Panoram was the trademark name of a visual jukebox that played short-filmed musicals (the effect being the equivalent of 1980s music videos) popular within the United States during the 1940s. It was conceived and produced by the Mills Novelty Company under several patents, including 123,473 and 2,286,200, which involve the cabinet design and endless reel workings. Development took place in the late 1930s with production and sales beginning in 1940. A Grand Premiere took place on September 16-19, 1941, in Hollywood, California . The company wrote over $ 3 million in Panoram orders that week. The Panoram used RCA projectors, amplifiers, and speakers. The successful launch of the Panoram allowed for the largest single order of these RCA products up to that time.
19-531: A Panoram measured 82 in (210 cm) tall by 36 in (91 cm) wide by 32 in (81 cm) deep, and employed a series of mirrors to reflect the image from a projector onto a 27-inch (69 cm), rear-projection, ground-glass screen in a tight, enclosed cabinet. Costing $ 1,000 to end-use locations (or $ 695 to regional distributors), the popular machines found their way into countless soda shops, taverns, bus and train stations, and other public places across America. The specially made 16 mm films ran in
38-422: A softer illumination without giving hard shadows . Ground glass surfaces are often found on the glass equipment of chemical laboratories . Glass flasks, stoppers, valves, funnels, and tubing are often connected together by ground glass joints , matching pairs of conical or spherical surfaces that have been ground to a precise shape. Flasks and test tubes often have a small ground-glass label area on
57-524: A waist-level reflex finder, or through a redressing optical device (set of mirrors or prism) for eye-level viewing, giving an eye-level reflex finder . With a reflex finder, a photographer may focus the image on the ground glass and frame the picture at the same time. It is common to find a device on the center of the ground glass to help precise focusing, for example a split-image or a microprism device. Today's reflex cameras usually incorporate autofocusing . Reflex finders are found in: This article
76-527: A continuous loop and stopped when a notch cut at the end of each film tripped a microswitch, engaging a step-back relay. The patron could put up to twenty dimes in the machine at a time. However, the Panoram had no selector mechanism, so there was no choice of film title. The patron would see whatever film was next in the queue. The Panoram mechanics were housed in an Art Deco design, high-quality wood cabinet. This cabinet included an advertising banner located at
95-399: A desired aspect ratio . Because most films shot with spherical lenses are shot full-frame and later masked during projection to a more widescreen aspect ratio, it is important not only for the operator to be able to see the boundaries of that aspect ratio, but also for the ground glass to be properly aligned in the camera so that the markings are an exact representation of the boundaries of
114-410: A roll and delivered to Panoram-hosted locations as replacement media. In this manner, new Soundies could be viewed at the location and the entertainment would remain fresh. Many Soundies can be viewed on YouTube today, including some by bandleader Al Donahue , who made 7 or 8 of the first Soundies at Radio City Music Hall . The basic concept behind the Panoram would be revived in the early 1960s with
133-411: Is that ground-up glass (i.e., glass broken into tiny fragments) can kill if swallowed. In fact, this is a myth, as it is largely ineffective. The Guy de Maupassant short story " La Confession " concerns a jealous girl who poisons her older sister's suitor by inserting ground-up glass into cake. The term ground-glass, as it relates to poisoning, is a corruption of grain d'église, the term given by
152-410: Is used for the manual focusing in some still and movie cameras ; the ground-glass viewer is inserted in the back of the camera, and the lens opened to its widest aperture . This projects the scene on the ground glass upside down. The photographer focuses and composes using this projected image, sometimes with the aid of a magnifying glass (or loupe ). In order to see the image better, a dark cloth
171-433: Is used to block out light, whence came the image of the old-time photographer with his head stuck under a large black cloth. A ground glass is also used in the reflex finder of an SLR or TLR camera. In motion-picture cameras, the ground glass is a small, usually removable piece of transparent glass that sits between the rotary disc shutter and the viewfinder. The ground glass usually contains precise markings to show
190-458: The Scopitone . Ground glass Ground glass is glass whose surface has been ground to produce a flat but rough ( matte ) finish, in which the glass is in small sharp fragments. Ground glass surfaces have many applications, ranging from ornamentation on windows and table glassware to scientific uses in optics and laboratory glassware . In photography , a sheet of ground glass
209-400: The television . Panoram machines were repurposed as educational film-playing units or, more commonly, as adult peep shows . The latter caused the introduction of regulation of Panorams to control placement of the units in many cities. The Panoram is now best known for the vast library of short, three-minute music videos that were created for it. Called Soundies , these films featured many of
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#1732782551577228-564: The French in India to the seeds of the Jaquirity or Rosary Pea plant ( Abrus precatorius ). The seeds contain the extremely toxic lectin abrin , whose toxicity is over 30 times that of ricin . These seeds have been used in India to kill cattle, and in homicides. Captain F. C. Briggs, adjutant to General Reginald Dyer , died of 'powdered glass' poisoning before he could give evidence to
247-784: The Hunter Commission examining the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre . This article was originally based on " Ground glass back " in Camerapedia, retrieved at an unknown date under the GNU Free Documentation License . Reflex finder A reflex finder is a viewfinder system with a mirror placed behind a lens . The light passing through the lens is reflected by the mirror to a focusing screen , usually ground glass . The image formed on this ground glass can be observed directly, giving
266-517: The beginning of World War II , production of the Panoram machines was drastically reduced due to a wartime shortage of raw materials, and the Mills Panoram's 1940 success started to fade. Soundies (the 16mm media used in the Panoram) continued to be produced and distributed to Panoram locations until 1947. By then, the novelty of the visual jukebox was compromised owing to the availability of
285-418: The camera operator the boundaries of the frame or the center reticle , or any other important information. Because the ground glass is positioned between the mirror shutter and the viewfinder, it does not interfere with the image reaching the film and is therefore not recorded over the final image, but rather serves as a reference for the camera operator. Ground glasses commonly serve as a framing reference for
304-416: The great musical stars of the period, including Duke Ellington , Count Basie , and Cab Calloway . Most of the approximately 1800 Soundies films survive and are considered a priceless archive of 1940s popular music and performers. The Soundies films were printed backwards (mirror image) so that they would appear in a correct orientation when played in a Panoram machine. Several of the short films were wound on
323-435: The image recorded on film. Ground or frosted glass is widely used as a weather- and heat-proof light diffuser in ambient lighting , namely on glass covers or enclosures for lamp fixtures, and sometimes on incandescent bulbs . Its functions include reducing glare and preventing retinal damage by direct sight of the lamp filament. This hides unsightly details of the lamp and fixture without blocking its light, yielding
342-399: The side. (Pencil writing on ground glass is largely inert, rub-proof and waterproof, but can be easily erased.) An optical microscope may include a ground- or frosted-glass diffuser to evenly illuminate the field behind the specimen. Microscope slides are often ground on the sides and beveled on the corners to soften the edges for safer handling. Popular belief for many centuries
361-409: The top of the unit. This banner rotated through a series of rollers, driven by a motor, and was backlit. Color cylinders also rotated behind the screen creating colored flashes on the screen while the unit was not being played. When a patron inserted a dime, power to both the banner and colored lights was interrupted and power was applied to the projector and amplifier , thereby initiating play. With
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