The Richard Ashton NFSA
Fellowship Paper – Part 4
By June 7 1929
Raycophone was ready
for the first public tryout
at the Wintergarden
Theatre.
Everyones
reported it was “Highly
Successful.” The
Raycophone Company
was registered, with some
of the industries biggest
entertainment players as
shareholders. It created
much interest.
Dr Lawson’s Wintergardens Theatre Rose Bay Sydney
(Image from the National Film and Sound Archive collection No.188479
Cummings and Wilson
Projectors
and
Raycophone
Sound Systems
This is the fourth installment in a series of articles compiled
from research by AMMPT member Richard Ashton.
1929 Talkies Smash Records
n January 2 1929 the editorial in
Everyones
said it all.
Talkies Smash Records; two Sydney houses gross £8000
in six days’ showings.
The Jazz Singer at the Lyceum and Fox
Movietone’s The Red Dance at the Regent. And another
report said that, 28 new sound features had now arrived by sea
from the USA.
O
However certain
US film distributors
wouldn’t allow
some features to be
shown on other that
their own nation’s
equipments and a
talkie war
developed. MGM
helped break the
embargo by offering to supply Raycophone installed theatres.
The Commonwealth Government intervened and things were
eventually cleaned up, and Raycophone with strong theatrical
and financial support, raced ahead of other local sound
companies sound heads. RCA now joined the field, but
Western Electric held the market share for the first years of
talkies. Talkies were underway.
One later on January 9 1929 an advertisement in
Everyones
states
. “All apparatus for reproducing synchronised speech,
sound and music, can be successfully applied to C&W
Projectors. Factory test prove entirely satisfactory.”
On
week later an advertisement stated.
“C& W accomplished
outstanding results with Sound on Film and Disc projection
on Western Electric System. All tests carried out under
supervision of Western Electric Engineers.”
1929 The C&W OK for sound
In 1929 June 19 on page 35 in
Everyones
magazine
Cummings & Wilson showed an advertisement with Hamilton
and Baker that the C&W will be suitable for all talkie
equipments. The projector is shown on a Western Electric
base, however the text of the advertisement suggests several
other sound head makers could be used, these included
Vitaphone, Movietone, Auditone and Raycophone.
With the flurry of sound preparation now well underway,
there are further advertisements saying the C&W projectors
are “perfect” for sound. By April 18 C&W announce that their
new and improved intermittent is now incorporated into their
machines. The application for patent is lodged on April 18 by
Harold Wilson and Margaretta Cummings. The patent
application shows James wife is co-applicant. This is accepted
by the patents office in April 1930.
Note how the
motor is
mounted on the
base plate and
driven vertically
up to the
projector head
via a shaft and a
right angle
“floppy dick”
drive. The motor
on the base also
connected
backwards to the
disc player
turntable.
On May 10 Charles Ward one of the engineers that in 1927,
helped De Forest try to establish their sound systems in
Australia, applies for a patent for an improved sound
reproducing head. On close examination of the patent text and
drawings it looks very much like the first Raycophone sound
heads. It could well be that Charles Ward helped Ray Allsop
develop his first projectors. The Ward patent was granted in
May 1930.
On May 20 Ray
Allsop
registered a
trade mark for
the name
RAYCOPHONE,
a device for
sound projecting
and reproducing.
In July 1929 in
Film Weekly
a letter to C&W from Western
Electric was published.
Mr A McLean, Operating Manager of the Western Electric
following an interview with Mr Wilson of the Cummings and
Wilson’s C&W projectors. Here in part it said.
Ray Allsop 27 year old inventor of the Raycophone projector sound system
(Image from the National Film and Sound Archive collection)
Page 16
