The Photoplay | Page 4

to substitute a more
flexible transparent material for the glass. Translucent papers, gelatine,
celluloid, and other substances were tried. It is well known that the
invention which was decisive was the film which Eastman in Rochester
produced. With it came the great mechanical improvement, the use of
the two rollers. One roller holds the long strip of film which is slowly
wound over the second, the device familiar to every amateur
photographer today. With film photography was gained the possibility
not only of securing a much larger number of pictures than Marey or
Anschütz made with their circular arrangements, but of having these
pictures pass before the eye illumined by quickly succeeding flashlights
for any length of time. Moreover, instead of the quick illumination the
passing pictures might be constantly lighted. In that case slits must pass
by in the opposite direction so that each picture is seen for a moment
only, as if it were at rest. This idea is perfectly realized in Edison's
machine.

In Edison's kinetoscope a strip of celluloid film forty-five feet in length
with a series of pictures each three-quarters of an inch long moved
continuously over a series of rolls. The pictures passed a magnifying
lens, but between the lens and the picture was a revolving shutter which
moved with a speed carefully adjusted to the film. The opening in the
shutter was opposite the lens at the moment when the film had moved
on three-quarters of an inch. Hence the eye saw not the passing of the
pictures but one picture after another at the same spot. Pretty little
scenes could now be acted in half a minute's time, as more than six
hundred pictures could be used. The first instrument was built in 1890,
and soon after the Chicago World's Fair it was used for entertainment
all over the world. The wheel of Anschütz had been widespread too; yet
it was considered only as a half-scientific apparatus. With Edison's
kinetoscope the moving pictures had become a means for popular
amusement and entertainment, and the appetite of commercialism was
whetted. At once efforts to improve on the Edison machine were
starting everywhere, and the adjustment to the needs of the wide public
was in the foreground.
Crowning success came almost at the same time to Lumière and Son in
Paris and to Paul in London. They recognized clearly that the new
scheme could not become really profitable on a large scale as long as
only one person at a time could see the pictures. Both the well-known
French manufacturers of photographic supplies and the English
engineer considered the next step necessary to be the projection of the
films upon a large screen. Yet this involved another fundamental
change. In the kinetoscope the films passed by continuously. The time
of the exposure through the opening in the revolving shutter had to be
extremely short in order to give distinct pictures. The slightest
lengthening would make the movement of the film itself visible and
produce a blurring effect. This time was sufficient for the seeing of the
picture; it could not be sufficient for the greatly enlarged view on the
wall. Too little light passed through to give a distinct image. Hence it
became essential to transform the continuous movement of the film into
an intermittent one. The strip of film must be drawn before the lens by
jerking movements so that the real motion of the strip would occur in
the periods in which the shutter was closed, while it was at rest for the

fraction of time in which the light of the projection apparatus passed
through.
Both Lumière and Paul overcame this difficulty and secured an
intermittent pushing forward of the pictures for three-quarters of an
inch, that is for the length of the single photograph. In the spring of
1895 Paul's theatrograph or animatograph was completed, and in the
following year he began his engagement at the Alhambra Theater,
where the novelty was planned as a vaudeville show for a few days but
stayed for many a year, since it proved at once an unprecedented
success. The American field was conquered by the Lumière camera.
The Eden Musée was the first place where this French kinematograph
was installed. The enjoyment which today one hundred and twenty-five
thousand moving picture theaters all over the globe bring to thirty
million people daily is dependent upon Lumière's and Paul's invention.
The improvements in the technique of taking the pictures and of
projecting them on the screen are legion, but the fundamental features
have not been changed. Yes; on the whole the development of the last
two decades has been a conservative one. The fact that every producer
tries to distribute his films to every country forces a far-reaching
standardization on the entire moving picture world. The