https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/ec57dbad-eb96-4d45-813d-321a953a3ad2 Help us preserve, scan and post more rare and endangered films on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g/join Website: www.PeriscopeFilm.com Dating to 1937, "Spot News" is a Jam Handy production about the crucial role of speed in the newspaper industry and how new technology, specifically the "Wired Photo" or "Wire Photo," revolutionized news gathering. 0:00 Main titles. The film opens in a bustling newspaper office, highlighting the relentless pursuit of "speed" in news gathering. An editor dispatches a photographer to capture a daring stunt: an airplane taking off from a car. The editor emphasizes the need for a "wire photo" to meet the deadline, given the distant location.1:11 The core principle of newspaper operations is stressed: "Speed, speed, speed" – getting the story, getting it to the paper, and getting the paper on the street quickly.2:21 The film introduces "Wired Photo" as the "latest miracle of news gathering," revolutionizing newspaper history by allowing pictures to travel across the continent almost as fast as a telephone call.2:51 A demonstration shows how a mobile unit transmits pictures of the stunt car and airplane using Wired Photo technology.3:21 The technique of sending pictures by wire is explained: the picture is separated into fine lines, transmitted electrically over a wire, and then reassembled at the receiving end, akin to unwinding and rewinding a picture made of string.4:11 The process involves "scanning," where a light focuses on the picture, and as a drum revolves, the light scans the image line by line, translating varying tonal values (dark to light gray) into electrical units.4:56 The sending machine's internal workings are detailed: light reflected from the picture passes through an aperture into a photoelectric cell. White areas reflect more light, generating more electric current, while dark areas reflect less, generating less current.6:22 The receiving machine converts these electrical currents back into visual lines. The current is sent over telephone lines to a neon tube in the receiver; more current makes the tube brighter (for white areas), and less current makes it dimmer (for black areas), exposing a photographic negative on a similar drum.7:47 The film summarizes the entire process: the original picture is "unwound" into lines of light and shadow, transmitted, and then "wound up again" onto a negative. This negative is then developed, printed, and made into a halftone engraving for the newspaper.8:28 The significant impact of Wired Photo is highlighted: it reduces the time to send pictures from days (by train) or hours (by airplane) to mere minutes, enabling newspapers nationwide to publish graphic and comprehensive stories almost immediately after a news event occurs. Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfDWBsd9ogg Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:21:03 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/ec57dbad-eb96-4d45-813d-321a953a3ad2 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.