T. A. Edison Kinetographic Camera -- August 31, 2022

Patent US589168A

125 years ago today, Thomas Edison was granted US Patent 589168, for a camera able to capture motion. Edison's research team, led by WKL Dickson did all the work. 

Dickson Greeting (1891) -- April 21, 2018

This post is part of the Springtime Silent Movie Challenge: In the Beginning..., hosted by Fritzi at Movies Silently. "Here’s the challenge. Before June 21, 2018, you will:
"Watch 5 movies made between 1906 and 1914
"Watch 5 movies made in 1905 or before
"Share your experience on your blog, on social media or here in the comments (I will set up a special post for the purpose to publish on June 21)"

For my five 1905 or before movies, I thought I would look at some pioneering efforts.

My second film is called the "Dickson Greeting" and it may have been the first American movie shown to the public.

I picked this film because when I was in grammar school, I don't remember what grade, I bought a Scholastic book about Thomas Edison.  I have always been interested in Edison.  One chapter, illustrated with a line drawing, described a meeting of a women's group.  As a special attraction, they got to see a movie.  The book described someone, Edison I think, but I could be wrong, walking into the frame, talking to the audience with perfect synchronization, removing his hat, and bowing.  I knew enough about movies by that time to know that no one had made a synchronized sound film and that no one had demonstrated a projector by that time.  Other books I had read in the Anza branch library, books about film history, did not mention this demonstration.  I figured someone was exaggerating, which made me distrust other things in the book.

Century, June, 1894

The film may have been shot on 20-May-1891.  Some accounts say that it was shot at the Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, but other accounts say that the Black Maria was not used until 1893.

We only have three seconds of the film, which may have been longer.  One thing I always notice about early Edison films is the intense light.  This was necessary because film stock was not very sensitive.  Notice that the subject of the film has his eyes closed.

www.listal.com

The subject of the film turns out to be the man who invented the camera used to shoot the film, William Kennedy Laurie (WKL) Dickson, the leader of Edison's team which worked on motion pictures. Edison took credit for the invention and Dickson spent many years trying to get credit.

Dickson was a Scot but was born in France.  He came to America in 1879 and by 1883 he was working for Thomas Edison.  When Edison came up with the idea for a device that could record and show moving pictures, Dickson got the assignment to make it happen.

Century, June, 1894

A later view shows the interior of the Black Maria.  The Kinetograph camera is on the right.  There are wires between it and a phonograph, but probably not mechanism to synchronize them.

New York Sun, 28-May-1891

This article offers a more realistic view of the meeting that was described in the book:

"A little while ago there was a great convention of the women's clubs of America. Mrs. Edison is interested in women's clubs and their work and she decided to entertain the Presidents of the various clubs at the Convention. Edison entered into the plan, and when 147 club women visited his workshop he showed them the working model of his new Kinetograph, for that is the name he has given to the most wonderful of all his wonderful inventions.

New York Sun, 28-May-1891

The surprised and pleased club women saw a small pine box standing on the floor. There were some wheels and belts near the box and a workman who had them in charge. In the top of the box was a hole perhaps an inch in diameter As they looked through this hole they saw the picture of a man. It was a most marvelous picture. It bowed and smiled and waved its hands and took off its hat with the most perfect naturalness and grace. Every motion was perfect. There was not a hitch or a jerk. No wonder Edison chuckled at the effect be produced with his Kinetograph."

The device which shot the film was called a Kinetograph.  The device used for view was called a Kinetoscope.

Next Saturday:  The first comedy film. 

Black Maria 125 -- February 1, 2018

The Century; A Popular Quarterly, June, 1894

Some sources say that 125 years ago today, on 01-February-1893, Thomas Edison's team which was working on motion pictures, led by WKL Dickson, completed the first motion picture studio.  The Black Maria was a shed covered with tar paper.  The roof was hinged to open and admit sunlight, and the whole structure sat on a turntable so it could move with the sun.

The Century; A Popular Quarterly, June, 1894

The Illusion of Motion -- May 20, 2016

This post is part of the Classic Movie Ice Cream Social Blogathon, hosted by Fritzi at Movies Silently (http://moviessilently.com/2016/05/20/the-classic-movie-ice-cream-social-is-here/).  Fritzi wants to focus "on classic movie-themed cheer. I’m supplying the ice cream (in digital form) and you’ll bring the cheer."

disney-pal.com

2007

When my daughter was younger, we went to Disneyland every summer.  There were two places on Main Street that we would always visit.  The Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour served delightful ice cream in huge waffle cones which were made on the premises.  I usually had mint chip.  Then we would go to the adjoining Penny Arcade.

2007

 I always had to put a penny in the delightfully painted clamshell Mutoscopes.

2007

2008

2008

2009

2009

2009

2010

2010

2012

2012

What is a Mutoscope?  Why did I have to go play with them every year?  The Mutoscope is a hand-cranked entertainment machine that works like a giant flipbook. When I was a kid, I tried to build a device like it, but always had trouble getting it to work.

2012

Each machine carries instructions and extensive patent information on a plate on the front of the machine.  The instructions are simple: "Push Penny in Slot Then Turn Crank to the Right."

2010

When you put your penny in the slot, a light comes on.  You see a photo on a card.  When you turn the crank, each photo snaps forward, revealing the next one.  The sequence of photos gives the illusion of motion.  The cool thing is, you can turn the crank as fast or as slow as you like.  You can't go backwards.  Here we see Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand in a scene from a Keystone comedy.  Someone with good eyes could probably tell which one.

2010

And here we see a scene from a Tom Mix western, probably one of his early Selig Polyscope productions.

Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography, Albert Allis Hopkins, ed.

from Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography, edited by Albert Allis Hopkins:
"The 'mutoscope' is compact, and the pictures are large. It is not any larger than the cover of a sewing machine. The enlarged bromide prints, measuring four by six inches, are mounted in close consecutive order around the cylinder and extend out like the leaves of a book, as shown in the illustration. In the operation of the mutoscope the spectator has the performance entirely under his own control by turning a crank which is placed conveniently at hand, and may make the operation as quick or as slow as he desires, and can stop the machine at any particular picture at will.  Each picture is momentarily held in front of the lens by the action of a slot attached to the roof of the box, which allows the pictures to slip by in much the same way as the thumb is used upon the leaves of a book."

The Mutoscope was invented by William Kennedy Laurie (WKL) Dickson, who had led the Edison team that developed the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph.   The Mutoscope and its accompanying camera, the Mutograph, were carefully designed to work around Thomas Edison's patents on motion picture devices. 

How did I get interested in the Mutoscope?  Several times when I was young I took a book out of the Anza Branch Library that explained how movies work.  I can't remember the title.  I tried to make several of the pre-cinema devices in the section on early moving picture devices. 

The Young Folk's Cyclopædia of Games and Sports by John Denison Champlin and Arthur Elmore Bostwick, 1890

The Thaumatrope (from the Greek for "wonder turner") is a card, often disk-shaped, with a string tied through a hole on each side.  On each face of the card is a part of a picture, most famously a bird on one side and a cage, upside down relative to the bird, on the other.  The person playing with the Thaumatrope takes a string in each hand and spins the card rapidly.  Persistence of vision merges the images together so the bird appears to be in the cage, or, in the example above, the rider appears to be on the horse.  This was a popular toy in the Nineteenth Century.  There is some disagreement about whether it was invented by a Frenchman or an Englishman.

I used to make Thaumatropes with my daughter. Kids enjoy them and I recommend making them as a good way to pass a rainy afternoon.

The Young Folk's Cyclopædia of Games and Sports by John Denison Champlin and Arthur Elmore Bostwick, 1890

Zoetropes were harder.  There are two basic types.  Each has a series of drawings meant to represent phases of an action.

Scientific American / New Series, Volume 20, Issue 14, April 3, 1869

One type of Zoetrope has the images on the face of a disk.  The disk may have slots or notches between the images.  The disk is rotated in front of a mirror.  Looking though the slots intermittently interrupts our view of the images and persistence of vision allows us to see the images as if they are moving.

This can also be done with a second disk in front of the one with the images.  The front disk has the slots and it rotates in the opposite direction from the one with the images.  I built one of these as a project for university class.  I should have taken a photo.

The Story of the Motion Picture: 65 B.C. to 1920 A.D. By Ben Jehudah Lubschez

The other type of Zoetrope, also called a Phenakistoscope or Daedaleum (I love these names), has the images on a strip of paper lining the inside of a drum.  There is a slot toward the rim of the drum above each image.  Looking through the slots of the rotating drum also gives the illusion of motion.

When my daughter was young, I purchased a toy drum-type Zoetrope and we drew strips to view in it.  Just recently, my wife took her class to a field trip at the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco's Presidio.  They created Zoetrope strips. 

Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography, edited by Albert Allis Hopkins

The methods above used drawing or posed photographs to recreate motion.  In 1878, San Francisco photographer Eadweard Muybridge used a series of cameras to photograph the stages of motion as it was happening. This took place down the Peninsula from where I lived, at the Stanford Farm, the future home of Stanford University.  I found this fascinating.  I wanted to reanimate Muybridge's images and I wanted to create my own, but I could never gather enough functioning cameras.  Muybridge went on to do studies of many kinds of motion, and used a Zoetrope to present them. 

Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography, edited by Albert Allis Hopkins.

German inventor Ottomar Anschutz created the Electrical Tachyscope in 1887 and demonstrated it at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  It used an early form of strobe light to achieve intermittent motion. 

from Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography, edited by Albert Allis Hopkins:
"The apparatus is the invention of Ottamar Anschuetz, of Lissa, Prussia. A special camera was used, adapted to take a number of photographs in quick succession. The instrument for displaying the pictures is called the "electrical tachyscope." It consists of an iron wheel of sufficient diameter to hold an entire series of positive prints on the periphery. The wheel is arranged upon a rigid standard, and provided with a series of pins which register exactly with the picture. Upon the standard behind the wheel is located a box containing a spiral Geissler tube which is connected with the terminals of a Ruhmkorff coil. The primary coil is provided with a contact maker and breaker adapted to be operated by the pins projecting from the wheel, so that every time a picture comes before the Geissler tube it is illuminated by an electrical discharge through the tube. This discharge, being instantaneous, shows each picture in an apparently fixed position. These pictures succeed each other so rapidly that the retinal image of one picture is retained until the next is superimposed upon it, thereby giving to the observer the sense of a continuous image in constant motion."

French artist and inventor Charles-Émile Reynaud created the Praxinoscope, which improved on the Zoetrope by replacing the slots with a set of mirrors in the middle of the drum. The video was shot at the Musee Mechanique in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.  The Musee Mechanique is a wonderful place to visit to play with old amusement machines. 

Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography, edited by Albert Allis Hopkins.

Reynaud went farther than the Praxinoscope or the Zoetrope with their simple strips of drawings.  He created the Théâtre Optique, which used a long chain of drawings on glass, along with projected backgrounds, to create beautiful animated cartoons which could be presented to large audiences.

from Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography, edited by Albert Allis Hopkins:
 "Up to the time of the invention of this theater, the apparatus that produced the synthesis of the successive phases of an action were limited to reproduction upon a very small scale, which can only be enjoyed by a limited group. The object of the optical theater was to provide an apparatus for the reproduction of a series of actions upon a considerable scale. The continuity of the image obtained by the praxinoscope, invented in 1877 by M. Reynaud, had not up to this time been realized by any projecting apparatus. The effect is produced by using a crystalloid band upon which the images are painted as represented at A in our engraving. The operator can revolve it in one direction or the other by means of two reels. The images pass before the lantern, B, and are projected by the aid of the objective, C, upon an inclined mirror, M, which projects them upon the transparent screen, E. Another projection lantern, B, causes the appearance on the screen of the scene, amid which appear the characters, which change their posture according as the painted band, A, is revolved by the operator."

Inspired by Reynaud, I drew a couple of animated films on strips of paper.  If they still exist, I should try to scan them and animate them.

Reynaud premiered the Théâtre Optique in 1892 to much acclaim.  In 1893, a team working for Thomas Edison demonstrated the vertical Kinetoscope, which allowed an individual to watch a movie.  In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière demonstrated a projector which allowed a crowd of people to watch a movie.  The Théâtre Optique was quickly forgotten,  In 1910, Reynaud threw his equipment and most of his animations into the Seine.

 Despite sad stories like Reynaud's, I get a lot of pleasure out of looking at pre-cinema, and sometimes trying to recreate it.  If you catch kids in the right mood, it can help them understand how movies work.

This post is part of the Classic Movie Ice Cream Social Blogathon, hosted by Fritzi at Movies Silently (http://moviessilently.com/2016/05/20/the-classic-movie-ice-cream-social-is-here/).  Thank you to Fritzi for all the hard work.  Thank you to everyone who visited and I encourage you to read and comment on as many posts as you can.  Bloggers love comments.  

This post is my second blogathon post of 2016 and my 42nd since 2007.  This is my 24th blogathon.    This page has a list of all my blogathon posts.  

 

---

Coincidentally, the first day of this blogathon is the 125th anniversary of the first public demonstration of the horizontal Kinetoscope by a team of Thomas Edison's workers led by WKL Dickson.  On 20-May-1891, in West Orange, New Jersey, they played this film, later called the "Dickson Greeting," to the National Federation of Women's Clubs.  The Kinetoscope required further development, which came to fruition in 1893. 

Edison's Invention of the Kineto-Phonograph -- February 5, 2015

INTERIOR OF THE KINETOGRAPHIC THEATER, EDISON'S LABORATORY, ORANGE, N. J., SHOWING PHONOGRAPH AND KINETOGRAPH,

WKL Dickson led the Edison team that developed the kinetograph (movie camera), kinetoscope (movie viewer) and the kineto-phonograph (sound movie system).  Dickson and his wife Antonia wrote this article for the June, 1894 Century Magazine. 

Edison's Invention of the Kineto-Phonograph

From The Century; A Popular Quarterly / Volume 48, Issue 2, June 1894

The text and pictures of this article copyright, 1894, by ANTONIA & W. K. L. DICKSON.

The photographs are by Mr. Dickson.

DRAWN BY B. J. MEEKER

ACCOUNT OF THE INVENTION.

The synchronous attachment of photography with the phonograph was early contemplated by Mr. Edison, in order to record and give back the impressions to the eye as well as to the ear.

The comprehensive term for this invention is the kineto-phonograph. The dual "talking machine is the phono-kinetograph, and the reproducing-machine the phono-kinetoscope, in contradistinction to the kinetograph and the kinetoscope, which relate respectively to the taking and reproduction of movable but soundless objects.

The initial experiments took the form of microscopic pin-point photographs, placed on a cylindrical shell, corresponding in size to the ordinary phonograph cylinder. These two cylinders were then placed side by side on a shaft, and the sound record was taken as near as possible synchronously with the photographic image impressed on the sensitive surface of the shell. The photographic portion of the undertaking was seriously hampered by the defects of the materials at hand, which, however excellent in themselves, offered no substance sufficiently sensitive. How to secure clear-cut outlines, or indeed any outlines at all, together with phenomenal speed, was the problem which puzzled the experimenters. The Daguerre, albumen, and kindred processes met the first requirements,but failed when subjected to the test of speed. These methods were therefor regretfully abandoned, a certain precipitate of knowledge being retained, and a bold leap was made to the Maddox gelatine bromide of silver emulsion, with which the cylinders were coated. This process gave rise to a new and serious difficulty. The bromide of silver haloids, held in suspension with the emulsion, showed themselves in an exaggerated coarseness when it became a question of enlarging the pin-point photographs to the dignity of one eighth of an inch, projecting them upon a screen, or viewing them through a binocular microscope. Each accession of size augmented the difficulty, and it was resolved to abandon that line of experiment, and to revolutionize the whole nature of the proceedings by discarding these small photographs, and substituting a series of very much larger impressions affixed to the outer edge of a swiftly rotating wheel, or disk, and supplied with a number of pins, so arranged as to project under the center of each picture. On the rear of the disk, upon a stand, was placed a Geissler tube, connected with an induction coil, the primary wire of which, operated by the pins, produced a rupture of the primary current, which, in its turn, through the medium of the secondary current, lighted up the Geissler tube at the precise moment when a picture crossed its range of view. This electrical discharge was performed in such an inappreciable fraction of time, the succession of pictures was so rapid, and the whole mechanism so nearly perfect, that the goal of the inventor seemed almost reached.

Then followed some experiments with drums, over which sheets of sensitized celluloid film were drawn, the edges being pressed into a narrow slot in the surface, similar in construction to the old tin-foil phonograph. A starting- and stopping-device very similar to the one now in use was also applied. The pictures were then taken spirally to the number of two hundred or so, but were limited in size, owing to the rotundity of surface, which brought only the center of the picture into focus. The sheet of celluloid was then developed, fixed, etc., and placed upon a transparent drum, bristling at its outer edge with brass pins. When the drum was rapidly turned, these came in contact with the primary current of an induction coil, and each image was lighted up in the same manner as described in the previous disk experiment, with this difference only, that the inside of the drum was illuminated.

The next step was the adoption of a highly sensitized strip of celluloid half an inch wide; but this proving unsatisfactory, owing to inadequate size, one-inch pictures were substituted on a band one and a half inches wide, the additional width being required for the perforations on the outer edge. These perforations occur at close and regular intervals, in order to enable the teeth of a locking-device to hold the film steady for nine tenths of the one forty-sixth part of a second, when a shutter opens rapidly and admits a beam of light, causing an image or phase in the movement of the subject. The film is then jerked forward in the remaining one tenth of the one forty-sixth part of a second, and held at rest while the shutter has again made its round, admitting another circle of light, and so on until forty-six impressions are taken a second, or 2760 a minute. This speed yields 165,600 pictures in an hour, an amount amply sufficient for an evening's entertainment, when unreeled before the eye. By connecting the two ends of the strip, and thus forming a continuous band, the pictures can be indefinitely multiplied. In this connection it is interesting to note that were the spasmodic motions added up by themselves, exclusive of arrests, on the same principle that a train record is computed independent of stoppages, the incredible speed of twenty-six miles an hour would be shown.

The advantage of this system over a continuous band, and of a slotted shutter forging widely ahead of the film, would be this, that in that case only the fractional degree of light comprised in the 1/2720 part of a second is allowed to penetrate to the film at a complete sacrifice of all detail, whereas, in the present system of stopping and starting, each picture gets one hundredth part of a second's exposure, with a lens but slightly stopped down -- time amply sufficient, as any photographer knows, for the attainment of excellent detail even in an ordinarily good light. It must be understood that only one camera is used for taking these strips, and not a battery of cameras, as in Mr. Muybridge's photographs of The Horse in Motion. (See THE CENTURY for July, 1882.)

The next step, after making the negative band, is to form a positive or finished series of reproductions from the negative, which is passed through a machine for the purpose, in conjunction with a blank strip of film, which, after development and general treatment, is replaced in the kinetoscope or phono-kinetoscope, as the case may be. When a phonograph record has been taken simultaneously with such a strip, the two are started together by the use of a simple but effective device, and kept so all through, the phonographic record being in perfect accord with the strip. In this conjunction, the tiny holes with which the edge of the celluloid film is perforated, correspond exactly with the phonographic records, and the several devices of the camera, such as the shifting of the film and the operations of the shutter, are so regulated as to keep pace with the indentation made by the stylus upon the phonographic wax cylinder, one motor serving as a source of common energy to camera and phonograph, when they are electrically and mechanically linked together. The establishment of harmonious relations between kinetoscope and phonograph was a harrowing task, and would have broken the spirit of inventors less inured to hardship and discouragement than Edison's veterans. The experiments have borne their legitimate fruit, and the most scrupulous nicety of adjustment has been achieved, with the resultant effects of realistic life, audibly and visually expressed.

THOMAS A. EDISON, 1893.

The process of taking is variously performed: by artificial light in the photographic department, or by daylight under the improved conditions of the new theater, of which we shall speak. The actors, when more than one in number, are kept as close together as possible, and exposed either to the glare of the sun, to the blinding light of four parabolic magnesium lamps, or to the light of twenty arc-lamps, prvided with highly actinic carbons, supplied with powerful reflectors equal to about 50,000 candle-power. This radiance is concentrated upon the performers while the kinetograph and phonograph are hard at work storing up records and impressions for future reproduction.

A popular and inexpensive adaptation of kinetoscopic methods is in the form of the well-known nickel-in-the-slot, a machine consisting of a cabinet containing an electrical motor and batteries for operating the mechanism which acts as the impelling power to the film. The film is in the shape of an endless band fifty feet in length, which is passed through the field of a magnifying-glass perpendicularly placed. The photographic impressions pass before the eye at the rate of forty-six per second, through the medium of a rotating, slotted disk, the slot exposing a picture at each revolution, and separating the fractional gradations of pose. Projected against a screen, or viewed through a magnifying-glass, the pictures are eminently lifelike, for the reason that the enlargement need not be more than ten times the original size. On exhibition evenings the projecting-room, which is situated in the upper story of the photographic department, is hung with black, in order to prevent any reflection from the circle of light emanating from the screen at the other end, the projector being placed behind a curtain, also of black, and provided with a single peep-hole for the accommodation of the lens. The effect of these somber draperies, and the weird accompanying monotone of the electric motor attached to the projector, are horribly impressive, and one's sense of the supernatural is heightened when a figure suddenly springs into his patb, acting and talking with a vigor which leaves him totally unprepared for its mysterious vanishing. Projected stereoscopically, the results are even more realistic, as those acquainted with that class of phenomena may imagine, and a pleasing rotundity is apparent, which, in ordinary photographic displays, is conspicuous by its absence.

THE FENCERS. TWO SECTIONS OF THE KINETOSCOPIC BAND, SHOWING MINUTE GRADATIONS IN POSE.

HEAR ME, NORMA. KINETOSCOPIC VIEWS, SHOWING FIVE SECTIONS OF THE STRIP.

Nothing more vivid or more natural could be imagined than these breathing, audible forms, with their tricks of familiar gesture and speech. The inconceivable swiftness of the photographic successions, and the exquisite synchronism of the phonographic attachment, have removed the last trace of automatic action, and the illusion is complete. The organ-grinder's monkey jumps upon his shoulder to the accompaniment of a strain from Norma. The rich strains of a tenor or soprano are heard, set in their appropriate dramatic action; the blacksmith is seen swinging his ponderous hammer, exactly as in life, and the clang of the anvil keeps pace with his symmetrical movements; along with the rhythmical measures of the dancer go her soft-sounding footfalls; the wrestlers and fencers ply their intricate game, guarding, parrying, attacking, thrusting, and throwing, while the quick flash of the eye, the tension of the mouth, the dilated nostrils, and the strong, deep breathing give evidence of the potentialities within.

The photographic rooms, with their singular completeness of appointment, have been the birthplace and nursery of this invention; and the more important processes connected with the preparation and development of the film, together with other mechanical and scientific devices, are still carried on in this department. The exigencies of natural lighting incident to the better taking of the subjects, and the lack of a suitable theatrical stage, however, necessitated the construction of a special building, which stands in the center of that cluster of auxiliary houses which forms the suburbs of the laboratory, and which is of so peculiar an appearance as to challenge the attention of the most superficial observer. It obeys no architectural rules, embraces no conventional materials, and follows no accepted scheme of color. Its shape is an irregular oblong, rising abruptly in the center, at which point a movable roof is attached, which is easily raised or lowered at the will of a single manipulator. Its color is a grim and forbidding black, enlivened by the dull luster of many hundred metallic points; its material is paper, covered with pitch and profusely studded with tin nails. With its flapping sail-like roof and ebon hue, it has a weird and semi-nautical appearance, and the uncanny effect is not lessened when, at an imperceptible signal, the great building swings slowly around upon a graphited center, presenting any given angle to the rays of the sun, and rendering the operators independent of diurnal variations. The movable principle of this building is identical with that of our river swinging-bridges, the ends being suspended by iron rods from raised center-posts. This building is known as the Kinetographic Theater, otherwise the "Black Maria". Entering, we are confronted by a system of lights and shades so sharply differentiated as to pain the eye, accustomed to the uniform radiance of the outer air. Later we find that the contrasts are effected by the total exclusion of light from the lower end of the hall, heightened by draperies of impenetrable black, against which stands out in sharp relief the central stage, on which are placed the kinetographic subjects, bathed in the full power of the solar rays pouring down from the movable roof. This distribution of light and shade is productive of the happiest effects in the films, as the different figures are thrown into the broadest relief against the black background, and a distinctness of outline is achieved that would be impossible under ordinary conditions.

At the other end of the hall is a cell, indicated by an ordinary door and an extraordinary window, glazed in panes of a lurid hue, which gives the finishing touch to the Rembrandtesque character of the picture. The compartment is devoted to the purpose of changing the film from the dark box to the kinetographic camera, being provided with a special track, running from the mysterious recesses at the back of the stage to its own special precincts, where fresh films are substituted for the ones already employed. the processes of development, etc., are performed in the main photographic building.

The dramatis personae of this stage are recruited from every characteristic section of social, artistic, and industrial life, and from many a phase of animal existence. One day chronicled the engagement of a troupe of trained bears and their Hungarian leaders. The bears were divided between surly discontent and a comfortable desire to follow the bent of their own inclinations. It was only after much persuasion that they could be induced to subserve the interests of science. One furry monster waddled up a telegraph-pole, to the soliloquy of his own indignant growls; another settled himself comfortably in a deep arm-chair, with the air of a postgraduate in social science; a third rose solemnly on his hind legs and described the measures of some dance, to the weird strains of his keepers music. Another licked his master's swarthy face, another accepted his keepers challenge, and engaged with him in a wrestling-match, struggling, hugging, and rolling on the ground.

Of human subjects we have a superfluity, although the utmost discrimination is essential in the selection of themes. the records embrace pugilistic encounters, trapeze and cane exercises, (lancing, wrestling, fencing, singing, the playing of instruments, speech-making, the motions involved in the different crafts, horseshoeing, equestrianism, gardening, and many others.

THE BARBER SHOP.

We have yet to speak of the microscopic subjects, a class of especial interest, as lying outside of the unaided vision of man. In the treatment of these infinitesimal types, much difficulty was experienced in obtaining a perfect adjustment so as to reproduce the breathing of insects, the circulation of blood in a frog's leg, and other similar processes of nature. The enlargement of animalcule in a drop of stagnant water proved a most exacting task, but by the aid of a powerful lime-light, concentrated on the water, by the interposition of alum cells for the interception of most of the heat rays, and by the use of a quick shutter and kindred contrivances, the obstacles were overcome, and the final results were such as fully to compensate for the expenditure of time and trouble. We will suppose that the operator has at last been successful in imprisoning the tricksy water-goblins on the sensitive film, in developing the positive strip, and placing it in the projector. A series of inch-large shapes then springs into view, magnified stereoptically to nearly three feet each, gruesome beyond power of expression, and exhibiting an indescribable celerity and rage. Monsters close upon one another in a blind and indiscriminate attack, limbs are dismembered, gory globules are tapped, whole battalions disappear from view. Before the ruthless completeness of these martial tactics the Kilkenny cats fade into insignificance. A curious feature of the performance is the passing of these creatures in and out of focus, appearing sometimes as huge and distorted shadows, then springing into the reality of their own size and proportions.

Hitherto we have limited ourselves to the delineation of detached subjects, but we shall now touch very briefly upon one of our most ambitious schemes, of which these scattered impersonations are but the heralds. Preparations have long been on foot to extend the number of the actors and to increase the stage facilities, with a view to the presentation of an entire play, set in its appropriate frame.

This line of thought may be indefinitely pursued, with application to any given phase of outdoor or indoor life which it is desired to reproduce. Our methods point to ultimate success, and every day adds to the security and the celerity of the undertaking. No scene, however animated and extensive, but will eventually be within reproductive power. Martial evolutions, naval exercises, processions, and countless kindred exhibitions will be recorded for the leisurely gratification of those who are debarred from attendance, or who desire to recall them. The invalid, the isolated country recluse, and the harassed business man can indulge in needed recreation, without undue expenditure, without fear of weather, and without the sacrifice of health or important engagements. Not only our own resources but those of the entire world will be at our command. The advantages to students and historians will be immeasurable. Instead of dry and misleading accounts, tinged with the exaggerations of the chroniclers minds, our archives will be enriched by the vitalized pictures of great national scenes, instinct with all the glowing personalities which characterized them.

Antonia and W K L. Dickson.

DRAWN BY E. J. MEEKER./EXTERIOR OF EDISON'S KINETOGRAPHIC THEATER, ORANGE, N. J.

Nursery Favorites and the Early-Teens Talkie Boom -- November 9, 2014

This post is part of  the Fairy Tale Blogathon, hosted by Fritzi at Movies Silently.  Be sure to click on most images to see larger versions.  

When I was a kid most people knew that the first talkie was The Jazz Singer and many of them probably knew it was released in 1927 or thereabouts.  I don't know if most people know that nowadays.  In any event, when I became interested in movies, I began reading about them and I learned that there were talkies, or at least movies with sound, long before The Jazz Singer.  In Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By, I read the reminiscences of a man who made talkies for Gaumont  before World War One. 

I later learned that there had been a real talkie boom between about 1907 and 1914, the beginning of the First World War. 

The Electrical Review, 29-June-1894

In 1891, an interviewer asked Thomas Edison if he would have a novelty ready for the Chicago World Columbian Exposition in 1893.  Edison said  "I have a machine projected, but the details are not perfected yet. My intention is to have such a happy combination of electricity and photography that a man can sit in his own parlor and see reproduced on a screen the forms of the players in an opera produced on a distant stage, and, as he sees their movements, he will hear the sound of their voices as they talk or sing or laugh. When the machine is perfected, which it will be long before it can be exhibited at the fair, each little muscle of the singer's face will be seen to work, his facial expression with its every change will be exactly reproduced, and the stride and positions will be natural, and will vary as do those of the person himself. That is only one part of what the machine will do. To the sporting fraternity, I can say that before long it will be possible to apply this system to prize fights and boxing exhibitions. The whole scene, with the comments of the spectators, the talk of the seconds, the noise of the blows, and so on, will be faithfully transferred." (source: Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 23, Issue 6, June 1891).

Edison did not perfect his machine by the time of the exposition. 

Edison's Kinetoscope (from the Greek for "movement-viewer") was a device that allowed one person to watch a film of about 20-40 seconds.  In the illustration, note that the film ran in a continuous loop.  (Source: "The Edison Kinetoscope," The Electrical Engineer, 07-November-1894)




By late 1894 or early 1895, Edison's Kinetoscope team, led by WKL (William Kennedy Laurie) Dickson, produced this experimental film.  The mute film became famous, but the sound recording was lost until someone found a broken cylinder at the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange, New Jersey.  The label said "Violin by WKL Dickson with Kineto."  Restorers repaired the cylinder in 1998 and Walter Murch, who has edited the sound on many of Francis Ford Coppola's movies, put the sound together with the image. 

The "Dickson Experimental Sound Film" illustrates two of the issues which faced early sound film makers.  Before the invention of the electronic microphone, large horns like the one shown in the movie were used to gather the sound to be recorded.  The horn had to be close to the source of the sound, so in this case it appeared in the shot.  If the phonograph with its recording horn was close to the actors, it could not be close to the camera, which made it difficult to create a mechanism to keep the camera and the phonograph in sync.  If the camera was too close to the phonograph with the recording horn, the horn would pick up the sound of the camera. 

As far as we know, this film was not released to the public and Edison's team never showed it with the sound synchronized.  The Edison company produced a Kinetophone, which was a Kintetoscope peephole viewer which had a cylinder phonograph in the cabinet.  The customer could watch a movie and listen to a record through headphones, but there was no attempt at synchronization.  Edison's team gave up trying to make synchronized sound films for a while, but other people tried to make sound movies. 

In 1900, the Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre was an attraction at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. It featured a program of short films with sound. Some, like Sarah Bernhardt in the duel scene from Hamlet, had live sound effects. Others used records played along with the projected film, but, there was no linkage between the projector and the phonograph. The projectionist had to crank the projector faster or slower to stay in sync with the phonograph.

Moving Picture World, 21-September-1907

Léon Gaumont was a French film pioneer. In 1903 he patented a system for films synchronized with disk records called the Chronophone.  The Chronophone addressed another problem faced by early sound films.  The screen had to be at the front of the audience and the projector had to be at the rear, in order to allow the image to be large enough.  If the phonograph was at the back of the audience near the projector, it would spoil the illusion that the people on the screen were talking or singing.  The distance added to the difficulty of synchronizing the image and the sound.  Another difficulty was making the sound loud enough to be heard in a large auditorium.  This was difficult before electric amplification. 

Moving Picture World, 27-March-1909

Gaumont solved the problems by running the phonograph and the projector from a single electric source.  The projectionist had a control switch ("The Chronophone Synchronizer" in the illustration above) that allowed him to speed up or slow down the projector.  Amplification was done using compressed air.  Some people complained that the sound was painfully loud. 



Gaumont's original sound movies were made using pre-recorded records.  The actors would lip-synch to the music.  I saw one that used an Enrico Caruso record.  Caruso did not appear in the movie. Pioneer director Alice Guy-Blaché directed many of the Gaumont sound films.



Ciné-Journal, 14-January-1910

By about 1910, Gaumont had come up with a way to record sound while the pictures were being taken.  This image shows "The new Chronophone.  Registering simultaneously the sound and the images."  This version of the Chronophone, with the pneumatic amplifier, played every week at the largest theater in the world, the Gaumont Palace in Paris from 1911 to 1917.  World War One, which killed the French film industry also killed the Chronophone. 

Pioneering German inventor and filmmaker Oskar Messter made Biophon sound films between 1909 and 1917.  Like most German films from that period, I think they are lost. 

The Nickelodeon, 18-February-1911



"For a dozen years a number of inventors in Europe and America have been trying to achieve a perfect synchronization of the biograph and the graphophone so as to give speech to the figures that move across the picture.  The problem appears to have been solved at last and solved by a Frenchman ... To reach the desired result, as he explains, the inventor must overcome two difficulties.  First, he must so improve the graphophone that it will faithfully reproduce the quality of the voice.  Next he must find an extremely accurate device for making the graphophone and the biograph keep time ... At present M. Gaumont's chronophone records gesture and voice at several yards' distance; consequently it is now possible to create talking motion pictures that will enable posterity to see and hear the great men of our day almost as well as we do."

Moving Picture News, 29-April-1911

" .. there has always been one thing lacking which has limited the field of the talking picture.  This one thing was the impossibility of obtaining complicated subjects, particularly talking subjects, as distinguished from singing subjects, owing to the fact that in recording it was necessary first to make a record of the sounds and then to have  the singers pose and repeat the words in unison with a phonograph playing the sound record previously made ... By the new system it is possible to record both the sounds and the views at the same time so that the most complicated subjects may be taken in absolute synchronism." 

Moving Picture World, 16-October-1909

This article mentions the Gaumont Chronophone and two other sound film systems, the Cameraphone and the Cinephone. 

Moving Picture World, 06-March-1909

"A cheap form of synchronizer, the Cinephone, which is being marketed by the Warwick Trading Company of London, will shortly be placed on the American market."  The Cinephone had "no physical connection ... between the gramophone at the foot of the sheet and the projector at the back of the hall."  Instead, there was a lighted dial on the phonograph which contained a pointer that showed the progress of the record.  There was a similar dial in a corner of the screen.  The projectionist cranked his projector at a rate to keep the two dials in sync.  This was a heavy dependence on the skill of the projectionist. 

Daily Arizona Silver Belt, 20-December-1908

I have not been able to learn how the Cameraphone synchronizer worked, but the company had theaters all over the county, even in Globe, Arizona.  Note that there are two Cameraphone reels on the program.  The first features (tiny letters) "Imitation of" (big letters) "Geo. M. Cohan, 'The Yankee Doodle Boy'." 



Moving Picture World, 24-October-1914

I don't know how the Renfax system worked, but I like the design of their ads.  "No Singer Required."  "Vaudeville on the Screen."  "Four Releases Weekly."  "Cost Less Than a Singer." 



Moving Picture World, 25-January-1913

Edison's people went back to work on talking films around 1910.  Their new product was the Kinetophone, a projector/cylinder phonograph combination.  It used a mechanical connection that ran the length of the theater to join the projector and the phonograph.  This was probably difficult to set up and maintain.  It used a Higham friction wheel amplifier.  This was not as powerful as Gaumont's pneumatic amplifier.  "Any first class operator can handle."  All the early sound systems placed a burden on the projectionist.  Second-class operators probably could not make them work. 



Few Kinetophone movies survive with both their film and sound elements available.  One is this promotional movie thought to have been made in 1912.  Note that the speaker, who may be actor WE Ramsey, speaks loudly and clearly, rolling his r's dramatically.  He also uses strong gestures.  All of these things are standard features of public speaking in the time before electronic amplification.  The loud, clear voice would be an asset when trying to be heard by a distant recording horn. 



The most famous Kinetophone movie, and for many years the only one that was easy to see, is "Nursery Favorites," made in 1913.  In a single take of about five and one-half minutes, it crams ten people, a dancing dog and a big spider into a cramped set.  The events mix characters from nursery rhymes (Mother Goose) and fairy tales (Jack the Giant Killer). 

After the opening title, before the music starts, we see one and one half men standing at stage right.  The one who is fully visible raises his arms and the music starts.  A trio of men come onto the stage singing and holding up what they say are bags of gold.  They sing something about loyal subjects, and then throw the bags to the floor with a well-synchronized thump. 

The men drop to their knees and then we hear the "Fee Fi Fo Fum" of the Giant.  He sings about grinding bones to make his bread, but then he breaks into "A Jolly Old Giant Am I," accompanied by the trio. 

They laugh and then a pretty girl in a white dress dances out of the fireplace.  She holds a long wand.  "I am the Queen of the Fairies" she says.  The Queen of the Fairies is played by Viola Dana, who later became a big star.  She says she will cast a spell over the Giant.  She dances back into the fireplace. 

We hear a shout, and Old King Cole, Mother Goose, a Jolly Tar and Little Miss Muffet enter from stage left.  Mother Goose sings "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary." 

The Jolly Tar (a sailor) asks Little Miss Muffet for a lock of her hair.  She sings her song in an annoying little-girl voice until a big spider sits down beside her.  She leaps away in horror.  After the spider is scared away, the Jolly Tar and Miss Muffet dance. 

The Queen of the Fairies pops in again from the fireplace, walking with a young boy.  Old King COle asks who he is and he says he is Jack the Giant Killer.  Jack toasts "May we always be friends" and the Jolly Tar carries him over to stand on the tall chair behind the Giant. 

Old King Cole sings a patter song that reminded me of Gilbert and Sullivan.  The three men become his fiddlers three.  The King dances energetically. 

Mother Goose sings, accompanied by the fiddlers while the Jolly Tar and Miss Muffet dance and King Cole leads in a costumed dog who dances on his back legs and barks.  And that is the end. 

I have to admire the cast who got through the whole time without a flub.  Listeners will note that the sound quality is rather flat, but that is common with acoustic recordings.  Everyone speaks and sings loudly and clearly.  I think the music comes across well.  I wonder where the orchestra sat in the studio.  Notice that there is no editing during the sound portion of the movie. 

A few more Kinetophone movies survive with their sound recordings, but I have never seen them. 

An immigrant from France, Eugene Lauste, who had worked with WKL Dickson on the Kinetoscope team, began developing sound on film in 1910.  He could never raise enough money to make it work, but it ultimately proved to be the right way to join pictures and sound. 

Here are some helpful resources if you would like to learn more about early sound film efforts.  Electronic microphones and loudspeakers helped to make sound films practical in the 1920s. 

Spencer Sundel wrote an excellent essay on Edison's sound films:
The Pre-History of Sound Cinema, Part 1: Thomas Edison and W.K.L. Dickson http://www.spencersundell.com/blog/2006/04/10/the_pre-history_of_sound_cinema_part_1/

Sadly, I haven't been able to find a Part II. 

Silent Era hosts the Progressive Silent Film List, which has a startling list of early sound films:
Early Sound Films of the Silent Era
http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/indexes/earlySoundFilms.html

The Thomas Edison National Historical Park site has some Kinetophone  sound tracks and some actor auditions:
http://www.nps.gov/edis/photosmultimedia/motion-picture-soundtracks-and-actor-auditions.htm

This post is part of the Fairy Tale Blogathon hosted by Fritzi at Movies Silently. Thank you to Fritzi for all the hard work.  Thank you to everyone who visited and I encourage you to read as many posts as you can, and leave comments.  Bloggers love comments.