The Value of the Camera to the Manufacturer
Page 37
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mriE many uses to which the camera
may be put in commerce and industry generally are so diverse that no concern of any magnitude would attempt to ignore the practical value of photography in the conduct of its business. Considering, for example, the case of a manufacturer of commercial vehicles, photographic records of its activities, its products, their components, demonstrations carried out, and so forth, are a real asset for future reference, as an aid to the designer, for educational purposes, for effecting sales and for general publicity purposes.
Photographs of chassis, engines, components, and individual parts can be preserved and stored in the minimum of space, as records dating back, perhaps, for as many years as the concern has been in existence. Large machine drawings of general arrangements, of individual parts, of performance graphs, etc., can be clearly reproduced in a more convenient size for handling, and serve as an aid to making modifications in design, for deciding upon details of new models, for making lantern slides, and for illustrating papers and lectures.
The use of films to demonstrate the capabilities of vehicles and the processes of manufacture is now gaining much popularity, and no more convincing or convenient method can be imagined. We recently visited the photographic department of the Associated Equipment
Co., Ltd., Southall, Middlesex, where two men are fully occupied in supplying the needs of the concern in this direction. That the demand should be sufficient to justify this staff is more easily recognized when it is realized that, apart from other calls upon their energies, no fewer than 100 prints are usually made of every vehicle of any special interest that is delivered from the works, these being mainly distributed for publicity purposes. ,In addition, numbers of enlargements are made, and working up negatives and retouching prints are also undertaken.
The equipment of the department, too, Is up-to-date and comprehensive. Among its latest acquisitions are a Cine-Kodak for taking moving pictures and a portable " Business" Kodascope for exhibiting them. The latter, incidentally, will either project the picture on to a large screen, or on to a ground glass attached to the instrument.
Using 16-ram, films, of which 400 ft. show a picture lasting about 20 minutes, this outfit has already made several interesting records. Notable among these are the trials to which A.E.O.-Marshal and Hardy vehicles were subjected by the War Office, Mr. Hillman's visit to the A.E.C. works by air, and views of the overseas demonstration organized by the concern last July. Certain of these films, we understand, have been sent on loan to distant parts of the world.