity.
There should be no talking while the film is going on, as
the necessity for auditory attention is an unnecessary distraction.
It is better pedagogy to run the film twice if the
time permits. To increase memory training the taking of
notes should be discouraged.
It is well to follow the showing of the film by questions in
the auditorium or following the recitation, preferably both.
Never should there be lecturing with the film or following it.
As much of the discussion as possible should be handled by
the children themselves. Questions should require thought
on the part of the pupil, train his memory, provoke and stimulate
the habit of correct and accurate observation. Above all
Some Successfully Applied Methods 197
they should be specific. Avoid such generalities as "What
did you see in the film?" "Tell about the eye, etc." Such
questions as "What parts of the eye did we see in the film?"
"What part corresponds to a lens in the camera?" "How
are forest fires detected?" cover definite points and will train
children to do their own thinking. Every teacher should devise
his own questions as occasions require.
Wherever practicable films should be preceded by lantern
slides showing the high points of the film. Each should be
discussed by members of the class, guided by the teacher's
questions. Lantern slides should also be used in the followup
lessons as a review of the film. Here the socialized recitation
may be advantageously used, a bright pupil acting as a
chairman conducting the lesson.
After the ground has been thus thoroughly gone over, the
final step is written composition. By this means the pedagogical
value of the film is crystallized and becomes the
chilďs permanent possession.
These very helpful suggestions conclude with the
statement that "these thoughts are the results of a
year's experience in the use of films in the schools of
New York."
The principles enunciated in Dr. Crandalľs suggestions
show the keen appreciation of pedagogical principles
of the successful and efficient educator. They
are based on a very short experience in the actual work
of visual instruction in the public schools but a long
and effective experience in the general art of teaching
and it is extremely gratifying to us that they confirm
our contention that the best form of the excellence of
visual instruction and of the methods used in its practice
is the application of tried and proven pedagogical
principles to the new medium.
In this connection the attitude of Mr. Rabenort is
refreshing. He too is conducting tests, in Public School
55, the Bronx, New York, to determine the value and
the manner of utilization of the still picture and motion
picture, to make comparative studies of the textbook
198 Motion Pictures in Education
and the motion picture and additional tests to find out
the cost per capita for textbooks and the cost per capita
for motion pictures and to determine if it is possible to
substitute one for the other or if it is
necessary to have
both, and, if so, what justifies the extra expenditure.
We know of no tests that will prove more interesting
or useful. However, Mr. Rabenort himself is so convinced
of the value of films in education, after seven
years of experience with them, and is sufficiently satisfied
with prevailing methods that control groups are
no longer used in conducting these experiments, which
are to extend over a period of several years, He does
not feel justified in withholding the advantages of visual
instruction from any group of pupils.
In the Newark Schools
Newark, N. J., has been one of the most progressive
cities in the country in the use of visual instruction,
owing to the splendid work done by Dr. A. G. Balcom,
Assistant Superintendent of Schools, who is director
of visual education activities and a pioneer in the work.
The film service is organized for schools and supplied in
four circuits [writes Dr. Balcom]. In alternating- schools,
films are shown one day per week all day in the school auditorium.
In other schools having projection outfits, films are
shown once in two weeks, in other schools as occasion demands,
by means of the portable outfit. About 25,000 feet 'of
film is received each week, inspected, lists of titles and a digest
made. Lists of titles and the digest are sent to the
teachers together with these written suggestions :
1. It is necessary to have a reaction of the film with a
development of the impressions made by it.
2. Teachers must use the digest. One copy is filed at the
principaľs office, who furnishes as many copies to teachers
as needed.
3. Pupils should be trained to observe the film, carefully
noting how the film visualizes the situations set forth in the
titles.
Some Successfully Applied Methods 199
4. Teachers will find films an excellent source of language
material. They should see the films themselves when possible.
5. Pupils should be trained to see the important things with
the less important as a background. The teacher should intensify
the interest, stimulate thought, quicken mental alertness
and increase the powers of observation of pupils under
them by means of films.
In summing up what has been done to date in Visual
Education in the Newark schools Dr. Balcom says:
The teacher is sent a list of questions regarding the film
and drills the class on it for several days. She stresses the
features to look for in the picture. Sometimes the reel is
shown twice. The pictures are then discussed in class and
sometimes a written review is conducted. We have found
that it is advisable to show the film twice wherever possible,
both before and after discussion.
Even with the preliminary preparation the pupil may miss
an important point and frequently does, as we have found
from experience. "Why, I did not see that at all," is frequently
heard from the less observant pupils. Then again
wrong impressions are sometimes gained. The unreliability
of witnesses all viewing the same occurrence is well known.
Viewing the film twice will correct wrong impressions and
drive home the right ones.
Their use of portable projection machines makes it
possible for every school in the Newark school system
to enjoy some of the benefits of motion pictures in
instruction.
A Visual Education Club has been organized in the
Newark schools. It is composed of teachers, principals
and supervisors who believe in visual aids and use
them. They meet and discuss theories, methods, experiments,
thus giving the others the advantage of their
personal experiences.
A teacher of geography in one of the Newark schools
made use of all forms of visual aids most effectively in
a lesson on Brazil. She used maps, charts, diagrams,
200 Motion Pictures in Education
models, pictures, slides, curios, exhibits and motion
pictures.
Her seventh-grade class decided to study Brazil
under three topics: (1) My Rubbers and Raincoat;
(2) My Chocolate Candy and Cup of Cocoa; (3) My
Mother's Cup of Coffee.
The class was divided into three groups, each group
being given one topic to develop. One of the first
things the children did was to go to the Visual Instruction
Department and find what films, slides and stereographs
were available for their subject. These were
requisitioned. The films were used as a background,
a film on Brazil giving the atmosphere which Doctor
Balcom deems so necessary for an adequate understanding
of a subject. Other films showed some important
industries, How Rubber Is Made lending itself
particularly well to topic 1. A member of the rubber
group wrote a short play which other members acted
out, thus dramatizing as well as visualizing the lesson.
In preparation for this lesson, which continued over a
period of several weeks, the pupils wrote stories and
descriptions, gathered pictures, drew maps, and collected
articles. They learned how to gather data and
materials on definite subjects, how to evaluate it and
organize it.
They went out and found their own visual
aids. They lived geography and learned that geography
deals with their own lives and that they not only live
geography but eat geography and dress geography.
This they learned most effectively through motion pictures
on such subjects as fruit growing, wheat raising,
water highways. Through films they learned also the
relation of industries, products, means of communication
and methods of transportation to the physical
characteristics of the countries. Through the same
Some Successfully Applied Methods 201
films they learned to understand how physical conditions
determine the life of the people the Alps developing
the sturdy mountaineers; the prairies the
roving cowboys; the Sahara desert the nomadic Arab.
Through a film on coal mining, for example, they were
taught to visualize in the smoke of the city chimneys
the lives of the many who serve them. By accurate
films showing American life and American industries
the misconceptions of many newcomers to this country
can be corrected and students can be taught Americanism
in its best sense. So this geography teacher found
from her own experience.
Personal experiences such as the one just related
are included here not only because they may prove helpful
to others and offer valuable suggestions but because
they are highly significant in themselves. This geography
teacher undoubtedly had initiative and vision. She
believed in making use of all available visual material,
from the package on the pantry shelf containing sugar
to the film on How Sugar Is Made, in order to teach
geography so that her pupils would live the subject.
But it is very evident that in educational evolution only
the best teacher combined with the best textbooks and
the best available visual material can produce the best
results. Instead of the films supplanting the teacher, it
is the able teacher who can put real education into the
informational film.
It is doubtless true that if the child of average intelligence
reads the story of sugar making he will retain
a portion of it, and if he sees the same story in a film
he will probably retain more, but if both means are
used by a teacher who knows his subject and knows
how to present it so that it becomes a real, a living, a
202 Motion Pictures in Education
personal thing, then the pupil will really learn facts that
he will never forget.
It is well to pause here and dwell upon a fact of the
truth of which practically every student of visual education
is convinced, namely, that motion pictures and
all visual aids are merely valuable teaching aids, and
the more able the teacher the more valuable films will
prove; how valuable when rightly used, only a comparative
few have as yet discovered.
In the Chicago Schools
Dudley Grant Hays, director of Visual Instruction
in the Chicago Public Schools, believes strongly in
using films to "build a background and drive home a
lesson," and in correlating films with other visual aids.
He says:
Visual Education is an aid to the study of life and its problems,
which are how to obtain (i) food, (2) shelter, (3)
clothing, (4) recreation and amusement. Slides, photographs,
stereographs and films can be used with tremendous effect to
build up for the child a well-rounded conception of all that
enters into the production and distribution of food. Give
each child in the class some one specific thing to do as his part
in building up the thought content of the lesson. One group
might collect and bring for study all photographs obtainable
on the subject. Another group might locate and select films
on the subject, another locate books in the library, another
visit Associations of Commerce for material and write commercial
companies. All of these things build up the important
habit of research and familiarize the pupil with the everyday
sources of information.
In studying the problem of clothing build the background
with films that deal with the making of shoes, wool, silk and
all those other fascinating process films which are now part
and parcel of every one's education.
In Chicago, where motion picture equipment has
been gradually introduced into the public schools until,
Some Successfully Applied Methods 203
at this writing, one-sixth of the schools are equipped,
with others to be equipped just as soon as funds are
available, the visual education materials are so arranged
that the teacher can use stereographs in preliminary
work, slides for general discussion, and films to drive
home the lesson. Discussing the method of using
films, Dr. Hays says:
We show sections of film which will be of greatest benefit
to the children in getting correct ideas of the subject under
discussion 50, 100, 500, 1000, or 2000 feet as needed, our
aim being to give just enough of the film portrayal to make
the lesson effective, then stop it and discuss it.
In the Detroit Schools
Detroit is another progressive city where films are
being used effectively in education. How they started
their film work and how it evolved may prove stimulating
to other readers.
Mr. J. H. Wilson, former Director of Visual Education
in the Detroit Schools, at the end of his first
year's work, wrote:
One year's work in fourteen schools in Detroit has shown
some positive results which increase our faith in the visual
venture. Films save time. They teach children to organize
their statements effectively. They give an intimate knowledge
of the workaday world.
We show films in the Detroit schools [continues Mr. Wilson]
on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to fourteen schools
grouped in three circuits. Tuesdays and Thursdays are delivery
days for films and portable projectors. The films are
shown in auditoriums and classrooms. Teachers have proven
satisfactory operators. We have shown films from seven to
ten thousand children a week at a per capita cost of eight
mills. We rent our films but hope to build up a film library
and put films into any classroom in Detroit any time they are
needed. We have shown available literature stories, travels
into many lands, but the greatest part has dealt with industries.
A comedy was used once as a filler but was rejected by the
204 Motion Pictures in Education
pupils, who said they wanted something better an educational
film!
The Detroit plan another year will be to experiment with
pictures on different phases of a definite topic over an average
of three weeks with an idea to assist in correlating the
various school studies. We may spend October, for instance,
studying Holland. Films would be used to cover in general,
agriculture, general industries, architecture, dress, games, customs
and general folk lore.
The experiences of still other pioneers in the field
of visual instruction might be multiplied indefinitely.
The educational film magazines have been filled with
accounts of their experiments and conclusions.
In a Philadelphia School
The way in which films are used in the James G.
Elaine Public School of Philadelphia is typical. The
principal, Edwin Y. Montanye, writes:
Motion pictures have formed a part of the regular instruction
since September, 1920. The Home and School Association
purchased a standard motion picture machine and the Board
of Education installed the required fireproof booth and supplied
the electricity and power.
The equipment was placed in the school auditorium, a silver
screen hung on a roller above the platform with dark shades
at the window completed the equipment. One of the men
teachers learned to operate the machine and secured a license.
The school was organized on a duplicate plan, a modified
Gary system. All day, Fridays, was given to visual instruction
in the auditorium. Five groups of pupils spent one period
of 55 minutes each in the auditorium, approximately 1,200
children receiving film instruction during the day.
The children received preliminary instruction before going
to the auditorium to see the film. They were told some of the
things for which to look. The film was discussed after the
projection. Incorrect impressions were then cleared up and
the particular message of the reel driven home.
This principal attacked his problem in a businesslike
way. His methods are practical so far as they go.
Some Successfully Applied Methods 205
The pupil was given preliminary instruction and told
the important things for which to look. The textbook
and teacher prepared the way. The film told its story
in its own vivid language. The pupil saw what he had
heard about. What he had seen he discussed with his
fellow pupils, who may have seen points he missed.
In the discussion, incomplete impressions were completed
and wrong impressions corrected.
A Journey Geography Lesson
How the visual idea was used to teach geography
to an extremely backward group of seventh-grade pupils
with results that were surprising even to staunch
advocates of the visual method is here related because
of its wide application.
Not only could the class not keep up with their own
grade in the study of geography but their lack of geographical
knowledge was seriously retarding them in
other subjects. The teacher realized the futility of
taking them back over the same geography text, which
would lack all freshness for them, and they must be
taught the essentials of American geography but
how? She told them to imagine themselves a group
of French children coming to America for the first
time; and then began to attack the problem in a practical
way.
First, steamship routes were studied and the port of
debarkation and arrival decided upon, maps were made
and a travel book started. It was decided to stop first
at New York and this called for a study of the environment,
bays, harbors and transportation system of the
great metropolis. Historical Boston was selected by
popular vote as the second stopping place. Thence
the journey was made to the cities of the St. Lawrence
206 Motion Pictures in Education
and then the class cruised down the Atlantic coast,
going up the Potomac to Washington, back down the
coast to the Gulf, stopped at New Orleans, journeyed
up the Mississippi to the Great Lakes, thence by train
westward, reaching the Pacific Northwest and traveling
south to Mexico, crossing the country to the Caribbean,
thence by boat again through the Panama Canal to the
Pacific coast and then on a cruise around South America.
In all about eighteen weeks was given to the trip.
The methods used varied according to the subject in
hand.
Motion pictures played a large part. The class saw
New York, Puget Sound, the city of Tacoma, the
Panama Canal and other sections by means of motion
pictures. Slides were used in the study of nearly all
the subjects and in some cases, such as the story of
iron ore, proved most valuable. Both wall and desk
outline maps were made and added to continually.
Coloring the map frequently added interest. The sand
table was useful in many cases. A model was made of
the Panama Canal, for example. Although all forms
of visual aids were used the textbook was not neglected.
On the contrary, pupils were sent to the text and to
references selected, including books and the worthwhile
magazines, for all the information they could gather.
The experiment was considered a decided success.
Place geography was strengthened and history, geography
and English became related subjects. The story
of the trip, written by members of the class, was first
passed by the English instructor before it could be
placed in the travel book. But most important of all,
the country in which the children lived became real,
their country.
The methods here used in applying the visual idea
Some Successfully Applied Methods 207
to teaching geography to a backward group were practical,
comprehensive and effective. The motion picture
was only one of the aids used. In such motivation it
has a definite and a valuable place.
In a Texas School
A practical method is used in the Franklin School at
Port Arthur, Texas, one of six schools in a town of
22,000. Three teachers are assigned to the auditorium,
carrying no other work. One of the teachers is in
charge of visual instruction, to which three days a
week is given, two days to motion pictures and one day
to lectures with slides. Miss Terry, the director of
visual instruction, writing of her work, says:
The children come into the auditorium daily by grades, each
grade having a separate period of forty-five minutes. With
this excellent arrangement we are able to correlate the pictures
with our course of study. Through conferences with
the teachers, academic and special, I become familiar with
what the children of each grade are studying in each subject,
and then schedule the picture accordingly.
We are using two projection machines, a Powers 6B and
a Zenith. We also have a Balopticon which we are using for
slides with our new Trans-Lux screen. Placing the machine
on the stage back of the screen, there is no necessity for
drawing curtains.
I find children keenly enjoying a lecture illustrated with
slides after they have seen the same subject in motion pictures.
There was a time when the children registered disappointment
at seeing films other than features. Now they see
purely educational films more or less intelligently and enjoy
them. The best work we have done in visual instruction has
been for our classes in geography.
Miss Terry then outlines a course in geography for
the New England, Middle Atlantic, Southern, Central
and Western States and for certain foreign countries,
from which we quote in part to show how this teacher
solved her problem.
208 Motion Pictures in Education
VISUALIZED GEOGRAPHY COURSE
THE SOUTHERN STATES
(1) General. Film Southern States (SVE).
(2) Agriculture: Cotton. Films -The Land of Cotton
(SGE), Cotton Ginning, Marketing and Manufacturing
(USDA).
(3) Sugar. Film How Sugar Is Made (Tex. A. M.
College).
(4) Rice. Film Rice Industry (Ha).
(5) Lumbering: Soft Pine. Film Story of a Stick (LB).
(6) Ranching. Film From Texas Trail to Your Table
(Ax).
(7) Oil. Films Glimpses of the Texas Oil Fields (BCE),
Oil Industry (Ha).
While it is more effective, where possible, to have
a projector in the room of each class to which motion
pictures are to be shown, in order to save the time and
distraction of going to the auditorium and to make
the pictures more an integral part of the work of that
class, where this is not practicable, the plan of having
the classes go to the auditorium for the pictures is
the next best alternative and has proven decidedly
workable.
In a Hackensack School
One example of the public school tests being conducted
for Dr. Freeman, University of Chicago, is in
Hackensack, N. J., under the direction of Miss Marietta
L. Higgins, until recently a member of the Visual
Education Committee of the Board of Education of
Berkeley, California, and now teaching geography in
Hackensack. Following are typical lesson plans which
have been carefully arranged and standardized by Miss
Higgins for use in her tests and which involve the use
of films and other visual aids. These tests, like those
Some Successfully Applied Methods 209
of Mr. Rabenort in New York, are infinitely more
valuable than the tests referred to in Chapter IV, in that
they are also part of the regular classroom work and
are therefore able to be conducted under normal conditions
by experienced teachers.
LESSON PLAN NO. i
Subject (Belgium.
Project "How the People Live and Work."
Sub-topics to be given and handled by individual pupils or
by groups according to the judgment of the teacher.
SUB-TOPICS VISUAL AIDS
Situation Maps
Surface Geographies
Government Books
History Films
Industries of People Books, still pictures, stereographs,
slides, and films
Cities Slides, still pictures and films
Home Life Books, still pictures and films
Types of People Films
Products Still pictures and films
Appreciation Lessons Slides and films
Checking-up Lesson (Oral) Films
LESSON PLAN NO. 2
Subject South America.
Project Three Steamship Companies, with offices in San
Francisco, New Orleans and New York. These offices regularly
conduct the business of these companies. Representatives
are sent to all the seaports at which these boats will
touch. Letters are exchanged. Imports are ordered, exports
are arranged for.
Representatives at large buy and send to shipping ports
bananas, cocoa, rubber, wool and hardwoods.
Visual Aids 4( i) Still pictures; (2) Slides; (3) Films.
South America is studied in relation to our trade with our
sister continent.
Films on the banana industry, rubber industry, nitrate industry
and the coffee industry are obtainable in short lengths.
They are invaluable.
210 Motion Pictures in Education
In discussing these lessons Miss Higgins says:
To obtain the best results, the teacher must carefully prepare
her lesson in relation to the visual aids she will be
able to use. In other words, she must know her material as
well as her subject. To the interested teacher, this is no hard
task. The results will far outweigh the effort.
A class that was taught South America by the method
outlined in Lesson Plan No. 2, finished four weeks sooner
than any other class I had taught and checked up better.
The class averaged 85% on a test on South America given
to the class by the principal of the school.
In the tests which Miss Higgins has thus far conducted,
with all the control factors standardized, the
classes using visual aids have consistently averaged at
least twenty per cent higher than those deprived of
them.
A specially selected series of the Burton Holmes
films on Belgium were used in connection with Lesson
Plan No. 1, as an appreciation lesson, after the rest of
the work had been done. Before the showing of these
films, but after all other visual aids had been used,
seventy-two per cent of the class averaged seventy per
cent and above. After the showing of the films, the
same questions were asked as in the previous test, without
an opportunity being given the pupils to discuss the
lesson further or to check up on their previous answers.
The result of the second test showed ( 1
) ninety per cent
with seventy and above, (2) the average of the original
seventy-two per cent much higher and (3) those originally
below seventy per cent averaging about fifteen
per cent higher than before.
Miss Higgins is also responsible for the statement
that she is able to shorten the course in geography in
the grades by six months, by the use of visual aids
including motion pictures, and do the work better.
Some Successfully Applied Methods 211
She advocates the use of films in five hundred feet
lengths, taking six or seven minutes to show, as better
suited to school needs than the longer units, and insists
that they be shown in the classroom instead of the
auditorium, in order better and more closely to tie
them up with the class work.
It is interesting and highly significant that practical
teachers who have gained successful experience by long
and observant use of motion pictures in instruction,
even though approaching their conclusions through different
channels, arrive at so many similar findings
convincing evidence that the conclusions are sound,
the methods pedagogically correct.
XI
TECHNIQUE OF INSTALLATION AND
OPERATION
BEFORE introducing films into the school curriculum
the school superintendent, principal or teacher wants to
know: (1) what is needed; (2) how much it will cost;
(3) how to install the equipment, and (4) and how
to use it.
Let us start with the simplest possible equipment,
taking as a concrete example a school which began its
film instruction work with a small portable projection
machine, a stand or table on which to place it, and one
extra reel. The total cost was a little over two hundred
dollars. No screen was needed because the walls of
the room, being light buff in color, made an excellent
screen. If the walls of a classroom are smooth and
of a neutral shade, light buff is probably the best, no
other screen is needed. The back of a large wall map
makes an excellent screen. Roller screens that can
be pulled down over the blackboard are often used.
These range in price from about $15 for a six by eight
white sateen screen to $200 and up for a de luxe screen
of the same size. The best portable projectors cost from
$180 to $300. Extra reels we recommend two to start
with cost from about seventy-five cents to one dollar
each. An extra table or stand can usually be found in
the school equipment. Film instruction then can be
started at a minimum cost of $200 to $300, depending
largely upon the projector purchased.
Even with the simple equipment enumerated a few
212
Installation and Operation 213
accessories are desirable and should certainly be added
at the start if films are to be used with any degree of
regularity. It is always well to have at hand a twentyfive
cent bottle of film cement for splicing broken film,
a pair of scissors and a package of razor blades, to use
for making splices, and a pair of rewinds.
If the films used are always to be returned to the
exchange from which they are rented, immediately
after use, splicing equipment will not be needed, but
if they are to be run a second time before being returned,
splicing equipment and rewinds may prove
indispensable. Paper clips can be used to join the
film together if it breaks after it
passes through the
mechanism of the projector and it is not to be run
again, but it should not be run again until all clips are
removed and splices made.
The Ideal Equipment
The ideal equipment for a modern, up-to-date school
wishing to use films regularly would consist of a professional
motion picture projection machine, or preferably
two, installed in a fireproof booth, erected and
wired in accordance with all rules, regulations and requirements
of the Board of Fire Underwriters and
in conformance with local fire regulations, a good
screen and a fully equipped projection room. This
would cost from $2,000 to $3,000.
One High School in the West spent $2,500 for
motion picture equipment as follows:
Two projection machines $1,000
Generator (direct current) 850
Screen 450
Miscellaneous equipment 200
The money was advanced by the Board of Education
and repaid within two years. The same High
214 Motion Pictures in Education
School soon bought a small portable projector for
classroom use from the proceeds of the Friday night
"movies," which also paid for all rentals for classroom
films. This High School found that the best equipment
and service paid.
Here we have the two extremes, an exceedingly
simple equipment with which motion pictures can be
introduced and a complete equipment for a school audi-
torium.
Equipment for the motion picture palaces is of course
much more complex and expensive than that which any
school would need. For example, in the Capitol Theatre,
New York City, the largest theatre in the world,
seating 5,000 people, there are four completely equipped
projectors of the latest type in a projection room
41 feet long by 19 feet deep, with windows opening
on the street and exhaust fans, a vent pipe running
from the lamp house of each projector to the open air.
The current (D. C.) is supplied through five 125 multiple
unit rheostats. Each projector draws 125 amperes
at an approximate pressure of 68 volts. (The usual
amperage ranges from 20 to 50. )
The throw is 107 feet and the picture is projected
on a special white screen. The projection and the
musical score are synchronized through the medium of
speed indicators. In the rewind room is a specially
built vault for the storage of film. The complete
equipment represents an expenditure of approximately
twenty thousand dollars.
Different Kinds of Film
Before determining what kind of projector to buy,
a decision must be made as to the kind of film to be
used.
THREE TYPES OF FILM
(See List of Illustrations for description)
Installation and Operation 215
Professional standard film is 1% inches or 35 millimeters
wide. It comes in two kinds, mtro-cellulose or
celluloid film, called "inflammable," and acetate of cellulose,
called "slow burning" or "safety" film. The
slow burning film is also made in narrower width, 28
mm. or 1%6 inches, called "safety standard," 16 mm.
and 9mm. Positive inflammable or celluloid film is not
made in these narrower widths.
We have no disposition to take sides in a controversy
which has become violent regarding the relative merits
of the "professional standard" and "safety standard"
or 28 mm. types of film. We shall confine ourselves
to stating briefly the actual facts as we know them and
allow the reader to draw his own conclusions.
The main question involved at the present time is
that of inflammability of the standard width on the one
hand versus the limited supply of safety standard on
the other. Nitro-cellulose film is highly inflammable
and has to be used with care to obviate fire danger.
On the other hand, a vastly greater supply of subjects
is available in the standard width stock. There is not
one-tenth of one per cent the films in the narrow forms
that there are in the standard and what is obtainable
can be had in a very limited territory. The fact that
the safety standard has been in use in this country
for ten years and has not in that time been built up
into a larger library makes us fear that an adequate
library in this or other off-standard size is not a future
probability.
Purchasers of the safety standard equipment have
found that they soon exhaust the available library and
then, unable to obtain additional pictures in sufficient
quantity, undertake to turn their narrow width projectors
in as part payment on standard machines. There
216 Motion Pictures in Education
are, on the other hand, also instances where, after having
fire trouble the owner of a standard width machine
has exchanged it for a safety standard type.
Some excellent school subjects are available only in
the safety standard form, and the champions of that
film point out that for pedagogical use a distinct character
of subject matter will be built up which can be
had only in the narrow width.
Where films are being used extensively in a school
or school system in the places where narrow width
service is to be had, it might be well, if funds permit,
to have both types of projectors. A number of schools
have. The fact that school rentals for narrow width
films are less than those of professional width appeals
to educators. Before investing in the narrow width
type, however, the teacher should assure himself by
other means than merely perusing the catalogue what
and where his actual supply of films is.
Announcement has recently been made by the Eastman
Kodak Company concerning what they term a
third standard in the size of film, a ribbon of acetate
stock, 16 mm. wide.
For the use of this stock they have produced both
a camera and a projector, small in size and light in
weight. While the immediate purpose of this development
is primarily home and amateur use, the Eastman
people expect to be able ultimately to popularize
it for school use. The resources of the Eastman Company
make the project worthy of consideration. Many
advantages are claimed for this narrow width of film,
because of a special emulsion which gives a much finer
grain than in ordinary film and a new and efficient system
of illumination, by means of which a picture can
be obtained up to ten feet in width, it is equal in every
Installation and Operation 217
way, in detail, general quality and brilliancy, to the
larger pictures in the theatre. This being so, it is
claimed that for classroom and small auditorium use
the small film has every advantage over both the "professional"
and "safety'* standards, but most particularly
in economy. The new film is one-sixth the area of the
professional, very much cheaper per foot, and less footage
will be needed for the same amount of picture.
There are forty frames per foot instead of sixteen as
in the standard and four hundred feet is equivalent
to a full one-thousand-foot reel of ordinary film. The
smaller bulk of reels and machines will be an additional
advantage. The fact that it is on slow burning stock
will commend it to school use.
The Eastman Company proposes later to supply for
this size an adequate library of films. For at least the
next two years, however, they will confine their efforts
to supplying the amateur field with machines and raw
films. The price of the raw stock will include development
after exposure. For amateur use, a direct positive
is made in the camera, thus eliminating the cost of printing.
Prints for school and similar use can be made
by reduction printing from standard negative. In other
words, prints in the smaller size can be obtained from
the millions of feet of standard-size negative already
in existence. The fact that the Bell & Howell Co.,
prominent makers of cinema equipment, are manufacturing
cameras and projectors for the 16 mm. film and
that the manufacturers of the Actograph camera, originally
designed for use with \7 l
/2 mm. film, are reconverting
it for use with the 16 mm. width will help
further to standardize this size. Pathe has also recently
evolved a still narrower film, 9 mm. in width.
It will be interesting to watch which, if any, of these
218 Motion Pictures in Education
narrow widths obtains any permanent footing in school
work. They possess the one great advantage over the
standard slow-burning film of much lower cost.
Austin C. Lescarboura, Managing Editor of The
Scientific American, writes regarding inflammable versus
slow-burning film:
The usual professional standard film has a celluloid base,
or, to use the language of the chemist, it is made from nitrocellulose
stock. This material is little different from guncotton,
and as such it is of course highly inflammable. Still,
there is no reason why the careful operator should have any
trouble with celluloid film. Our leading theatres handle mile
after mile of film each working day, yet never experience any
trouble with the highly inflammable material they are handling.
Celluloid film will not blaze up by itself; a blaze or intense
heat must be applied for a period sufficient to start a blaze.
The majority of projectors today are so designed as to reduce
the fire hazard to an absolute minimum, being equipped
with such safeguards as automatic shutters, which drop down
in the path of the source of light when the speed of the
machine drops below a predetermined point; fireproof magazines
which hold the film reels, and fireproof traps through
which the film passes in and out of the magazines. At worst
only a few feet of film, which happens to be exposed between
the upper and lower magazines of the usual projector, can
burn, causing little or no damage.
The greatest hazard connected with the use of inflammable
films is while the films are not in actual use. The inveterate
smoker is a positive nuisance where films are being unpacked,
examined, rewound or otherwise handled. In fact,
film should always be kept in cans until it is actually about to
be placed in the projector. There is no excuse for having a
film fire if ordinary care is exercised.
Of course it cannot be denied that there must be a certain
sense of security that goes with slow-burning film. Such
film is made of an acetate-of-cellulose stock, which, unlike
celluloid, burns quite slowly if at all. If a match or great
heat is applied to celluloid, it immediately flares up with a hot,
rapid flame. The slow-burning stock, on the other hand, begins
to burn if one is persistent, and then only with a weak
and lazy flame which generally dies out as soon as the source
of the fire is removed.
Installation and Operation 219
Of late years manufacturers of motion-picture film, which
is known as the raw stock in blank condition, have turned
their attention towards acetate-of-cellulose or slow-burning
stock, so that the non-theatrical exhibitor can use slow-burning
films in any standard projector or portable projector with
absolute safety. Such film is somewhat more costly than
the celluloid stock, but more and more producers are turning
to such film for educational and other non-theatrical reels to
be used under conditions far from being as safe as those in
the average theatre. In fact the motion picture industry in
general is of the opinion that in time celluloid must go. It
may not be next year or five years from now, for a heavy
investment is represented by the millions upon millions of
feet of celluloid film now in general circulation; but eventually
all film will be of the slow-burning variety, even though such
film is more costly, thus eliminating all possible source of danger
from both non-professional and professional exhibitions.
Although there are weighty arguments to be found
on the side of the use of the sub-standards based on
safety and economy, it is the opinion of the writers that
the professional standard width of film will permanently
prevail, but that this will ultimately be accomplished
through the adoption of slow-burning film, not
only for the classroom but for all purposes. The larger
non-theatrical school film companies are now placing all
their films on this stock, as is the U. S. Department
of Agriculture. So, too, are many industrial concerns
which are having films made showing their products or
processes. There is a bill pending in Congress now
requiring the general adoption of the acetate film by
the year 1925, and though this particular bill will probably
not pass, some such bill, we think, will some day
become a law.
The use of the acetate film instead of the celluloid
for theatres as well as for school and home use is
strongly advocated by the National Board of Fire
Underwriters. Objections to its use are the greater
tendency to dry out and become brittle if not kept in
220 Motion Pictures in Education
a moist container or vault and that it is less efficient
and costs more than celluloid film of the same size. It
is manifestly desirable that one standard be adopted
which can be used satisfactorily both in the large auditorium
and in the classroom, so that the same film which
is shown in the auditorium for the entire school may
also be shown in the classroom and in the church or
school hall.
There should certainly be in every well-appointed
school auditorium a projector on which can be run the
best of the great photoplays, news reels and other suitable
films of the regular sort. The time will never come
when all of these will be produced both in the regular
size and in a sub-standard form. Hence a school or
church, in order to have access to all types of film,
would need to have at least two types of projectors and
maybe more, depending upon how many of the substandard
sizes are in use.
Doubt as to which machine to purchase has delayed
in many schools the installation of any projector and
has been a serious factor in holding back the advancement
of the use of films in visual instruction.
Laws and Regulations
One of the most troublesome problems connected
with the use of projectors in schools is the lack of
uniformity of the laws and ordinances on the subject
and the harshness of some of the rulings.
In many jurisdictions no provision whatever is made
for the use of films in schools, and the schools, therefore,
are required to meet the conditions laid down for
theatres, and in some places, by literal interpretation of
law, not even a safety-standard machine, using only
slow-burning films, can be used without a fireproof
IMPROVED PROFESSIONAL PROJECTOR
(See List of Illustrations for description)
Installation and Operation 221
booth according to certain rigid specifications. In most
places, however, the narrow-width machines can be
used without restrictions, and in many places the enclosed
or suitcase type of standard-width projector
can be used without booth if the slow-burning film is
used.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Indiana are examples
of States permitting the use of portable projector without
booth if slow-burning film is used. Some States,
such as Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island,
take the unreasonable stand that no projector capable
of using inflammable film can be operated outside a
regulation booth even though actually using only slowburning
stock, on the assumption that the temptation to
use inflammable film will be too great to resist. On the
same theory a portable machine is not legally permitted
in a booth in Massachusetts, because of the facility with
which is might be removed and used elsewhere without
a booth. Of course these are ridiculous extremes,
which like much other extreme legislation often cause
the laws to become dead letters.
The State of New Jersey, until recently one of the
most rigidly unreasonable in these matters, has now
manifested its confidence in its teachers by providing
that a certain type of approved portable projector may,
under the supervision of the Board of Education, be
used in the classroom with any kind of film, without a
booth. The Legislation Committee of the Visual Instruction
Association of America is working for the
general adoption of such an arrangement. Until this
happens or until slow-burning film stock is generally
adopted by all or a large part of the motion picture
industry, some doubt on the part of educators about
to obtain equipment is unavoidable.
222 Motion Pictures in Education
With this brief statement we must refer the interested
reader, without further comment, to the voluminous
literature on these subjects issued by the various
manufacturers of projectors. But in the matter of
installation do not take the advice of the maker of projection
machines alone. Abide by the active local laws
even if they be unreasonable. Inquire what are the
local practices and follow them. Of course if the law
be a dead letter and not enforced, it has not the full
sanction of law.
Before making a decision as to the installation of a
machine the teacher or principal should ascertain from
the local authorities what these local practices are. It
is not practicable to give such information in this book
because the requirements differ so greatly not only in
different States but in different cities and counties of the
same State. Further, if the insurance regulations covering
the school in question are more strict than the requirements
of law, the advice or permission of the officials
of the insurance company underwriting the school
should be sought.
If the regulations contained in a proposed ordinance
for theatres recommended by the National Board of
Fire Underwriters are followed in so far as they apply
to school work, all difficulties with fire and insurance
authorities can be prevented. This proposed ordinance
reads as follows:
AN ORDINANCE TO REGULATE THE EQUIPMENT
AND OPERATION OF MOTION PICTURE
MACHINES AND PREMISES WHEREIN
THE SAME ARE OPERATED
Section i. (a) By the term "picture machine," as used in
the following sections, is meant any machine or device operated
by or with the aid of electricity, calcium light or other
Installation and Operation 223
illuminant, and adapted or used to project upon a screen or
other surface pictorial representations in which films are used.
(b) By the term "inflammable film" is meant any film whose
base is nitrated cellulose.
(c) By the term "safety film" is meant any film having
slow-burning characteristics as determined by the Underwriters'
Laboratories or other suitable authority.
Section 2. From and after the passage of this ordinance
no picture machine shall be installed, maintained, operated or
licensed, except when in conformity with the provisions of
this ordinance.
Section 3. Every picture machine using inflammable film
shall be installed or operated within a booth, to be not less
than 6x8 feet in size and 7 feet high. The booth shall be
built of brick, tile, or plaster blocks, plastered on both sides,
or of concrete, or of metal frame of angle iron not less than
i
l
/2 inch by 1^2 inch by Y^ inch, properly braced to secure
rigidity, and sheathed and roofed with sheet iron of not less
than No. 20 U. S. metal gauge, or with 54 inch hard asbestos
board securely riveted or bolted to the angle iron frame ;
or 2
inches of solid metal lath and Portland cement plaster may be
used.
(a) The entrance door into the booth shall be at least 2 feet
by 5 feet, of the same construction as the booth, and so arranged
as to close automatically by metal rope and weight
attachment, or by a spring of sufficient strength and tension
to keep the door securely closed.
(b) The orifice or opening for the operator's view, or
through which the picture is thrown, shall not be larger than
6 inches by 12 inches, and shall be provided with a gravity
door of the same construction as the booth, which door shall
be held open by fusible links placed in series with fine cords,
so arranged that one of the links is suspended directly over
the film when in the slide of the apparatus, or the door shall
be so arranged as to be normally closed and held open by pressure
of the operator's foot.
(c) All shelves, furniture and fixtures within the booth
shall be constructed of incombustible material, and no combustible
material of any sort whatever shall be permitted or
allowed to be within such booth, except the films used in the
operation of the machine.
(rf) Each booth must have an opening not less than twelve
inches in diameter, for ventilation, which must be flanged to
carry standard conductor pipe for exhausting the hot air
generated in operating the machine. Connection for ven-
224 Motion Pictures in Education
tilation should vent to chimney or outside of building, in
order to carry off hot air or explosive gases.
Section 4. All picture machines shall be of a type listed
by the Underwriters' Laboratories. Inflammable films not in
the machine shall be kept within the booth enclosing the machine
in boxes, with tight-fitting covers. Hot carbons taken
from the lamps shall be deposited in a metal receptacle.
Section 5. The electrical wiring shall be in accordance
with the rules and requirements for electric wiring embodied
in the National Electrical Code. Each lamp connected with a
picture machine shall be provided with a separate switch located
within the booth. There shall also be two switches
controlling the lights in the exhibition room, one of which
shall be operated from the booth and the other so placed that
it is within the reach of the ticket taker or other person
stationed at the entrance door. There shall be provided a
separate system of lighting, controlled by switches operating
red signal lamps, and located within the reach of the ticket
taker, and there shall be one such lamp placed at each exit,
with a sign marked "EXIT" in letters not less than five inches
high. The location of these signs and lights shall be determined
by the Chief of the Fire Department.
Section 6. No picture machines using inflammable film
shall be installed, maintained or operated in any building that
does not abut directly upon a street, and in no case shall the
main floor of such exhibition room be more than four feet
above or below the adjoining street level. To overcome any
difference of level on the ground floor, ramps shall be employed
of not over one foot in ten feet; no steps shall be
permitted. Exit doors shall be at the level of the sidewalk.
In exhibition rooms directly abutting upon one street, the
booth enclosing the picture machine shall be placed at that
end of the room which is opposite and farthest from the
street, or on a balcony. No room shall be used as an exhibition
room unless it has at least one separate and distinct
exit in addition to the front exit. In exhibition rooms located
at the corner and directly abutting upon two streets, or on a
street and an alley, the booth enclosing the machine may be
located at the end of the room opposite to and farthest from
either street or alley. All exits and entrances shall open directly
from the exhibition room upon the street or alley or into
a vestibule or lobby opening immediately into the street or alley.
No exit in exhibition halls for picture machines shall be
less than five feet wide and all exit doors shall be arranged to
swing outward. The aggregate width in feet of such exits
Installation and Operation 225
shall be not less than one foot for each twenty persons to be
accommodated thereby. All aisles shall lead directly to exits
and all exits shall be directly accessible to aisles. No aisle
shall be less than three feet in width.
All seats in any exhibition hall for picture machines shall
be securely fastened to the floor and shall be so arranged that
there will not be more than six seats between an aisle and a
wall and not more than twelve seats between two aisles.
No stage, platform or scenery shall be placed, maintained
or allowed to remain in any exhibition room for picture
machines unless of fireproof material.
Section 7. Incandescent electric lamps shall be used
throughout for border lights, footlights and stage purposes.
Section 8. No individual, partnership or corporation shall
be permitted to conduct the business of moving picture exhibitions
using inflammable films, until the applicant therefor
has procured from the Chief of the Fire Department his
certificate that the premises where the exhibitions are to be
given and the apparatus used in connection with the said
exhibitions are in compliance with this ordinance.
Section 9. The Chief of the Fire Department shall have
authority and it shall be his duty to revoke the license issued
to any person, firm or corporation for conducting or maintaining
picture machine exhibitions, when he shall be satisfied
that such licensee has violated any of the provisions of this
ordinance. Provided, however, before revoking such license
opportunity shall be given such licensee to appear before said
Chief of trie Fire Department and show, if possible, cause
why the same should not be revoked.
Section 10. The requirements herein named so far as
Installation of picture machines using inflammable film and
the construction and location of booth are concerned, shall
apply to theatres, churches, schools and public halls.
Section 11. Every person, firm or corporation maintaining
or using a picture machine with safety (slow burning)
film only and without a booth, shall file with the Chief of
the Fire Department a statement that only safety, or slow
burning, film will be used.
Section 12. Any person or persons found guilty of violation
of any of the provisions of this ordinance, or failing to
comply with the terms thereof, shall be fined not less than
five dollars ($5) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25)
for each offense, and every day of maintenance of prohibited
conditions shall constitute a separate offense.
226 Motion Pictures in Education
Do not confuse "safety" film with "safety standard"
film. The former refers to the slow-burning stock in
any width, the latter refers only to the 28 mm. width.
Several sections of this ordinance apply only to theatres
but if a school runs motion pictures for entertainment
several nights a week it
may be placed in the
theatrical class, and the same regulations and rate of insurance
would then apply as to theatres.
The significant facts to be remembered by the prospective
or actual users of films are these: The National
Board of Fire Underwriters frowns upon the use of
nitro-cellulose or inflammable film anywhere. If it is
used, a booth is required no matter what type of projector
is used. The point is made here that the great
hazard is in the handling of film itself and that film
should be handled only in a booth, separated from the
audience.
On the other hand, slow-burning film may be used in
any type of projector without a booth, according to the
Fire Underwriters' rulings, though some state laws and
municipal ordinances forbid the use of any standard
width film without a booth built in accordance with
their specifications.
There is a clause in every fire insurance policy saying
that the policy may be declared null and void if the
policy holder increases the fire hazard without notifying
the agent. Therefore, as a matter of precaution, it is
well to secure a written permission from the insurance
company, through the agent, to use films, even if a
booth is used.
Architects' Plans
Architects of school buildings should not neglect to
make full provision for motion picture projection in
Installation and Operation 227
the school auditorium. For a new school to be built
in this day without the proper type of projection booth,
complying with the requirements of the fire underwriters
and the local laws and ordinances, is a serious
and costly omission, for the school may find it necessary
to install a booth which will probably cost considerably
more than if it had been included in the original
plans. Besides, an added-on booth is often unsightly
and spoils the architectural lines of the room.
The architect and the school board should ascertain
in advance the exact requirements of both the fire department
and the insurance companies regarding booth,
wiring, installation, etc., so that they will not be put
to extra and unnecessary expense later. One school
had the unpleasant experience of finding that a booth
built when the school was erected, though absolutely
fireproof, would not pass the local fire underwriters'
requirements because it did not conform to the exact
specifications laid down by them. There is still another
instance where a concrete booth, though very much
safer than the booth required by law, was not passed
by the local board because it did not conform to the
letter of the law.
Types of Projectors
Standard width projectors may be divided into three
general classes the professional, the semi-professional
and the portable.
The professional type is the kind used in theatres
and large auditoriums. They cost from about $500
upward, depending upon model and its attachments.
The Powers, Simplex, the Motiograph, the Fiester, the
Baird and the Graphoscope are examples of this group.
They are not suited to classroom use but are the type
228 Motion Pictures in Education
recommended for school auditoriums. In practically
all cases they must be used in a fireproof booth made
to specifications.
The professional projectors are equipped with a more
powerful light than are the other types and should
be used in all cases where the distance from the lens
to the screen is over one hundred feet. For throws of
this distance or more the arc lamp equipment should
be used. During the past year new developments have
been attained with Mazda lamps for use in motion picture
projection with such excellent results that the time
may soon come when the Mazda will entirely replace
the arc, but that time has not yet arrived. We can
recommend the monoplane filament Mazda incandescent
lamp equipment for use in the professional projector
when the throw is less than one hundred feet. Types of
projectors below the professional are generally equipped
solely with incandescent lighting.
Most of the portable projectors are self-contained in
a suitcase type of box with handle for carrying and
weigh between twenty and thirty pounds. The better
known makes are the De Vry, the Acme, the American
Projectoscope and the Portmanto (Graphoscope).
They sell for between $180 and $300. Some of them
are good for a maximum throw of 50 or 60 feet but,
for the most part, they work better at not to exceed
forty feet. They are the type pre-eminently suited to
classroom use. They are safely built, with excellent
fire prevention devices where needed, comparatively
simple to operate and, within proper limitations of
distance, show an excellently clear and steady picture.
The suitcase or box is made of fire resistant material
or is lined with asbestos and acts as a kind of booth.
In selecting this type of projector great care should be
Installation and Operation 229
exercised in picking out the type that has a lamp strong
enough for the distance of throw required. Other
considerations, such as price, durability, etc., should be
weighed and will doubtless influence the prospective
purchaser.
The semi-professional group, as the name implies,
occupies a middle position between the professional and
the portable types and partakes somewhat of the advantages
and shortcomings of both.
The group is represented by such makes as the
Graphoscope, Jr., the Zenith, the Burwood, the Victor
Animatograph and the Acme S. V. E. They sell at
from about $250 up to $365. The Graphoscope, Jr.,
has the same mechanism as the professional model and
can be equipped, at extra cost, with the Mazda monoplane
filament lamp which will give a throw of one
hundred feet or more, bringing it
practically into the
professional class. The majority of projectors of this
group are equipped with lantern slide attachments
which work satisfactorily. And while some of the professional
type are so equipped, their light is too strong
for glass slides and cracks them if left on view for
more than a few seconds. The semi-professional types
are lighter and cheaper than the professional models
but have not their length of throw nor on the other hand
the extreme portability of the portables. They have
not a stronger lighting system than the best of the
portables.
There are other light projectors, not of the suitcase
type but of open construction. These are not usually
as favorably received by the fire authorities and for
the most part are not as efficient. The price of some
makes of this type is as low as $50. While some of
these cheaper machines give a satisfactory performance
230 Motion Pictures in Education
at short distances, others are no more than toys. It is
unwise to purchase for school use a hand-driven machine
as are most of these cheaper types.
There are four safety standard projectors on the
market, the Pathescope, the Victor and one model each
of the Beacon and the American Projectoscope. These
sell at from $200 to about $300. They have a limit of
throw of about fifty feet.
Electric Current
The electric current ordinarily found is 110 volts.
Sometimes 220 volts is furnished. Home generated
current is sometimes 32 volts, sometimes 110. The
projectors referred to above are usually equipped to
operate on 110 volts but can be fitted at the factory to
operate on either 220 volts or 32 volts, or a transformer
may be furnished to build up the current from 110
volts to 220 volts or to step it down to 32 volts, as
needed.
The semi-professional, portable and narrow width
projectors can be operated from ordinary electric light
sockets by removing the lamp and screwing in its place
the plug on the end of the cord attached to the machine.
This operates both light and motor. Special wiring has
to be provided for the professional machine. In purchasing
a projector the voltage on which it is to be used
should be told. All projectors except the professional
have universal motors which operate with either direct
or alternating current.
Schools which have not electric current or which
make their own may operate certain of the portables
or semi-professionals from a generator attached to the
engine of a motor car or from the school generating
plant. And there are types of projectors to be had for
Installation and Operation 231
which the electric generator can be operated by hand or
the jacked-up rear wheel of an automobile. The cinema
is thus able to penetrate to the schools furthest
removed from civilization.
Many schools do not confine themselves to one make
or one type of projector but as the work in visual
instruction progresses add more and more equipment
to meet the varying needs.
In 1919 the Newark school began the use of films in
visual instruction work, and two years later an inventory
of visual aids showed thirty-four motion picture
projectors in use, eleven Power Mazda, nine Power
Arc, two Graphoscope, Jr., three Simplex, two Edison
Arc, two Pathescope, two Safety Cinema, one Peerless
and for portable work one Safety Cinema and one
Power Combination.
This great variety of types in the one school system
was probably owing to the fact that various schools
may have purchased independently. Better rates and
better service could probably be secured by purchasing
fewer types through a central agency.
It is not the province of this book to recommend the
kind of projector to be purchased. It can only lay
down a few general principles and leave the application
to the reader.
For the auditorium, the professional machine should
certainly be the preference, particularly if the distance
between the booth and the screen is long one hundred
feet or over. In fact, for a throw of seventy-five feet,
the professional type is recommended. If the professional
type is too expensive, then ascertain which of
the reliable portable and semi-professional makes have
(and note that we say have and not claim to have)
232 Motion Pictures in Education
the most efficient illumination and longest throw and
give that weighty consideration.
For classroom use, a portable type is recommended.
A portable may also be used in a small auditorium or
in a larger one when the machine is placed near enough
to the screen. Some users say they have secured efficient
results with a certain make of portable at eighty
feet from the screen.
Some of the semi-professional types are self-contained
in one assembly unit and can, without excess of
effort, be transferred from one room to another.
Screens
Next in importance to the projector is the screen.
The best screen is a smooth white or light-colored wall.
The next best is an absolutely opaque, flat white surface
screen. The back of a large wall map serves the purpose
admirably. A very good screen of flat white type,
which is practically unbreakable and will not wrinkle,
sells for one dollar per square foot. For an ordinary
classroom, a screen six by eight feet is sufficiently large.
The lowest price at which any satisfactory screen can
be bought is about thirty cents per foot for a white
sateen screen. Only fair results under ideal conditions
can be obtained from this kind of screen, since it is not
entirely opaque and considerable light passes through.
A heavy canvas makes a better screen.
Metallic surface screens which give a high illumination
can be purchased at from fifty cents to one dollar
and a quarter per foot. This type of screen increases
the brilliancy of the picture and so makes possible the
showing of a larger picture, a picture at a greater distance
from the projector, or a better picture in a room
not entirely dark or projected by a weaker light than
Installation and Operation 233
with other types of screens. These screens are ordinarily
called aluminum, silver, metallic or gold screens.
There are several different makes.
Most of the screens mentioned can be supplied on
spring rollers or may be mounted on a stretcher frame.
Some may be obtained with graumets inserted, through
which a rope for stretching or fastening is run.
Usually as clear and as sharply defined a picture can
not be obtained from a metallic or other highly reflecting
surface as from a flat surface because of the halation
caused by the reflection of the light. Something
of clearness is sacrificed to increased brilliancy. Where
conditions are ideal, therefore, where projector illumination
is adequate, the room dark, and the distance
from the screen right, we would recommend the flat
white surface screen.
A "daylight screen" is to be had which permits a
clear picture to be shown in the subdued light of the
ordinary classroom, provided the direct rays of the sun
do not strike the screen. The use of this screen obviates
the need even of drawing down the shades. This
screen is translucent and requires rear projection.
Either the projector must be in the rear of the screen or
a mirror must be placed in rear. In the latter case the
picture is thrown onto the mirror and reflected back to
the screen. Darkness is required back of the screen
between the projector and screen or between the projector,
mirror and screen. This type of screen costs
about three dollars per square foot.
While this type of projection is scarcely practicable
in many classrooms as at present arranged, we can
imagine the classroom of the future in which a portion
of the wall is given over to a set-in screen and where,
at a given signal from the teacher and without a pre-
234 Motion Pictures in Education
liminary drawing of curtains, a sharp, clear picture
suddenly appears illustrating the subject matter which
is being studied.
Accessories
If the films are to be run more than once during the
same period of rental, splicing material will be needed
and a pair of rewinds desirable. Most of the portable
and semi-professional machines are equipped with rewinding
attachments, but rewinding in the projector
causes unnecessary strain and wear on the motor.
Further, where- a break has occurred in the film or it
is necessary or desirable for other reasons to rewind
the film outside of the machine, separate rewinds will
be needed. "Vest pocket" rewinds for occasional use
can be purchased for a small sum. Full size rewinds
cost from about $7.50 upward. The amateur will find
a splicing machine helpful. While as much as $50
can be paid for the latest type of splicing device and
so-called automatic splicing machines cost $200 or $300,
a thoroughly practical type can be obtained for $13
or $14 and more simple kinds for even much less. An
ingenious person can rig up one for himself. Many
skilled projectionists do not use a splicer at all. A few
razor blades and a twenty-five-cent bottle of film cement
will complete the requirements. It is well to get the kind
of cement which will mend both slow-burning and
inflammable stock. The ordinary kind is good only
for the latter. A small pair of scissors and a Ij^-inch
or 2-inch straight edge will be helpful.
Principles of Projection
Full directions for threading and operating accompany
the projector and it is not necessary to go into
Installation and Operation 235
such details in this book. However, a simple explanation
of some of the fundamental underlying principles
of the motion picture and a few practical suggestions
as to the handling of the film may not be amiss.
Motion pictures are nothing more nor less than a
series of still pictures of a moving object taken at very
short intervals, ordinarily of about sixteen exposures
to a second, and projected in the same succession at
about the same rate of speed. When shown at this
speed the eye retains one impression for a fraction of
a second after that image has disappeared and the next
appears. The overlap causes the illusion of actual
motion. This phenomenon is called "persistence of
vision."
These exposures appear on the film as little photographs,
one inch wide and three-quarters of an inch
deep, called "frames," sixteen to the foot. There are
approximately one thousand feet to the standard reel,
sixteen thousand individual, separate photographs, except
for the reading matter or titles, which are repeated
on each frame for approximately as many feet as there
are words.
To accomplish the semblance of motion the still pictures
are taken on a strip of sensitized celluloid film
which moves past the aperture in the camera, between
each exposure, a distance of three-fourths of an inch.
While this film, usually called "negative," is in motion,
one of the blades of a revolving shutter covers the
film and protects it from the light. The periods of rest
and motion in the film as it passes through the camera
are so short and rapid as to simulate continuous motion.
As a matter of fact it moves by a series of short jerks.
This is known as the "intermittent movement" already
referred to in Chapter I.
236 Motion Pictures in Education
This intermittent movement lies at the very heart
of the motion picture. Without it the cinema as we
know it today would be impossible. To provide for
this series of jerks two loose loops of film must be
provided, one above and one below the sprocketed
wheels above and below the aperture. These sprockets
intermittently jerk the film downward.
The projection machine works on exactly the same
basic principle as the camera. A series of sprocket
wheels pull and guide the film from the feed magazine
past the aperture and feed it into the take-up magazine
where it winds up on the take-up reel. If you start
the mechanism and then immediately stop it, you can
see the direction in which the various sprocket wheels
travel. You can tell by studying this movement how
to thread the film through. The film passes between
the sprocket wheel and the guard in the direction in
which the wheel is turning. A loop of film about I
1
/*
inches high is left above the gate and below the sprocket
wheel which is immediately below the gate. This is
the intermittent sprocket. The loops are left to prevent
the film from breaking just as a loop of thread is left
in the sewing machine to keep the thread from breaking.
This part of the explanation should appeal to
the women teachers interested in film projection.
It is highly important in threading the machine, to
see to it that the film fits snugly and straight in the gate
and that the gate is closed.
The film is more glossy on one side than the other.
The glossy side is the celluloid side or back of the film,
the dull side is the one coated with emulsion and in
which the picture lies. In all projection machines, except
the Graphoscope, the film should be threaded in
such a way that the emulsion side is toward the light
Installation and Operation 237
source. The Graphoscope projects through a prism,
which reverses the image and requires that the celluloid
side be placed toward the light source.
Of course, film must run through the gate upside
down, just as a lantern slide is placed in the stereopticon
lantern upside down in order to make the image
come right side up on the screen. In determining
therefore whether the film is "headed up" on the reel,
that is, whether it has been rewound for running, hold
the film upward from the reel. If the little pictures
are right side up, the reel is ready to run; if wrong
side up, it must be rewound before running. In threading
the film on to the take-up reel in the lower magazine,
first observe which way the reel turns while the
motor is running.
How to Patch Broken Film
A word about patching broken film. At first it may
seem difficult and sound complicated to the beginner,
but by being careful and accurate a little practice soon
makes it easy and simple.
When a splice must be made, two frames or pictures
are usually lost, but unless the action is very swift the
absence of one or two frames does not interrupt the
action sufficiently to be noticed. To cut out more than
this may cause a perceptible jump. When a film is torn
and a splice must be made, first cut off the torn portion,
cutting at one end along a "frame line," the narrow
black line separating two pictures. On the other end,
cut parallel to the next frame line but a little above, at
least T\ inch before you come to the next line. Then
lay this end of the film emulsion side up on the table,
lay a metal straight edge of some sort (a razor blade
will do) along the frame line, then moisten the A
238 Motion Pictures in Education
inch strip of film exposed and scrape the emulsion off
clean. Apply the film cement to this strip so that every
part is covered, and place the celluloid side of the other
end on top so that the two frame lines come together.
Press tightly together for a moment or two and the job
is done if the cement is good and you have been skillful.
If not, apply the cement again. If it does not hold
then you may as well begin all over again and cut away
the width of another frame from each end, for film
will not weld unless thoroughly clean. If a splice
comes apart it is usually best to cut away the width of
a frame on each end and make a new splice.
If a splice comes apart in the machine below the
gate, it will be necessary only to start and run the
motor sufficiently to give you film enough to attach
with a paper clip to the film on the take-up reel. If
the separation occurs above the gate, you will have to
re-thread.
A reel of film should always have a piece of extra
film or "leader" spliced on to the beginning to be used
in threading up and to protect the picture. If the
leader should become unspliced it should be patched on
again. This may be done without scraping, by placing
the two celluloid sides together. Another piece of
leader is needed at the end of the reel to protect the
film as it leaves the mechanism.
As a protection against fire and for the sake of
neatness all reels which are not in actual use should be
kept in the cans or containers in which they come from
the exchange or film library.
Never let the rays of light from the lamp play
on the film or film gate when the film is not running.
When you wish to stop the machine turn out the
light, turn down the douser, or push the lamp house
Installation and Operation 239
aside, as provided in the particular projector being used,
before turning off the motor. The skilled operator does
both simultaneously. In starting, first start the motor
before turning on the light, lifting the douser or pulling
the lamp house into position.
Of course, keep your machine oiled and clean and in
good condition. A particle of dust in the film gate
may mar a good projection and a hair or thread across
the film when projected will look like a log in its path.
During projection, stay with your machine, with your
hands on or near the controls. This is not only a
necessary precaution against fire with inflammable film,
but a protection against mechanical damage to either
type of film.
If the film is not to be run again before its return
to the exchange, do not rewind or make any splices,
since the exchange prefers to examine and make repairs
while rewinding. And finally return films promptly so
that the next borrower on the list may not be disappointed
and you may not incur additional rental charge.
Should you be directed to forward the films to another
borrower, rewind and repair the film before sending it,
as he may not have the time or requisite knowledge or
facilities for doing so. Put yourself in his place. You
expect to receive film ready for running and so does he.
There are of course many points about adjusting,
caring for and running projectors which can not be
touched upon here but for which the novice will have
to depend on the specific instructions accompanying the
machine and the instructions of the agent. Neither
can we go into the matter of optics and lenses or repairs.
Special literature is available on these subjects
at any public library.
Our only purpose here is to lay down some general
240 Motion Pictures in Education
principles and suggestions which will make the reasons
for things clearer and convince the amateur, particularly
of the gentler sex, that the mechanics of motion
picture projection are after all not so forbidding or
terrifying as they might at first have thought. After
all, threading and running a motion picture projector
is very little more complicated than threading and running
a sewing machine. The technique of installation
need frighten no one who desires to use film.
Film instruction can be introduced into a school on
a small scale with simple equipment and at a comparatively
small cost. Ways and means of raising funds
to pay for a projector are numerous. Usually the
Board of Education appropriates the money, or loans
it, the Parent-Teachers' Associations finance it, or
friends and patrons may underwrite the project. Projectors
have been bought on credit and paid for from
the proceeds of school entertainments.
The following general rules set forth in the U. S.
Bureau of Education bulletin on Motion Pictures and
Motion Picture Equipment are worthwhile and should
be observed. As will be noted, some of the suggestions
apply only where a booth is required:
(1) Secure from the proper State authorities, city or
county officials and board of fire underwriters a copy of existing
rules and regulations governing the installation and
use of motion picture apparatus and films. This will be a
guide as to the handling and storage of film, insurance regulations,
etc.
(2) Decide upon a room or hall that is to be used.
(3) Locate the place where the projector will stand and
where the screen will hang.
(4) Measure the distance between the two points.
(5) Consult the company that manufactures your electric
current and ascertain the voltage they supply.
(6) Secure from the company that insures the building a
permit for the installation of a motion-picture projector.
Installation and Operation 241
(7) Purchase projection outfit, metal cabinet with springhinged
doors for holding reels, screen, booth, if required, pair
of re-winders, patching block, bottle of cement, shipping
labels, caution labels, special cement for fastening labels to
metal shipping cases (glue or paste will not hold). Get the
kind of labels required by law in shipping films by express or
parcel post.
(8) Engage competent electrician to install proper size
cable for the electric current required. Also install on the
ceiling of the booth one ordinary i6-candle power electric
lamp, with pull chain switch.
(9) Place inside of booth near door one pail of sand, one
pail of water, and one small hand fire extinguisher. Also
place sand, pail of water and extinguisher near booth outside
of door.
XII
LATE DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE
POSSIBILITIES
IN the thirty years since the first showing of films in
the form we know them today, the term "motion picture,"
then unknown, has come to mean a vast industry,
involving the expenditure of billions of dollars,
touching the lives of six million people daily (conservatively
estimated) and influencing their thoughts and
habits and ambitions for good or evil. The motion
picture is no longer in its infancy, or if so it is a precocious
infant, for it is now going to school, to church,
to college and has even entered business and made its
way into the professions.
In its different ramifications the motion picture today
is commanding the attention of some of the best
brains of the country, not only of noted authors and
prominent educators but of artists, scientists and in-
ventors.
Many arts and some of the most exacting sciences
go into the making of the present-day films. The skill
of the chemist, the physicist, the painter, the sculptor,
the designer, the dramatist, the artist, the actor, the
artisan are employed in building the productions we
see on our screens today. And for the building of the
pedagogical film we must add the skill of the educator
expert in the particular branch which the film teaches.
When we stop to consider the numerous elements
242
Late Developments and Possibilities 243
that go into the making of a motion picture, the many
hands through which it passes, the many minds through
which it must filter from author to censor, the highly
technical knowledge required in its handling and treatment
as it moves along its uneven and often tempestuous
path from camera to screen, the wonder is that the
result is as good as it frequently is.
The motion picture of excellence demands exceedingly
rare qualities in the men who produce it. In the
first place, a literary genius with a strongly developed
dramatic instinct is needed to furnish the scenario. To
put that scenario into workable continuity requires the
technical knowledge and skill of one who knows literary
values and also the limitations and possibilities of
the motion picture camera and the resources, financial
and technical, of the producing company. The camera
man who is to film the picture should know the science
of photography, something of art, much of cinematographic
values and what his individual camera can
and can not do. The actor should possess imagination
as well as dramatic ability and a knowledge of the
pantomimic art. The director who controls the destinies
of the production should have a knowledge of
world literature, especially of the dramatic; of sculpture,
because from it he learns grace and line ; of painting,
for from it he learns composition ;
he should know
color and light values and in addition should have ideals
and imagination and tact and diplomacy, in fact he
should have the ability of eight ordinary men! And
the technical men in charge of the details of our picture
par excellence should be experts in their respective
fields, be they directors, technical directors, electricians,
engineers, craftsmen or mistresses of the wardrobe.
After actors, technicians, camera men and directors
244 Motion Pictures in Education
have done their parts in recording the picture drama
or narrative on sensitized film, the undeveloped negative
is sent to the laboratory where it again passes
through many expert hands and may be made or
marred in the passing, depending upon the expertness
and knowledge of those handling it.
In motion picture laboratory processes we find a
most striking example of the application of chemistry
to industry. The importance of the laboratory end of
the industry is often under-estimated. In the best
laboratories even the air is cleaned and washed and
kept at a given temperature to prevent the slightest
particle of dirt or dust from reaching and marring the
film and to assure slow and even drying.
After it leaves the laboratory the film has still a
long path to travel, and often a difficult one, in cutting,
editing and titling. Many a good film has been mutilated
in these processes, and clever cutting and titling
have helped otherwise inferior films to box office success.
Now come the censors! The London censors
recently eliminated several scenes from a picturized
version of Oliver Twist, not because it was not true to
the book, but because they did not think those parts of
Dickens' work were good for children, and the Philadelphia
censors once ruled out the presentation of the
Passion of Christ because it showed cruel and inhuman
treatment.
To make the films we see today is an art, a science
and an industry. In order to express ideas in this new
language the motion picture of necessity takes to itself
and applies all the other arts that have gone before,
architecture, sculpture, painting, pantomime, the technique
of the drama, and the rhythmic art that lies back
of dancing. Music is used as a setting to give at-
Late Developments and Possibilities 245
mosphere and for its psychological effect. Special music
has been written for certain film dramas and greatly
increased their appeal. The worlďs greatest literature
has been used as a basis for scenarios, and scenarios of
the future may prove, themselves, to be world literature.
Motion pictures have been the stimulus for many
great developments in art,' science and industry. This
is notable in the field of illumination. The "sunlight
arc/' for example, and the 1,000-watt monoplane filament
Mazda lamp have been developed primarily for
cinematographic use, and recently a 30,000-watt incandescent
lamp, with a capacity of about 60,000 candlepower,
the largest lamp of its kind ever manufactured,
was developed primarily for motion picture studio
work. The wattage is 1,200 times greater than the
average household lamp and the electric power required
to operate three such lamps would run a trolley car.
It is also claimed that the light from them is the nearest
to sunlight yet achieved artificially. Thirteen of
these lamps have been made for one motion picture
studio.
Although much has been accomplished along all lines
and today a whole new world stands revealed by means
of the cinema, there are great possibilities for improvement
in practically every branch.
Many new discoveries and inventions are being made
and improvements perfected.
Experiments are being conducted with film stock,
both to improve the quality and the "fastness" of the
present stock and to replace the celluloid stock now
in use with a cheaper and non-inflammable material
(paper arid even aluminum are being tried) ; with
cameras for the taking of pictures; with all types of
projectors used in showing films; with lighting effects
246 Motion Pictures in Education
for taking pictures, almost an unexplored field ;
with
color photography; and with stereoscopic films and
films that talk.
Noteworthy experiments now being conducted are
those of Jenkins for the purpose of substituting continuous
for intermittent movement in motion picture
projection. All projectors over the world now employ
the intermittent movement mechanism used in the original
Jenkins machine which has been on view to the
public at the National Museum at Washington, Graphic
Arts Department, since 1896.
It is interesting to note that Jenkins first attempted
to use the continuous instead of the intermittent movement
and has now gone back to the original idea and
found a means of applying it. Its application means a
continuously running film, less wear on the ribbon and
a light increase which will insure brighter projection.
Applying the new principle to machines for the home
has resulted in the invention of the discrola, which
resembles a phonograph in appearance. The picture
record is lithographed on paper discs, many of them
in color, in continuous spiral form. The idea of such
a picture carrier was patented some time ago. It was
not found practical until the discovery of the new
principle of the rotating reflector glass ring which does
away with the intermittent movement. Although these
inventions, wfiich have been witnessed privately by the
authors, have not as yet been placed on the market,
their general application may have a far-reaching effect.
As so often occurs, other inventors have been working
along the same lines. We read that "a shutterless
projector" with a continuously running film has been
perfected by Samuel Bardy. In his machine, according
to report, "there is a wheel with a series of lenses
Late Developments and Possibilities 247
fixed to its rim, and this wheel, continuously revolving,
moves the film."
As a result of some of the improvements mentioned
and of other developments of a more highly technical
nature, we now have the stereoscopic picture, the film
in natural colors and the talking picture, long predicted
by the prophets and concerning which experiments have
been made since the beginnings of motion pictures.
Stereoscopic Films
It is interesting to note that two different processes
used in making stereoscopic films made their first public
appearance in New York during the same week,
the last week of 1922, a fitting climax, as it were, to
the achievements of the year.
One was announced as the "Plasticon," or "film of
the future," and the other as the "Teleview." In both
of these productions motion pictures achieve the third
dimension. To obtain the desired effect, in the case
of the Plasticon pictures, the spectators has to look
through colored glasses passed to them by the ushers,
red covering the right eye and green the left. To view
the Teleview films the spectator looks through a contrivance
fitted with a revolving metal shutter synchronized
with the shutter of the projector. The results
are extremely life-like pictures, particularly vivid where
great distances appear. The pictures are no longer flat
surfaces. The objects pictured have depth as well as
length and breadth.
They stand out in bold relief, possessed of the third
dimension. The figures appear to be projected into
the air in front of the screen, so close to the spectator
at times that it almost seems possible to touch them.
The illusion of reality is thus heightened without the
248 Motion Pictures in Education
aid of the closeup, which tends to magnify facial defects
and which has been greatly overused.
Films in Color
Much has been said and many predictions made regarding
motion pictures in color. Color, as well as
form, has a psychological effect. It has value in expressing
emotions. Color photography when rightly
used and combined artistically with black and white
can add much to the artistic effect of a film. It can
be and has been used effectively to show the beautiful
and focal things in historical plays and fantasies, in
portraying birds and flowers and clothes and other
colorful subjects. At Jenkins' first public exhibition a
film in color was shown. This was colored by hand,
too expensive for general use. A process in which
stencils are cut and color applied by machinery is the
method used today in the Pathe colored films.
Many processes of natural color photography have
been applied to the cinema with some degree of success.
The Kinema-color process attained quite good results,
but, like the trichrome pictures of Gaumont, it requires
special projection equipment, and for this reason has
not become commercially successful. For several years
short reels made by the Prizma color process have been
shown in some of the leading theatres of the country
and have pleased. The first natural color film of
feature proportions was made in Prizma color and
shown in London early in 1922 and in April of the
same year in New York City.
The next feature film in color to make its appearance
on Broadway was in November, 1922, when New
York saw its first Technicolor film, entitled Toll of the
Sea. The technicolor process used in taking this film
Late Developments and Possibilities 249
in nature color was invented and perfected by Prof.
Daniel C. Comstock of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, after seven years of effort. Critics agree
that the results are the most natural and realistic color
values yet achieved on film.
Color value may also be given to film by tinting and
toning. Tinting is dyeing the film any given color by
dipping the entire piece of film into a color bath. Toning
is accomplished by a chemical bath reacting on the
silver in the emulsion. It colors only the darker portions
of the film and leaves the high lights clear. Pleasing
color combinations are obtained by a combination of
tinting and toning. For example a pretty sunset effect
may be secured by using a blue tone with a pink tint,
giving to the film a range of colors running from blue
through the intermediate hues of purples and lavenders
to clear pink.
Although the picture-going public has seen and enjoyed
films in color, natural and applied, and color is
being used discriminately more and more to gain special
effects, the art of color cinematography has still much
to accomplish before a thoroughly satisfactory result
is obtained.
Talking Pictures
Even before films in the form we have them today
were known, Muybridge visited Edison to discuss
whether there was not some way by which the pictures
projected by his impractical Zoopraxoscope could be
synchronized with the talking machine. Many attempts
have been made since with varying success. Leon Gaumont
gave some successful "filmparlants," but perfect
synchronism between voice and film could not be sus-
250 Motion Pictures in Education
tained because the film continued to break and in being
spliced fell behind the time of the phonographic disc.
Other inventors have been working along different
lines in an attempt to record sound vibrations photographically.
The history of such attempts dates back
almost as far as the telephone. But it has remained
for Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the photion tube
and audion amplifier to make commercially practicable
the talking motion pictures, or the phonofilm, as he
prefers to call it.
In a recent interview which the authors had with
Dr. De Forest, he explained that the phonofilm, as the
name implies, is the combination upon the same piece
of film of sound and picture. To accomplish this the
voice is translated first to electric current and then to
light waves of different densities which are photographed
on a very small portion of the sensitive film.
The phonofilm resembles any other motion picture film
in general appearance. Close examination, however,
shows a square picture, with a dark band %2-inch wide
down one side. This dark band is a photographic reproduction
of sound. To record the voice the ordinary
motion picture camera is used with the addition of the
photion tube, by means of which sounds, which have
been translated into electric current are re-translated into
light and the light recorded on the sensitive film. After
the sound has been photographed comes the problem
of translating it back into sound. This is done by
Changing the steady light into fluctuating light and
the fluctuating light into electric current which is then
amplified. A sound projector lamp and a photo electric
cell encased in two small metal tubes, which can be
inserted in any standard projector, accomplish this
feat and make the projection of talking motion pic-
Late Developments and Possibilities 251
tures commercially possible. But in order that a theatre
audience may hear the sound so recorded the electric
current is amplified one hundred thousand times by
Dr. De Foresťs invention, the audion amplifier. The
first public exhibition of the phonofilm was at the Rivoli
Theatre, New York City, during the week of April 15,
1923.
Probably many readers heard a demonstration, over
the radio on Christmas Eve, 1922, of speeches by Vice
President Coolidge, Secretary of War Weeks and Secretary
of Navy Denby, made in Washington and
recorded photographically on a motion picture film.
The speeches were broadcasted from Schenectady and
heard throughout this country and in some parts of
Europe.
Movies by Radio
And going one step further we are scarcely surprised
by the announcement that motion pictures of the next
presidential inauguration may be broadcasted by radio,
not hours afterwards, but at the time they occur, so that
crowds in distant cities may see the inaugural parade
as it wends its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the
Capitol, and both see and hear the President as he takes
his oath of office, at the time of the occurrence.
When we visited Mr. Jenkins at his laboratory in
Washington, where he is still busily at work endeavoring
to perfect pictured motion, he informed us that he
was working on apparatus for sending films by radio ;
and now comes the public announcement that by means
of his machine it is possible to broadcast pictures,
eliminating prints, plates and other media.
The process consists briefly in "slicing" the photograph
to be broadcasted into hundreds of perpendicular
252 Motion Pictures in Education
sections, and of moving the projected image of each
section across a so-called photo-electrical cell whose
ability to carry on electric current varies with the intensity
of light falling upon it. The apparent slicing
is accomplished by projecting the image through a revolving
prismatic glass disc which operates similarly to
the shutter of a motion picture machine. Light variations
are transformed into electrical current variations
and are reproduced as they are received in perpendicular
"slices" and a completed picture built up. To accomplish
this a new type of disc prism is employed. To
transmit a still picture by radio now takes from three
to six minutes, that length of time being required for
the whole image to travel across the cell of the sending
outfit. Motion pictures by radio are merely a question
of greater speed. News pictures by radio appearing
in the movie palaces of our large cities may be
expected in a few years or perhaps months, so quickly
are things happening.
With the natural color, stereoscopic, talking, moving
picture all combined into one and that broadcasted by
radio at the time of its occurrence, we may well say
that there is nothing in the world, or in the sea beneath
or in the air above that can not be shown by means of
motion pictures. And this is literally true.
Aerial photography is proving more and more revealing
and correspondingly useful. A special camera
which works at a height of three miles has brought
down absolutely trustworthy data on the area covered.
The U. S. Geological Survey is making use of the
airplane and motion picture camera in charting the
Atlantic Coast. A French hydrographer has secured
remarkable results with the air camera in mapping the
harbor of Brest. A large western lumber company
Late Developments and Possibilities 253
conceived the novel idea of using aerial photography to
count logs in river and bay !
With the invention of the submarine tube by the
Williamsons, the wonders of the ocean have long since
actually been photographed, and microphotography has
revealed other wonders which have now become com-
monplace.
Animated Drawings
Animated drawings open a whole new field and have
perhaps their greatest application in the educational
film. By means of animated drawings and models it
is possible to show many things that can be shown in
no other way. Through this means, a cross section of
a steam turbine can be shown at work, or the interior
workings of an automobile engine can be explained in
a fashion that a child in the grammar grades can understand.
Hidden machinery can be revealed, the complicated
operation of intricate machinery can be shown
in detail, a motor revolving at the rate of five thousand
revolutions a second can be slowed down so that its
every movement can be easily followed and the generation
and passage of electric current through it easily
traced. These devices find application to school films
in practically every branch of study. Already they
have made the mysteries of the solar system an open
book. And animated maps have enhanced greatly the
value of geographic films. Animated drawings can
present physiology in a way impossible through straight
photography, and so with many other subjects. The
potentialities of this field are limitless for future development.
Dr. Frank N. Freeman, Professor of Educational
Psychology, Chicago University, is authority for
the statement that "the animated diagram may give a
254 Motion Pictures in Education
better notion of structure and relationship than the sight
of the object itself."
Participation of Men of Prominence
One of the very definite steps forward in the development
of the field of educational films is the entrance
from official life of such men as Francis M. Hugo,
former secretary of state in New York. He, like
William G. McAdoo and Will H. Hays, of presidential
cabinets, who have entered the film industry on
the theatrical side, has undertaken the organization of
leaders of thought of the country behind the production
and use of suitable pictures for school and church. To
make it possible to assume this task on a practicable
basis, Mr. Hugo has, while this book is in press,
accepted appointment as chairman of the board of
directors and executive committee of National NonTheatrical
Motion Pictures, Inc. Hugo's advent into
this work lends a stability to the activity which only
the participation of such substantial figures in public
life can give.
An even later development is the appointment of
Dr. Charles H. Judd, Dean of Education of the University
of Chicago, by the National Education Association,
as chairman of a committee to cooperate with
the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association
(the Will H. Hays organization) in the production
and use of educational film.
European Progress
Equally significant in the growth of the visual idea
in the school world is the coming to the United States
of a representative of the Swedish government, in the
person of Mr. Bengt Berg, well-known author and
Late Developments and Possibilities 255
naturalist, to study the progress in the use ol films in
schools. Mr. Berg, who has also studied film conditions
in Europe, in discussing with the authors the
report and recommendations that he would make to his
government, stated as his opinion that the United States
had made by far the most extensive use of films in
education, with Sweden second, France third, and England
fourth, but that Germany would undoubtedly have
been in the lead had it not been for the World War.
The more progressive countries of Europe, according
to Mr. Berg, are arrived at the point where they
are ready to utilize films as an educational factor, but
their financial burdens are so heavy and their income
so limited that no European country or municipality
can afford at this time to supply its whole educational
system with motion picture equipment.
Mr. Berg's recommendation to his own country is
(1) to arrange first with motion picture theatres to
show educational films to the same classes of several
schools at one time; (2) later to equip the larger
schools in every city or township with motion picture
apparatus, which will be available for the use of the
other schools; (3) ultimately to equip every school and
perhaps every class with a projector. This goal he
considers a long way off.
He sees a very real objection to the use of films in
the classroom in the inability of the woman teacher to
handle the projector efficiently. This attitude seems to
us to be due in part to the continental point of view
with regard to women. The observations of the authors
lead them to believe that the woman teacher is, as a
rule, quite capable of handling the classroom projector,
although we have recommended that a pupil or another
teacher or perhaps the school janitor learn to run the
256 Motion Pictures in Education
machine, in order to leave the teacher free to conduct
the class.
Mr. Berg emphasizes the importance of using only
the best possible pedagogical films for use in teaching
the impressionable minds of the new generation.
Conclusions
It needs no great stretch of the imagination to look
a short distance into the future and see the cinema,
with all its shortcomings removed and its imperfections
ironed out, occupying its proper and ideal place in
school work, not as a usurper, not in the place of any
of the elements of the school which time and experience
have proven essential, but as a valuable helper, making
lessons easier here, simpler there, quicker, more pleasant
and perhaps more economical for pupil and school.
The mechanical difficulties will probably be first of
solution. Eye strain, which is growing less each year
as shutter action becomes better, will probably be entirely
obliterated. The technique of installation and
operation will be vastly simplified so that the woman
teacher will experience even less trouble with such problems
than she faces today. The fire hazard will no
longer be a factor, for slow-burning film will have been
adopted either for all purposes or at least for all school
needs.
Through production in the large quantities needed
by the schools, films will be cheaper than today and
ample financial provision shall have been made for films
and all other visual aids to meet the school demand.
Full daylight projection will be an accomplished fact.
The screen will be an integral part of the classroom
wall, the projector will either be permanently installed
in a concealed position or be a proper part of the school-
Late Developments and Possibilities 257
room architecture and proper electrical connections will
of course have been provided when the school itself was
built.
In that day the talking picture will have been perfected,
and instead of sub-titles appearing in the film,
appropriate explanations of the picture will be given
orally either by the film itself or perhaps, in accordance
with William Parks' plan, by the teacher himself while
only a number instead of the reading matter appears
on the screen.
Of course improved pedagogical methods will have
been developed for the use of all visual aids and their
definite value more fully and concretely determined.
The method of use of motion pictures will be taught
in all teacher-training schools, where there will be
regular courses in visual instruction.
Pictures of unquestioned pedagogical value will be
available on all subjects capable of being presented
effectively in film, and there will be an abundance of
such material to choose from.
Every school system will have its visual education
supervisor, an expert who will provide and oversee the
use of all visual aids. Some large school systems may
have film libraries of their own for which they will
either buy outright or, better, lease by the year the
films which they will need continuously and will have
well-organized systems of deliveries of visual materials
through the school system. Educational film companies
will provide similar service to smaller school
systems, private schools, colleges and universities.
The teacher who has observed the march of events
motion-picturewise and given the subject of visual education
serious thought will surely recognize that we are
indulging in no wild and idle dream but that these
258 Motion Pictures in Education
prophecies are based on logical premises and are the
inevitable working out of forces actually in operation
at the time of this writing.
Whatever adds to the efficiency of the school adds
to the strength of the nation. Whatever increases the
broad education of the child contributes to the moral
stamina of the coming generation. The factors tending
towards a better common understanding between
the nations and peoples of the world will be the strongest
guarantees of peace in the years to come. The
welfare of the world lies in education, moral and intellectual,
and whatever facilitates the training of the
will and the understanding of man is working for his
true happiness. Materials of instruction through the
sense of vision have been improving in character and
increasing in variety and effectiveness and their use
has been adding to the value of school work even before
Comenius introduced the illustrated textbook. As a
fitting culmination to these centuries of growth has at
last come the "visual textbook/' as the pedagogical
film is now sometimes called, bringing the wide world
to the child, making him know at first hand, as it were,
and better understand the people of other countries,
their problems and their aspirations; causing him to
recognize the brotherhood of man; broadening his
viewpoint and his sympathies even as does travel and
association with nature.
Thus will visual education help our earnest army of
teachers broaden the youth of the land. Thus will our
children be improved, their wills inspired, their moral
fibre strengthened by a wider knowledge of the worthwhile
things of earth. If a great photoplay can inspire
and strengthen, and if the morals of the nation can be
Late Developments and Possibilities 259
endangered by the depths to which all too many pictures
descend, certainly the potency of the instructional
film must be great indeed and should be given full
opportunity to contribute to the nation's peace and well
being.
APPENDIX
Motion Picture Distributors
A selected list of distributors whose films are mentioned in
the foregoing chapters, who have collections of considerable
size suited to instructional use, or who handle specialized
libraries.
Only firms whose films are mentioned in the body of the
text are given key initials in the list below. Write to addresses
here given for catalogues, information regarding
prices, branch office, etc.
COMMERCIAL COMPANIES
American Farm Bureau Federation,
58 East Washington Street, Chicago, 111.
Distributes to agricultural organizations films relating to
farming.
(A) Argonaut Distributing Corporation,
71 West 23rd Street, New York City.
Distributes primarily in New York City, film courses correlated
with the curricula of the New York City Public
Schools.
Beseler Educational Film Company, Inc.,
71 West 23rd Street, New York City.
Affiliated with Community Motion Picture Bureau.
Distributes educational, religious and entertainment films
for non-theatrical use.
(B) Bray Productions, Inc.,
130 West 46th Street, New York City.
Distributes theatrical releases through Hodkinson, nontheatrical
films directly.
(BCE) Bureau of Commercial Economics,
Washington, D. C.
A commercial concern which distributes industrial and
educational films free to non-theatrical users.
(Ca) Carter Cinema Producing Corporation,
220 West 42nd Street, New York City.
Distributes educational films from New York.
261
262 Motion Pictures in Education
(CA) Catholic Art Association, Inc.,
80 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes religious films to Catholic institutions.
(Cl) Clinical Film Libraries,
132 West 42nd Street, New York City.
Distributes medical and surgical films to medical schools,
hospitals, etc.
(C) Community Motion Picture Service,
46 West 24th Street, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Furnishes selected programs and service to community
organizations, schools, churches, etc.
(E) Educational Film Corporation,
729 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Specializes in the distribution of short length subjects for
theatres.
(EK) Eskay Harris,
130 West 46th Street, New York City.
Juvenile features.
(FP) Famous Players Lasky Corporation,
485 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature photoplays to theatres and in some territories
to the non-theatrical field.
(FBO) Film Booking Offices of America,
723 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature photoplays, comedies and short length
educational subjects to theatres and the non-theatrical field.
(FN) First National Exhibitors Circuit, Inc.,
6 West 48th Street, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature photoplays to theatres and in some territories
to the non-theatrical field.
(Fo) Ford Motion Picture Laboratories,
Detroit, Michigan.
Sells, rents and loans educational and industrial films.
Prints obtainable on non-inflammable stock.
Appendix 263
(F) Fox Film Corporation,
55th Street and Tenth Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature plays and news reels to theatres and
photoplays and re-edited films for educational use. Write
to New York office, Educational Department, for films for
non-theatrical use.
(Ge) Geographic Film Company,
206 Mercantile Library Building, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Scenics on the holy land.
(Ha) Harcol Film Company, Inc.,
330 Camp Street, New Orleans, La.
Distributes educational and entertainment films throughout
the southern territory.
Herald Motion Picture Corporation,
120 West 4ist Street, New York City.
Distributes films primarily to Protestant institutions.
Herm, Inc., Charles F.,
220 West 42nd Street, New York City.
Sells and rents prints of scientific subjects.
(H) Hodkinson Corporation, W. W.,
469 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature photoplays and one and two reel scenics
to theatres and also to the non-theatrical field.
Homestead Films, Inc.,
7510 North Ashland Avenue, Chicago, 111.
Distributes films primarily showing farm bureau work and
on farm subjects.
(K) Kleine, George,
116 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 111.
And 145 West 45th Street, New York City.
Matre's Library of Films,
76-78 West Lake Street, Chicago, 111.
Distributes primarily Catholic films.
(NN-T) National Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures, Inc.,
130 West 46th Street, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes educational, religious and entertainment films
in both professional and safety standard widths to the nontheatrical
field. Slow-burning stock.
264 Motion Pictures in Education
(P) Pathe Exchange, Inc.,
1600 Broadway, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes photoplays, news reels and educational subjects.
(Ps) Pathescope Company of America, Inc.,
35 West 42nd Street, New York City.
Distributes entertainment and instructional films. All
Pathescope films are 28 mm. wide and cannot be used in
projectors taking standard width 35 mm.
(PC) Pictorial Clubs, Inc.,
350 Madison Avenue, New York City.
Gives film service. Distributes feature films of three and
four reels, comedies and educational films. Prints obtainable
on slow-burning stock.
(PS) Picture Service Corporation,
729 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Branches in some other cities.
(PI) Plymouth Film Corporation,
46 West 24th Street, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes religious photodramas and educational subjects.
(Pr) Prizma, Inc.,
no West 40th Street, New York City.
Distributes films in natural color theatrically and nontheatrically
directly from New York office and in some
territories through state right distributors.
Romell Motion Picture Company,
115 East 6th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Distributes only 28 mm. films, which can be used only in
safety-standard projectors.
(S) Selznick Corporation,
729 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature photoplays to theatres and in some territories
to the non-theatrical field.
(SVE) Society for Visual Education, Inc.,
806 West Washington Boulevard, Chicago, 111.
Distributes school films on standard width slow-burning
stock.
Appendix 265
(UA) United Artists Corporation,
729 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature photoplays to theatres and in some
territories to the non-theatrical field.
(UPF) United Projector and Film Corporation,
69-71 West Mohawk Street, Buffalo, N. Y.
Branches in other cities.
Films are on slow-burning stock, 28 mm., and can be used
only on safety-standard projectors.
(U) Urban Industries, Inc.,
Irvington-on-the-Hudson.
Sells prints direct to schools. Distributes non-theatrically
through Pictorial Clubs, Inc.
(VT) Visual Text Book Publishers,
Los Angeles, California.
Distributes school films. Prints obtainable on slow-burning
stock.
(V) Vitagraph, Inc.,
East 1
5th Street and Locust Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Branches in other cities.
Distributes feature photoplays to theatres and in some territories
to the non-theatrical field.
(W) Warner Brothers,
1600 Broadway, New York City.
Distributes feature photoplays to theatres and to a limited
extent to the non-theatrical field.
(WF) Worcester Film Corporation,
Worcester, Mass.
Rents and sells industrial-educational subjects.
(WY) F. S. Wythe Pictures Corporation, 71 West 23rd
Street, New York City.
NON-COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
The majority of the following institutions distribute films
free of charge except for transportation. Some make a small
service or rental charge.
(AHS) American Humane Society,
Affiliated local societies.
Distributes a few films on animals.
(AM) American Museum of Natural History,
Columbus Avenue and 77th Street, New York City.
Lends films locally on special subjects.
266 Motion Pictures in Education
(ARC) American Red Cross,
Films formerly distributed through Red Cross chapters now
being released through the Society for Visual Education.
(See SVE under commercial companies.)
National Tuberculosis Association,
370 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Y. M. C. A/s, International Committee of,
347 Madison Avenue, New York City.
Distributes through local Y. M. C. A/s throughout the
country.
Y. W. C. A/s, National Board of,
600 Lexington Avenue, New York City.
Distributes selected films through local Y. W. C. A/s.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
The following educational institutions distribute films either
free or at small cost within the confines of their respective
territories. Some of these institutions, including the State
Universities, also furnish films for community use. Other
State Universities having no regular film service are able to
give information as to where films can be obtained and in
some cases actually obtain them for the inquirer.
California, University of,
Berkley, Calif.
Colorado, University of,
Boulder, Colorado.
Florida, University of,
Gainesville, Fla.
Illinois Agricultural Association,
608 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, 111.
Indiana University,
Bloomington, Ind.
Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts,
Ames, Iowa.
Kansas, University of,
Lawrence, Kansas.
Kansas State Normal School.
Emporia, Kan.
Kentucky, University of,
Lexington, Ky.
Louisiana State Normal School,
Natchitoches, La.
Appendix 267
Massachusetts, Department of Education,
State House, Boston, Mass.
Minnesota, University of,
Minneapolis, Minn.
Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College,
Agricultural College, Miss.
Missouri, University of,
Columbia, Mo.
Nebraska, University of,
Lincoln, Nebr.
(CC) New York State Conservation Commission,
Albany, N. Y.
(NY) New York State Department of Foods and Markets,
Albany, N. Y.
New York Bureau of Public Health, Department of Education,
New York City.
Health and food films.
North Carolina, State Department of Education,
Raleigh, N. C.
North Dakota Agricultural College.
Agricultural College, N. Dak.
Oklahoma, University of,
Norman, Okla.
Ohio, University of,
Columbus, Ohio
Oregon, University of,
Eugene, Ore.
Philadelphia Commercial Museum,
Philadelphia, Pa.
St. Louis Educational Museum,
St. Louis, Mo.
(Tex. AM) Texas, University of,
College Station, Texas.
Utah, University of,
Salt Lake City, Utah.
Washington State College,
Pullman, Washington.
(UW) Wisconsin, University of,
Madison, Wis.
268 Motion Pictures in Education
U. S. GOVERNMENT
(USDA) United States Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.
Requests for Department of Agriculture films should be
made through Agricultural Extension Department of State
University.
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce,
Washington, D. C.
Industrial films.
Children's Bureau,
Washington, D. C.
U. S. Bureau of Mines,
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Films on mining and mine safety work.
MANUFACTURING FIRMS
A selected list of firms whose films are mentioned in the
foregoing chapters and others who distribute a considerable
number of industrial-educational films. These films can
usually be obtained free of charge except for transportation.
(A) Amoskeag Manufacturing Company,
Manchester, N. H.
Cotton and wool industry films.
(Ar) Armour & Company,
Chicago, 111.
Packing industry.
(ANM) Mrs. A. N. Meyer,
20 East 75th Street, New York City.
American Optical Company,
Southbridge, Mass.
Films on care of the eyes.
Barber Asphalt Paving Company,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Films on road construction.
Barrett Company,
17 Battery Place, New York City.
Films on road building, coal, coke and coal tar products.
Borden Milk Company,
1 08 Hudson Street, New York City.
Films on dairying.
Burroughs Adding Machine Company,
Detroit, Mich.
Appendix 269
Buick Motor Company,
Flint, Mich.
Automobile industry.
(Su) California Fruit Growers' Exchange.
Los Angeles, Calif.
Carborundum Company,
Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Films on abrasives.
Carnation Milk Products Company,
Seattle, Washington.
Films on dairying.
(CP) Corn Products Refining Company,
17 Battery Place, New York City.
Disston (Henry) & Sons, Inc.,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Hand tools.
Doubleday, Page & Company,
Garden City, N. Y.
Book and magazine making.
(DM) Dry Milk Company,
New York City.
Dupont Powder Company,
Wilmington, Delaware.
Road building and use of explosives.
Eastman Kodak Company,
Rochester, N. Y.
Films on welfare and how movies are made.
(EA) Encyclopedia Americana,
27 William Street, New York City.
Firestone Tire & Rubber Company,
Akron, Ohio.
Films on welfare and automobile industry.
(GE) General Electric Company,
Schenectady, N. Y.
Films on a variety of educational subjects.
Ginn & Company,
Boston, Mass.
Films on bookmaking.
(GF) Goerz Flour Mills,
Kansas City, Mo.
(HM) Hecker Milling Company,
Minneapolis, Minn.
270 Motion Pictures in Education
Hercules Powder Company,
Wilmington, Delaware.
Holt Mfg. Company,
Peoria, 111.
Films on tractors.
(I) International Harvester Company,
Chicago, 111.
Films on farming, dairying, gardening and household
economics.
(KS) Keith Shoe Company,
Boston, Mass.
(K) Kirkman & Son,
Bridge and Water Streets, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Films on a variety of subjects, including the manufacture
of soap.
JUbby, McNeal & Libby,
Chicago, 111.
Films on food products.
(LB) Long-Bell Lumber Company,
Kansas City, Mo.
(M) Mitchell Motor Car Company,
Racine, Wis.
National Association of Manufacturers,
30 Church Street, New York City.
Welfare films.
National Cash Register Company,
Dayton, Ohio.
Welfare, community and safety device films.
Packard Motor Car Company,
Detroit, Mich.
Public Service Ry. Co.,
Newark, N. J.
(Sh) Sheffield Farms Co.,
524 West 57th Street, New York City.
(SO) Standard Oil Company,
New York City.
Underwriters' Laboratories,
Chicago, 111.
United States Steel Corporation,
71 Broadway, New York City.
Appendix 271
(WE) Western Electric Company,
195 Broadway, New York City.
(W) Westinghouse Electric Company,
East 'Pittsburgh, Pa.
RAILROADS
Films on scenery, welfare and Americanization.
Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co.,
Baltimore, Md.
Canadian Pacific Railway Co.,
Montreal, Canada.
Scenics. Also distributes through the Bureau of Commercial
Economics, Washington, D. C.
Canadian Pacific R.R. Co.,
Montreal, Canada.
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul R.R. Co.,
Chicago, 111.
Denver & Rio Grande R.R.,
Equitable Bldg., Denver, Colo.
Scenics.
Grand Trunk Pacific R.R. Co.,
Montreal, Canada.
Great Northern R.R. Co.,
St. Paul, Minn.
New York Central R.R. Co.,
Grand Trunk Terminal, New York City.
Northern Pacific R.R. Co.,
St. Paul, Minn.
Pennsylvania R.R. Co.,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Union Pacific R.R. Co.,
Chicago, 111.
There are several hundred other firms each of which has
one or more films showing its own products. Some of the
firms mentioned distribute both directly and through such
centers as the Bureau of Commercial Economics at Washington,
the Industrial Department, International Committee
of Young Men's Christian Associations, New York City, and
the Extension Departments of the State Universities.
Many of these films are useful for instruction and can
272 Motion Pictures in Education
usually be secured free except for transportation. A fairly
complete list of industrial films, classified by subjects, and
the sources from which they may be obtained can be purchased
for twenty-five cents from the National Board of
Review of Motion Pictures, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York
City.
Projection Manufacturers
A list of some of the principal makers of projection machines.
All the machines mentioned in this list carry the
professional standard width film (35 mm.), unless otherwise
indicated.
Acme Motion Picture Projector Co.,
806 West Washington Boulevard, Chicago, 111.
Acme (semi-portable and portable) projectors.
American Projecting Company,
6264 Broadway, Chicago, 111.
American Projectoscope (portable), professional standard
(35 mm.) or safety standard (28 mm.) width as preferred.
De Vry Corporation,
1240 Marianna Street, Chicago, Illinois.
De Vry (portable) projectors.
Nicholas Power Company,
90 Gold Street, New York City.
Powers' professional standard and light standard projectors.
Precision Machine Company,
317 East 34th Street, New York City.
Simplex professional projectors.
United Cinema Company,
130 West 46th Street, New York City.
Craphoscope (professional), Graphoscope, Jr. (seci-professional),
and Portmanto (portable) projectors.
Safety Projector Company,
310-312 West Second Street, Duluth, Minn.
Zenith (semi-professional) projectors.
Continental Sales Corporation,
112 Miners' Bank Building, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Burwood (semi-professional) projectors.
Victor Animatograph Company,
Davenport, Iowa,
Victor Animatograph (semi-professional 35 mm.) projectors
and The Victor Safety Cinema (28 mm.) projectors.
Appendix 273
Beacon Projector Company,
521 West 57th Street, New York City.
Beacon (portable) projectors, one model for professional
standard film and one model for safety standard film.
Pathescope Company of America,
35 West 42nd Street, New York City.
Pathescope (28 mm.), Peerless (35 mm.) portable pro-
jectors.
Screen Manufacturers
Some of the principal makers of reliable screens.
American Lux Products Company,
50 East 42nd Street, New York City.
Trans-lux daylight screens.
Minusa Cine Screen Co.,
2665 Morgan Street, St. Louis, Mo.
Metallic surfaced screens.
Raven Screen Corporation,
165 Broadway, New York City.
Halftone, flat white, rubber back screens.
C. S. Wertsner & Son,
211-221 North I3th Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Muslin, sateen, white and metallic surfaced screens.
Manufacturers of Miscellaneous Equipment
Johns Manville Company,
Madison Avenue and 4ist Street, New York City.
Branches in many large cities.
Asbestos booths.
George Howard, Inc.,
Mount Vernon, N. Y.
Sheet metal booths.
United Theatre Equipment Corporation,
25 West 45th Street, New York City.
Branches in other cities.
All equipment and supplies.
INDEX
Abel, Joseph, film work in Department of Agriculture started
by, 18
Abrams, A. W., quoted on still vs. motion pictures, 51
Academy of Visual Instruction, membership and purposes of, 33
Accessories, motion picture machine, 234
Acetate film, use of, in schools and homes, 216-220
Aerial photography, advances in, 251-252
Agriculture, films on, 26; use of films in teaching, 112-113
Agriculture, Department of: use of motion pictures by, 17-18; important
and unique films produced by, 19; pictures made by,
during World War and afterward, 20-21
Alaska, text-film on, 134, 188-191
Alice in Wonderland, film of, 101
Animal Circus, film for little children, 103
Animals, screen studies of, for school use, 141
Animated drawings, educational use of, 252-253
Annapolis Naval Academy, films produced by, 27
Ants, film lesson on, 183-188
Aquatic life, films for use in study of, 138
Architects, provision for motion picture projection to be made by.
Arc lamp, use of, in projectors, 228
Armat, Thomas, projection machine developed by, 11-12
Art, developments in, due to motion pictures, 245
Art galleries, as visual aids to education, 3
Associations, visual instruction, 32-33
Astronomy, films for instruction in, 122
Athletics, films for use in, 141; films used in New York Cit\
schools, 148
Balcom, Dr. A. G., quoted on use of films for instruction, 75-76
198-199; work by, in use of visual instruction in Newark
schools, 198
Bardy, Samuel, new style of projector invented by, 246-247
Barrett, E. R., arguments by, in favor of still pictures, 50
Berg, Bent, his views, 253
Bible, films on the, 143
Bible history, use of films for teaching, 114
Biology, film lesson in, 104-105; classified lists of films for teaching,
137-138; films used in New York City schools, 148, 149150;
lesson showing method of teaching, 172-173
Bird life, films for use in study of, 138
275
276 Motion Pictures in Education
Boag, Rev. C. W., quoted on use of motion pictures in church,
114-115
Bodine, W. L., quoted on "the four M's," 96-97
Bookman, article in, on motion pictures, 39-40, 54
Botany, films for teaching, 26, 138
Bray, J. R., film library of, 122
Bray Productions, Inc., film library of, 142
British Museum, impulse given visual education by, 3
Bryan, W. J., quoted on paying the cost for motion pictures, 65
Bureaus, governmental, film activities of, 19-20; industrial films
produced under supervision of, 130-131
Burgess, M. A., cited on courses in visual instruction at higher
institutions, 107
Caldwell, Otis W., quoted on use of pedagogical films, 97
California, University of, distribution of films by, 28
Capitol Theatre, New York, equipment for, 214
Carter Cinema Company, a non-theatrical company, 25 ; films distributed
by, 142
Carvallo, M. J., pioneer scientific investigator, 14
Castro, Matilde, quoted on rapid running of films, 55-56
Celluloid film, discovery of, as substitute for glass plates, 10
Chemistry, film instruction in, 26, 110
Chicago, educational use of films in, 202-203
Chicago, University of, experiments in visual education conducted
at, 88-89
Chronicles of American History, Inc., films produced by, 26
Churches, motion pictures in, 114-116, 143-145
Cinderella, film of, 101
Citizenship. See Civics
Civics, films for use in teaching, 26, 136; films used in New York
City schools, 149, 154-155; how to use films in teaching, 176182;
books for pupils' reading, 182
Claxton, P. P., evaluation of films in education by, 97
Clinical Film Corporation, films made and distributed by, 112
Clubs for study, use of films by, 113-114
Cobden, Dr. Richard, use of motion pictures in church by, 114
Colleges. See Universities
Color, films in, 248-249
Columbia University, course in Educational Motion Pictures in
summer school of, 45, 106
Comandon, Dr. J., first to popularize educational film, 14
Comenius, J. A., a realist in educational theory, 2; visual education
introduced to modern world by, 3
Commerce, Department of, pictures made by, 21
Commercial geography. ^
See Geography
Community Motion Picture Service of New York, rise and
progress of, 25 ;
films distributed by, 142
Companies, non-theatrical, in field of motion pictures, 25
Comstock, Daniel C., inventor of technicolor process, 249
Index 277
Cook, Maryland State Superintendent, quoted, 38, 48
Cost, of motion picture equipment, 212-214; of portable projectors,
228-230. See Expense
Cotton, Pathescope film on, 191-192
Crandall, Ernest L., leader in forming Visual Instruction Association
of New York, 32; on method of using film in school
work, 164-165; suggestions issued by, on school use of films,
196-197
Damon, Lindsay T., quoted on use of films in schools, 72
Davis, Roy L., experiments by, to measure effectiveness of visual
aids, 88
Daylight screens, development of, 75; use of, 233
DeForest, Dr. Lee, inventor of the phonofilm, 250
Demeny, M., films made by, 15
Detroit, time experiments with films in schools of, 84-85; effective
school use of films in, 203-204
Director, the motion picture, 243
Distraction, charge that films cause, in schools, 48; answer to
objection, 74-75
Distribution, problems of, 27-31 ; non-theatrical, of instructional
films, 122-123
Distributors, lists of, 257-267
Domestic science, films for teaching, used in New York City
schools, 148, 150-151, 153-154
Don'ts, list of, for users of educational films, 193-194
Drama, use of motion pictures in teaching, 110-111
Drawing, film instruction in, 111-112
Drawings, animated, 252-253
Eastman, George, development of celluloid film by, 10
Eastman Kodak Company, new standard film announced by, 216-
217
Edison, Thomas A., kinetograph invented by, 9; letter by, concerning
the kinetograph, 9; vitascope made by, 12; on use
of motion pictures in schools, 34; claims made by, for motion
pictures, 90
Education, history of, with regard to visual aids, 1 ff. ; three distinct
lines in modern theory of, 2; objections to motion pictures
in, 36-57; advantages of using films in, 58-98; films
available for use in, 117-158
Educational Screen, film magazine, 33, 34; editorial in, on visual
education movement, 65-66; list of "1001 Films Plus" distributed
by, 81
Einstein theories, exposition of, by motion pictures, 22, 60
Electric current for projectors, 230-231
Electricity. See Physics
Elements of the Automobile, film on, 66
Eliot, Charles W., in favor of educational use of films, 70
Entomology, film lesson in, 183-188
278 Motion Pictures in Education
Equipment, the ideal, for use in modern school, 213-214; list of
manufacturers, 267-269
European Progress Sweden, France, England, etc., 253
Expense of film equipment in schools, 44-45; answers to objection
of, 65-68
Experience, education by, 1
Eye strain, as an objection to educational use of motion pictures,
41; answer to objection, 63
Fall of Troy, film of, and class discussion, 119
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, attempt of, to start educational
department, 23-24
Film, different kinds of, 214-220; how to patch broken, 237-239
Fire hazard, as an objection to motion pictures in schools, 42-44;
over-emphasis laid on, 64-65
Ford Motion Picture Laboratories, films distributed by, 142
Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Bureau of, industrial films produced
under supervision of, 130-131
Forestry, first films on, 19; use of motion pictures in schools of,
113
Fox Film Corporation, educational department of, 24, 142
France, investigation in, of value of films in education, 93-95;
drawing taught by slow-motion films in, 111
Franklin School, Port Arthur, Texas, industrial films used at,
132; method of using films at, 207-208
Freeman, Frank N., experiments by, in visual education, 88;
quoted on animated drawings, 253
Froebel, educational theory of, 3
Geography, teaching of, by motion pictures, 26, 105; films on, now
in course of preparation, 121 ;
lists of films for teaching, 136,
139-141; films used in New York City schools, 148, 151-153;
study of, in Newark schools, 199-201 ; use of visual method,
in teaching a backward group, 205-207 ; a visualized course
in, 208; study of, with visual aids, in Hackensack school, 208211
;
use of animated maps in studying, 252
Geometry, taught by motion pictures, 109, 136
Goodwin, Hannibal, discoverer of celluloid film, 10
Hackensack, N. J., tests with school use of films in, 208-211
Hawaii, text-film on, 134
Hays, Dudley Grant, on proper use of films in schools, 202-203
Hays, Will H., quoted on production of pedagogic pictures, 24;
statements and plans of, 24-25
Health, films for teaching, 136, 141 ; a film lesson in, 183
Hey Diddle Diddle, animated cartoon of, 100-101 ; used in illustrative
lesson with films in kindergarten, 170-172
Higgins, Marietta L., tests by, of visual aids in Hackensack school,
208-211
High schools, use of films in, 105-106
Index 279
History, films for use in teaching, 26, 135-136, 139, 145-147; use of
motion pictures for teaching, 109; films available for instruction
in, 120-121 ; series under way by Pathe, 142
Hollis, A. P., on the teaching value of films, 96
Holmes, Burton, geography films from library of, 121, 139, 140
Home economics, films in, used in New York City schools, 150-151
Horner, W. H., inventor of "The Wheel of Life," 6
How Birds Build Their Nests, nature study film, 103
Hugo, Francis M., entrance into non-theatrical film field of, 254
Huntington School, Boston, use of motion pictures at, 109
Hygiene, films for use in teaching, 26, 141
Inaccuracy, charge of, brought against films, 53-54; refers to
theatrical rather than educational films, 82
Industrial films, discussion of, 123-133; leading popular type of
film for use in schools, 133
Industry, developments in field of, due to motion pictures, 245
Insect life, films for use in study of, 137, 183-188
Installation of motion picture equipment in schools, 63, 212-241
Instruction, films available for, 117-158
Interior, Department of, valuable pictures made by, 21
Iowa State Agricultural College, teaching with films at, 111-112
Iowa State College, distribution of films by, 28
Jenkins, C. F., inventor of projector, 10-12; recent experiments
by, 246; apparatus devised by, for sending films by radio,
250-251
Journey geography lesson, account of, 205-207
Judd, Dr. Charles H., chairman of committee to investigate use of
pedagogical films, 254
Kindergarten, use of films in, 99-104; typical lesson with films in,
170-172
Kinema-color process, _248
Kinematoscope, invention of, 7
Kinetograph, invented by Edison, 9
Labor, Department of, pictures made by, 21
Lacy, John V., report by, on test of effectiveness of films in education,
89-90
Laws respecting use of projectors, 220-226
Lemon, Harry B., on teaching of physics by motion pictures, 108-
109
Lescarboura, A. C., quoted on inflammable vs. slow-burning film,
218-219
Lewis, Dr. E. E., quoted on motion pictures in schools, 68
Librarians, testimony of, on relation of films to reading, 73-74
Life, quoted on motion pictures, 39
Literature, motion pictures for teaching, 26, 109; films available
for classes in, 118-120; lists of films, 138; films used in New
York City schools, 148
280 Motion Pictures in Education
Los Angeles, appropriation in, for motion pictures, 67; results
from citizenship film series in, 182-183
Lucretius, suggestion of motion pictures by, 6
McClusky, F. D., experiments by, in visual education, 88
McConnell, J. M., quoted on educational use of films, 81-82
Magazines, educational film, 33-34
Magnetism. See Physics
Magnetism, example of a specially made pedagogical film, 134
Mammals. See Biology
Manual training, films for, used in New York City schools, 148
Manufacturing concerns, free distribution of industrial films by,
131
Maps, animated, 252
Marey, Dr. E. J., contributions of, to growth of the cinema, 8;
scientific work of, in motion picture field, 12-13; quoted on
educational use of motion pictures, 34
Mathematics, use of motion pictures for teaching, 109-110, 136
Mazda lamps, use of, in motion picture projection, 228
Mines, Bureau of, film activities of, 19; industrial films produced
under supervision of, 130-131
Mines, schools of, use of motion pictures in, 113
Ministers, use of motion pictures by, 114-116, 143-145
Montanye, E. Y., use of films in a Philadelphia school by, 204-205
Motion pictures, advent of, 4-5 ; influence of, as visual aid to education,
5; history of, 5-12; educational use of first, 12-16;
aid given educators and scientists by, 16; growth and development
of instructional, in United States, 17-35; objections
to use of, in education, 36-57; advantages of use of, for instruction,
58-98; where to be used in teaching, 99-116; films
available for instruction, 117-158; how to use, in teaching,
159-194; methods of using, in typical school systems, 195-211;
mechanics of installation and operation of, 212-241 ;
recent
developments and future posibilities of, 242-256; lists of distributors
and manufacturers, 257-269
Moving Picture Age, educational film magazine, 34
Museums, as visual aids to education, 3
Muybridge, Edward, experiments in pictured motion by, 7-8; exhibit
of, at Chicago Worlďs Fair, 9
National Board of Fire Underwriters, proposed ordinance by, regarding
motion picture machine operation, 222-226
National Education Association, Will H. Hays' address before,
24; films shown to, at Boston (1922), 148-149
National Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures, Inc., 25; text-films distributed
by, 137-141, 188
National Parks Service, film activities of, 20
Nature study, motion pictures for, 101-102, 122; list of films, 137;
method followed in, with films, 173-176
Nebraska, University of, motion picture studio at, 2i
Index 281
Newark, N. J.. method of using motion pictures in schools of, 198-
202
Newspapers, discussion in, of movies in schools, 36-37
News weeklies, value of, for study of current history, 120-121
New Testament, films on the, 143
New York Board of Lectures, use of biblical episodes by, 143
New York City, first motion picture show in, 12; use of films in
conformity with course of studies in schools of, 32-33; small
appropriation in, for visual instruction in schools, 67-68; value
of films proved by experience of, 84; report of Curriculum
Committee of, on use of films, 104; no courses in motion picture
methods given at Training School for Teachers in, 107;
examples of industrial films used in, 132; lists of films used
in schools of, 148-157; methods of visual instruction used in,
195-198
New York Times, editorial in, on "Education by the Movies," 36-37
New York University, use of industrial films at, 132-133
New York Visual Instruction Association, formation and work
of, 32-33
Nifenecker, Eugene E., time experiments with film and text made
by, 85-86
Normal schools, study of motion picture methods in, 106-107. See
Teacher-training schools
North Carolina, film history of State produced by Department of
Public Instruction, 27 ; teaching of whole communities by films
in, 28-30; a visual success scored by, 30
Nursery rhymes, films of, 100-101
Objections to use of motion pictures in education, 36-57; answers
to objections, 58-98
Old Guard, film founded on the, 120
Old Testament, films on the, 143
Ordinances affecting operation of motion picture machines, 220-226
Outlook, quoted on motion pictures, 39
Paintings, a visual aid to education, 3
Parker, Sir Gilbert, on use of films in schools, 70
Parks, National, series of text-films on, 139
Patching of broken film, 237-239
Pathe Freres, advent of firm of, 14
Pathe Exchange, Inc., educational department established by, 24;
screen studies issued by, 141 ; series of Historical Scenics produced
by, 142
Pathescope Company, educational film library of, 191
Pathe News, school edition of, 121
Patriotism, films for teaching, 139. See Civics
Patton, Dr. C. S., on use of motion pictures in church, 114
Pedagogical films, usable for instruction, 134-135; classified lists
of, 135-155
Pedagogical principles applying to educational use of motion pictures,
161-170
282 Motion Pictures in Education
Pennsylvania, University of, experiments in motion pictures at, 12
Persistence of vision, phenomenon called, 235
Pestalozzi, educational theory of, 3
Philadelphia, method of using films in one school of, 204-205
Photography, beginnings and development of, 4; motion pictures
explained as animated, 5-6
Physical education. See Athletics
Physical geography. ^
See ^
Geography
Physics, use of motion pictures in teaching, 26, 108; list of films
for teaching, 137
Physiology, first application of motion pictures to experimental, 13
Picture language, earliest visual aid to education, 2, 3
Plasticon, stereoscopic film, 247
Porcelain Lamp, industrial film, 124
Port Arthur, Texas, films in school at, 132, 207-208
Primary grades, use of films in, 99-104
Prizma process, films in color by, 248
Projection, importance of good, in school work, 166-167; principles
of, 234-237
Projectors, invention and development of, 10-12; operation of, in
schools, 63 ;
courses given in use of, 106 ; laws and regulations
governing use of, in different states and cities, 220-226 ; types
of, 227-230; electric current for, 230-231; principal manufacturers
of, 267-269
Ptolemy, underlying principle of motion pictures mentioned by, 6
Rabenort, William, quoted on supply of good films for school use,
80; on asking questions during showing of films, 167-168; tests
of comparative value of still and motion pictures conducted
by, 197-198
Radio, motion pictures by, 250-252
Railroads, films distributed by, 266-267
Rapidity of running films, an objection to their school use, 54-56;
overcome by projecting at normal rate, 82-83
Reading, statement that movies reduce, 48; answer to objection,
71-74
Reclamation Service, use of motion pictures by, 17
Reel and Slide, educational film magazine, 33
Religious education, function of films in, 114-116
Religious subjects, films on, and their use, 143-145
Roach, Charles, on educational use of films, 80
Rogers, Dr. Rowland, definition of motion pictures given by, 5;
questions by, as to visual aids to education, 56-57; quoted on
effect of speed of films, 83
Rousseau, J. J., educational theory of, 3
Russia, teaching agricultural methods with American-made films
in, 113
Safety film, fire hazard obviated by use of, 64-65
Safety standard film, advantages and disadvantages of, 215-216;
distinguished from safety film, 226; manufacturers of, 268
Index 283
Sanitation, films for teaching, 136
Schools, objections to use of motion pictures in, 36-57; advantages
of using films in, 58-98; where films should be used in,
99-112; teaching with films in professional and vocational, 112113;
theatrical films suitable for, 117-118; lists of industrial
films used in, 132
School systems, visual instruction departments in, 32
Science, value of motion pictures in teaching, 108; developments
in, due to motion pictures, 245
Scientists, early interest of, in motion pictures, 13-16
Screens, kinds of, and cost, 232-233; list of manufacturers, 269
Sculpture, a visual aid to education, 3
Secondary schools, use of films in, 105-106
Sellers, Dr., inventor of kinematoscope, 7
Shakespeare, picturizations of works of, 118-119
Shepherd, J. W., tests by, of teaching efficiency of film and text, 86
Smith, Roy L., on motion pictures in the church, 143-145
Snow White, film of, 101
Society for Visual Education, Inc., rise of, 25; school films of,
135-137
State Agricultural Colleges, use of motion pictures by, 17-18
Stereopticon, place of, in educational systems, 4; as complement
to motion pictures, 168
Stereoscope, place taken by, in educational systems, 4
Stereoscopic films, new processes for making, 247-248
Still pictures, arguments favoring, against moving pictures, 49-51
Stoner; Winifred Sackville, cited on the cinema for children, 103
Stuart, D. C, on use of motion pictures in teaching drama, 110-111
Summer schools, use of films at, 106
Sunday Schools, motion pictures in, 114
Surgery, lessons in, by motion pictures, 26, 61-62
Talbot, F. A., explanation of motion pictures by, 5-6
Talking pictures, experiments with, 249-250
Teacher-training schools, advocates of pedagogical films in, 97;
study of motion picture methods in, 106
Teaching, where films should be used in, 99-116; how to use films
in, 159-194
Teleview, stereoscopic film, 247
Terry, Miss, director of visual instruction, Franklin School, Port
Arthur, Texas, 207-208
Tests of effectiveness of films in education, 83-90
Tigert, Dr. John J., quoted on educational films, 34, 76; on unavailability
of proper films for schools, 52; on historical films,
73; on the movies in the curriculum, 98
Time experiments to show value of film for instructional purposes,
84-90
Tinting of film, 249
Toll of the Sea, Technicolor film, 248-249
Toning of film, 249
284 Motion Pictures in Education
Turner, C. E., disadvantages of use of film in education summed
up by, 38; on advantages of film over text in time saved, 86
United States, a leader in use of films in education, 111
United States Board of Education, bulletin issued by, on Motion
Pictures and Motion Picture Equipment, 240
United States history, films for teaching, 135-136, 145-147
Universities, production of motion pictures by, 26-27 ;
distribution
of films by, 28; courses in use of film equipment and in visual
instruction at, 106-107; list of, which distribute films, 262-263
Urban, Charles, film library of, 122
Visual aids to education, history of, 1-16
Visual Education, educational film magazine, 33
Visual Instruction Association of America, founding of, 33; films
shown to N.E.A. by, 148-149
Visual Instruction Division, New York State Department of Education,
4
Visual Textbook Publishers, a non-theatrical company, 25; films
distributed by, 142
Vitascope, Edison's, 12
Vocational schools, use of films in, 112-113
Volcanoes, Fox reel on, 142
Weber, J. H., experiments by, to determine effectiveness of films
in education, 86-88, 163-164
Wells, H. G., quoted on potentialities of educational motion pictures,
95-96
Wheat rust, study of, by motion pictures, 19
"Wheel of Life," Homer's, 6
Wilson, J. H., quoted on educational films in schools, 70; on use
of films in Detroit schools, 203-204
Wisconsin, University of, distribution of films by, 28
Woman's clubs, use of films by, 113
Worlďs Fair (1893), first motion pictures at, 9
World War, films made during the, 20-21
Wythe Civics series, example of pedagogical film for specific
classes, 176
Yale University Press, associated in production of United States
history films, 26
Yellowstone National Park, film on, 139
Young Men's Christian Associations, films obtainable through, 131,
261-262
Zoology, films on, 26
Zoopraxoscope, machine invented by Muybridge, 7-8