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An Empire Link

Accession number: 
1940.0011
Production Years: 
1938 to 1939

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
355 (16mm)
Length (minutes): 
10
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm, VHS.
"A telephone call from Vancouver, British Columbia to Plymouth, England is traced over the Rockies, through Winnipeg and Montreal's Bell Building at 620 Belmont, to Drummondville. At Drummondville the call is hurled by beam wireless to Baldock, England. It is then passed through London to Plymouth. The speech, carried by radio waves across the Atlantic, is 'scrambled' or rendered unintelligible. For the first time on any film, speech before and after passing through the 'scrambler' is recorded on the sound track."

Bibliography: 

Benjamin F. Farber, Jr., "Practical Films," Movie Makers 14:3 (March 1939): 114, 138.
"The projection of voice by wire and short wave radio from Vancouver, Canada, to Plymouth, England, is illustrated in An Empire Link, recent release of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada. The 16mm. sound film was produced by Fred W. Motton, ACL, of Montreal, Canada. It traces the progress of a call over the 'all red link in Empire communication' and records, allegedly for the first time on any film, 'scrambled speech,' which insures that transoceanic telephone conversations will not be understood by chance radio listeners. This film is being screened at civic, social and business club meetings in Quebec and Ontario."