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Theodore Case
Theodore Willard Case (December 12, 1888 – May 13, 1944) was an American chemist who invented the Movietone sound-on-film system.
Case was born on December 12, 1888 in Auburn, New York, to Willard Erastus Case (1857–1918) and Eva Fidelia Caldwell Case (1857–1952). He attended a few boarding schools as a youth including The Manlius School near Syracuse, New York and Cloyne House School in Newport, Rhode Island, He also attended the St. Paul School in Concord, New Hampshire, to finish his secondary education. Following his high school graduation he attended Yale University from 1908 to 1912, where he earned his BA in chemistry. He then attended Harvard University where he studied law. He did not find this as fulfilling as pursuing science so he left after about a year. During the years prior to opening the Case Research Lab he worked with his father in laboratories set up in the basements of their family homes, and their lake property on Owasco Lake. The mansion eventually became the home of Theodore W. Case was built by John Seymour in 1836. In 1843, Sylvester Willard and his father-in-law Erastus Case purchased the mansion. Willard Case inherited the property in 1916 when his cousin Caroline Willard passed away and left the property to him. Willard gave the property to Case. Willard Case, Theodore Case, and Earl I. Sponable worked together to open the Case Research Lab in the backyard of the mansion in 1916.
Theodore Case was of the well-known Case family in Auburn, New York. He enjoyed playing golf and won a number of tournaments in Auburn. On November 26, 1918, Case married Alice Gertrude Eldred. The couple would go on to have four children.
Case died on May 13, 1944, aged 55, of pneumonia. He is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery, in Auburn, New York.
While at Yale, Case became interested in telephonic currents that derived from modulating light. In 1916, he opened Case Research Lab in Auburn, where he studied materials that could be altered by light. His studies led to the development of the thalofide (thallium sulfide) cell, a light-sensitive vacuum tube from 1916 to 1918. The thalofide cell was originally used by the United States Navy in a top secret infrared signaling system developed at the Case Lab.
Case began working on his sound-on-film process in 1921. The inventions of the Case Research Lab from 1916 to 1926 were the creation of Case and Earl I. Sponable, who worked with Case at the lab until he went with Case to Fox Film Corporation in 1926. The ship-to-ship signaling system was first tested in 1917 off the shores of New Jersey. Attending the test was Thomas Edison, contracted by the Navy to evaluate new technologies. A complete success, the signaling system was used by the Navy for a number of years. He worked with other people, including Lee De Forest, to create a sound-on-film process similar to modern analog sound film systems.
Titles filmed by Case in his process, all made at the Case Studios in Auburn, New York, include Miss Manila Martin and Her Pet Squirrel (1921), Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925), Bird in a Cage (1923), Gallagher and Shean (1925), Madame Fifi (1925), and Chinese Variety Performer with a Ukulele (1925). Gus Visser and His Singing Duck was nominated to the National Film Registry in 2002.
There were hundreds more test films made at the Case Lab that were lost in a fire in the 1950s. The Case Research Lab has become a public museum. Adjacent to the lab is the estate's carriage house where sound-film tests were made on its second floor. That sound studio is also open to the public and its collections include a seven-foot square balsawood box, known as a "blimp," that housed the camera and operator during filming. The original amplifiers and many more items used in the development of sound film at the Case Research Lab are also on display, as well as an early Wall camera used by Movietone News.
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Theodore Case
Theodore Willard Case (December 12, 1888 – May 13, 1944) was an American chemist who invented the Movietone sound-on-film system.
Case was born on December 12, 1888 in Auburn, New York, to Willard Erastus Case (1857–1918) and Eva Fidelia Caldwell Case (1857–1952). He attended a few boarding schools as a youth including The Manlius School near Syracuse, New York and Cloyne House School in Newport, Rhode Island, He also attended the St. Paul School in Concord, New Hampshire, to finish his secondary education. Following his high school graduation he attended Yale University from 1908 to 1912, where he earned his BA in chemistry. He then attended Harvard University where he studied law. He did not find this as fulfilling as pursuing science so he left after about a year. During the years prior to opening the Case Research Lab he worked with his father in laboratories set up in the basements of their family homes, and their lake property on Owasco Lake. The mansion eventually became the home of Theodore W. Case was built by John Seymour in 1836. In 1843, Sylvester Willard and his father-in-law Erastus Case purchased the mansion. Willard Case inherited the property in 1916 when his cousin Caroline Willard passed away and left the property to him. Willard gave the property to Case. Willard Case, Theodore Case, and Earl I. Sponable worked together to open the Case Research Lab in the backyard of the mansion in 1916.
Theodore Case was of the well-known Case family in Auburn, New York. He enjoyed playing golf and won a number of tournaments in Auburn. On November 26, 1918, Case married Alice Gertrude Eldred. The couple would go on to have four children.
Case died on May 13, 1944, aged 55, of pneumonia. He is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery, in Auburn, New York.
While at Yale, Case became interested in telephonic currents that derived from modulating light. In 1916, he opened Case Research Lab in Auburn, where he studied materials that could be altered by light. His studies led to the development of the thalofide (thallium sulfide) cell, a light-sensitive vacuum tube from 1916 to 1918. The thalofide cell was originally used by the United States Navy in a top secret infrared signaling system developed at the Case Lab.
Case began working on his sound-on-film process in 1921. The inventions of the Case Research Lab from 1916 to 1926 were the creation of Case and Earl I. Sponable, who worked with Case at the lab until he went with Case to Fox Film Corporation in 1926. The ship-to-ship signaling system was first tested in 1917 off the shores of New Jersey. Attending the test was Thomas Edison, contracted by the Navy to evaluate new technologies. A complete success, the signaling system was used by the Navy for a number of years. He worked with other people, including Lee De Forest, to create a sound-on-film process similar to modern analog sound film systems.
Titles filmed by Case in his process, all made at the Case Studios in Auburn, New York, include Miss Manila Martin and Her Pet Squirrel (1921), Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925), Bird in a Cage (1923), Gallagher and Shean (1925), Madame Fifi (1925), and Chinese Variety Performer with a Ukulele (1925). Gus Visser and His Singing Duck was nominated to the National Film Registry in 2002.
There were hundreds more test films made at the Case Lab that were lost in a fire in the 1950s. The Case Research Lab has become a public museum. Adjacent to the lab is the estate's carriage house where sound-film tests were made on its second floor. That sound studio is also open to the public and its collections include a seven-foot square balsawood box, known as a "blimp," that housed the camera and operator during filming. The original amplifiers and many more items used in the development of sound film at the Case Research Lab are also on display, as well as an early Wall camera used by Movietone News.