Almost any manager of a motion picture house will accommodate such a committee by running the reel in private to explain the idea to school board members or parents. This requires only about 10 minutes, as the exercises are abbreviated to show the principles involved for a definite end. The other requirements are transportation charges, prompt and safe return of the film, with a proportionate cost of the wear and tear to replace it, for it is calculated that the celluloid film has a limited life based upon the number of times it is used for exhibition purposes. MOTION PICTURES IN COLOR. All the foregoing remarks refer only to black-and-white photography. This paper would not be complete without special mention of cinematography in colors. Many attempts have been made to take photographs in the colors of nature. Dr. Joly, of Dublin, Frederick E. Ives, of New York, Messrs. Lumiere, of Paris, SangerShepard, of London, and others, have made successful pictures of still life and have tried to solve the motion picture in colors. It was left to Messrs. Charles Urban and G. Albert Smith, of London, to bring this problem to a fairly satisfactory solution. "Kinemacolor," as the process is called, requires specially sensitized film, and the pictures can be made only where there is strong sunlight. Therefore, it is available only during certain months of the year, except where there is brilliant sunshine all the year around, as in the Southwest. Kinemacolor is particularly useful for showing chemical experiments, inasmuch as the various changes are reproduced in color. There are few branches of the curricula of the schools in which this process can not be used to advantage. If the history courses are illustrated by pictures staged carefully, with due regard to costumes and manners of the period, the lessons taught will be of great benefit. Geography of any particular country can be readily shown, bringing the natural colors before the eyes of the pupils in a manner not possible with the black-and-white pictures. In all departments of natural science the value of this process is apparent. Many notable scenes and ceremonies of great historical value have been recorded by kinemacolor. Among them are the coronation ceremonies and procession in England, the investure of the Prince of Wales, the Durbar, the Panama Canal, and the inauguration of President Wilson. Still another process of cinematography in colors is that of the Gaumont Co., of Paris. Their process differs from that of the kinemacolor in that it uses the three primary colors, while kinemacolor uses only two, one primary and one secondary (red and green). Some very beautiful experiments show flowers, fruit, and scenes in rural life. Both these processes require stronger projecting machines, more powerful arcs, and motors to drive the machine. Kinemacolor doubles the rapidity of projection of black-and-white subjects, while the Gaumont process requires two and one-half times the speed. Ordinary projection requires approximately 15 to 25 amperes of electric current to illuminate the film, which moves at the rate of 16 pictures per second. Kinemacolor requires 50 to 60 amperes for illumination, and the film moves at the rate of 32 pictures per second, while the Gaumont process needs from 60 to 80 amperes to illuminate, and should have a rapidity of 40 pictures per second. Comparing the two processes, black and white with the color, the question may arise: If these color pictures are so much superior, why use the plain film at all? The reason is obvious. Ordinary films range in length, according to scene and subject, from 50 to 1,000 feet. To photograph the same subjects kinemacolor requires from 100 to 2,000 feet and Gaumont 125 to 2,500 feet. From the force of necessity the cost of material doubles and trebles. Cameras and projecting apparatus cost more, and much more expert operators are required, both to take and to project the pictures. CONCLUSION. The foregoing article is sufficient to show at once the wide field and the deep significance of educational cinematography. In almost every subject in the curricula of schools, colleges, and universities, the cinematograph has already lent valuable aid. Within the next decade the moving pictures will be the indispensable adjunct of every teacher and educational lecturer. On the public platform the cinematograph will inevitably have its recognized place, and it may even invade the pulpit. As the attention and interest of educators are more and more drawn to its merits, the future usefulness of the educational cinematograph bids fair to surpass the predictions of its most sanguine advocates. CHAPTER XXVIII. SCHOOLS CONDUCTED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. CONTENTS. The educational systems of the American Army-Educational agencies of the United States Navy--Indian education during the fiscal year 1913-Education of natives of Alaska. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS OF THE AMERICAN ARMY. By DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, Captain, General Staff. Approved by order of the Secretary of War, by Leonard Wood, Major General, Chief of Staff. NECESSITY FOR THOROUGH PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. No country in the world has as complete a system of professional scholastic training for its officers as the United States. This is due to the inherent difference between the military establishments of foreign nations and that of our own. Their armies are at all times kept upon a war footing, as a result of which they have ample opportunity for the perfect training of the personnel in the practical duties of the military profession-a result easily obtained where service is always with large bodies of troops. In such an army, the main object is to train every man for the efficient performance of his duties in the grade which he holds when war comes. A lieutenant does not dream of becoming a captain merely as the result of war except as a vacancy is made for him in the casualties of battle. Only in the same way does a captain expect to become a colonel; nor would the idea be tolerated that great numbers of trained line officers are to be suddenly transferred to various staff positions. Their organizations are founded upon the theory that there is nothing recondite in the art of war; that technical and scientific training is needed by only a small portion of military officers; that certain things which a Napoleon must know, every officer must know, and can as readily acquire as he; while those things which differentiate a Napoleon from other generals can not be acquired in any school, not even in that of war. Such a system assumes that if the military machine is perfect, and every man is fitted for his place and when war comes is in that place, a lesser genius than Napoleon can accomplish sufficient things at its head; that such an army by its very perfection as a machine will supply the advantage of genius to mediocrity. Such a conception is sound when it thoroughly fits the local theory of military organization. It would be thoroughly unsound if transplanted to the American Army, the organization of which is quite different from continental armies. In fact, the most striking feature in our service is the absence of what constitutes the very essence of the foreign establishments; that is, a great standing army serving in corps, divisions, and brigades, in which the average officer of any grade learns the details of his profession by practical work and with the minimum of theory. Wars, however, must be fought with large armies; so that our small regular establishment must be merely the leaven for the large improvised armies suddenly called into being. Our system of military education must therefore differ from that of the other great nations of the world in that we can not be content merely with training a lieutenant to be a good lieutenant or a captain to be a good captain, or in training staff officers to the efficient performance of duties in peace which they will continue to perform in the same grade in time of war. But the system must be such as to educate our officers so that they will be able at a moment's notice, when the war expansion comes, to perform the duties of far-advanced grades and to render service in branches of the Army, both line and staff, in which they are not commissioned in time of peace. For this reason we have established a progressive system of schools designed to teach officers and men, limited only by their individual capacities for its assimilation, the duty of the man-in-arms in all grades from lowest to highest. The military educational system of the United States comprises: 1. The Military Academy at West Point for the education of cadets. 2. Post schools for the instruction of enlisted men. 3. Garrison schools for the instruction of officers in subjects pertaining to the performance of their ordinary duties. 4. The Army Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth, Kans: (a) The Army School of the Line. (b) The Army Staff College. (c) The Army Signal School. (d) The Army Field Engineer School. (e) The Army Field Service and Correspondence School for Medical Officers. 5. The Special Service Schools: (a) The Engineer School, Washington Barracks, D. C. (b) The Coast Artillery School, Fort Monroe, Va. |