Information AboutTri-ergon |
|
The Tri-Ergon Sound-on-film system was patented from 1919 on by German inventors Josef Engl, Hans Vogt, and Joseph Massolle. The name Tri-Ergon was derived from Greek and means "the work of three." In 1926, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation purchased the Tri-Ergon patents from Triergon, Aktiengesellschaft, Zürich , Switzerland . There is no such firm listed with the Zürich register of commerce. Fox also purchased sound-on-film patents from Freeman Harrison Owens and Theodore Case and used these inventions to create the new sound-on-film system he dubbed Fox Movietone . One of the first feature films to be released in Fox Movietone was '' Sunrise '' (1927) directed by F. W. Murnau . Movietone and other sound-on-film systems were in competition with Sound-on-disc systems such as Warner Bros. Vitaphone . However, sound-on-film systems such as Movietone and RCA Photophone soon became the standard, and sound-on-disc fell into disuse. After Fox lost control of Fox Studios in 1930, he used the Tri-Ergon patents to sue the film industry and take an ownership in all sound films. The Tri-Ergon patents named particular technical features that preceded all other sound-on-film patents, such as a flywheel on the sound drum. Fox at first won his lawsuit and then lost it in a unusual reversal of decision by the U. S. Supreme Court . In Germany , the Tri-Ergon patents were determined to be so strong, for a time all other sound film systems were shut out of that country. A subsidiary, Tri-Ergon Musik AG of Berlin, made commercial Phonograph records for the German, French, Swedish and Danish markets from about 1928 to 1932. Although the product was advertised as "Photo-Electro-Records," it is unknown whether the sound-on-film process was actually used in making them. The Tri-Ergon process involved recording sound onto film in variable density rather than in variable area. |
|
|