The Movietone sound system is method of recording sound for moving pictures which guarantees synchronisation between the sound and the picture. It achieves this by recording the sound as an optical strip on the same strip of film used to record the pictures. It was invented in 1924 by Freeman Harrison Owens with his creation of the Movietone camera. It first entered commercial use when Fox Film Corporation bought the entire system including the patents in 1926. Fox also hired Theodore Case (1888-1944) and Earl I. Sponable (1895-1977) to merge Case's sound-on-film patents with Owens's work, and with German Tri-Ergon patents to create the Fox Movietone system. Freeman Harrison Owens (July 20, 1890 - December 9, 1979), born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the only child of Charles H. Owens and Christabel Harrison. ... The Fox Film Corporation was an American company which produced motion pictures, formed in 1915 when founder William Fox merged two companies he had established in 1913: Greater New York Film Rental, a distribution firm, which was part of the Independents; and Fox (or Box, depending on the source) Office...
Sound was recorded on print film, which was then printed on the same print film as the picture.
If the sound playback head was installed at this location, the interruption in the film’s movement would yield an unacceptable “staccato” like sound.) Thus the sound is said to be “advanced” from the picture, and this sync relationship is established at the laboratory when the print is made.
In order to maintain sync between the machine playing the sound and the machine or device that is recording it, both machines must be referenced to the same source, whether it is wall current, a video generator or, in the case of digital devices, a word clock.
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