ABSTRACT
The f i lm scanning m e t h o d had been a round for some t ime, and bo th companies had exper imented w i th i t at various points, t hough only Bai rd persisted w i th the method. E M I had two f i lm scanning units at A lexandra Palace, wh ich were used for exist ing f i lm transmission, un l i ke the intermediate f i lm process that the Bai rd system used. Essentially a photographic process m u c h l ike that o f cine-f i lm development , only m u c h faster, the image to be televised was captured w i th a camera and the f i lm immediate ly transferred w i t h i n the apparatus to a series o f tanks for develop ing and pr in t ing . The f i lm, wh ich was sti l l wet and d r i pp ing when i t came ou t to be immediate ly televised, took 64 seconds to process, wh ich was very quick, bu t no t exactly ' l ive' television. T h o u g h mechanical ly very ingenious, the f i lm scanning system was no match for an all-electric system and besides, the development tanks had a nasty habi t o f leaking corrosive chemicals al l over the nice new f loor o f Studio B. One curious side effect o f the process involved the artists themselves who, u p o n comple t ing thei r act, wou ld make a dash for the f i lm screening r o o m jus t i n t ime to see themselves televised. Later, the orchestra got to hear about this and so you had the extraordinary scene o f large numbers o f people, instruments and all, dashing for this small screening r o o m to see the i r per formance, or at least a few seconds o f i t , as i t was televised.
