The Moving Picture World (1907)

68o THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. But before Mr. Edison's advent in the field, about the year 1888, or possibly earlier, modern instantaneous pho-. tography had been very completely developed. In fact, the work of Muybridge in the photography of men and animals in motion has not been excelled in beauty and perfection of detail by any modern photographer. Pro- fessor Marey also had obtained exquisite photographs of flying birds, as well as other examples of animate move- ment, by means of which an analysis.of such movement was obtained and in one or two instances these move- ments were reproduced synthetically in apparatus of the zoetrope type. All of this was, however,' from the modern point of view, crude and ineffective, necessitating more a vivid imagination than the production of an illusion which ap- pealed directly to the sense of sight. Obviously, with the zoetrope at hand, together, with its numerous modifica- tions, including apparatus for actually projecting a pic- ture on a screen, the perfection of an exhibition device required more the work of the skilled mechanic than of the inventor. Even with the problem of instantaneous photography ■solved, and with the ultimate possibility of obtaining mov- ing pictures by photography clearly understood, the solu- tion of the difficulties involved the construction of a cam- era by means of which the necessarily large number of instantaneous pictures per second could be obtained. An examination of the literature of the art shows that this was the problem to which the various inventors., primarily addressed themselves. Some of the early workers suggested the employment of glass plates, and Marey actually succeeded in obtaining a series of twelve photographs of a flying bird in this way; but the use of plates would be obviously impossible in any practical ap- paratus when we consider that nine hundred plates or more would be required per minute. Other inventors suggested flexible bands or belts, car- rying plates or sections of sensitized paper, and in some instances coated directly with a sensitized surface. But in every instance the difficulties encountered were in se- curing an enormous number of sharp impressions in prac- tically an instant of time. Numerous suggestions, some of them very ingenious, were made for accomplishing this result. For instance, in one case the sensitized surface was moved continuously and a series of lenses travelling at the same speed were moved behind the sight opening, so that the image remained—and here was-the difficulty— practically stationary. In another case during the period of exposure a single lens was moved in the direction of the film so as to keep the image stationary, the lens being moved in the opposite direction during the period of non- exposure ; but such an apparatus was not suited for rapid In stuT anotner »rase sixteen lenses were used with two films, one of which wias moved during the successive ex- posures of eigln^of the lenses, but such an apparatus in addition to necessitating the cutting up and rearrange- ment of each picture was bpen to the optical objection that the pictures were not alf .taken from the same point of view, as observed by the eye. Mr. Edison, in his first work, v endeavored to solve the problem by making the pictures macroscopic, so that the necessary movements of the surface w«uld be very slight. Is it not remarkable with our present feiowlsdge that during the fifty years or more that the possi&aJity of ob- taining motion pictures was appreciated no inyen*or was courageous enough to even suggest, much.less than to attempt, to secure the pictures on a single film with* a single lens, holding the film stationary during the moments of exposure and moving it forward during the periods of non-exposure? Simple as it now seems it was a bold conception on Mr. Edison's part that photographs in this way could be secured at rates between fifteen and forty per second. The birth of the modern moving picture art may be said to date from the Summer of 1889, at which time Mr. Edison had constructed a camera possessing all the at- tributes of the perfected apparatus and by means of which he was enabled to secure on a continuous celluloid him forty-six pictures per second, sharp in detail and each one inch in width and substantially three-quarters of an inch in height. The first camera thus constructed is still in existence, and, except for its size, being affectionately referred to as the "dog-house," it is as good and as perfect a device for its purpose as any camera that may now be built. It uses a sprocket feed, engaging two rows of perforations in the sides of the film, it has two retorts for containing the unexposed film and for receiving the exposed film; and in all other respects is a fully developed apparatus. • Mr. Edison made application for his patent on August 24, 1891, and the patent was issued on August 31, 1897. As a result of litigation it was found that the patent was too broad, numerous prior descriptions of which Mr. Edison knew nothing, but of which the law presumed he should have known everything, not having been cited by the Patent Office. Consequently to correct the error the patent was reissued on September 30, 1902. This patent has been sustained by the Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in litigation, with which I presume everyone in-the business is familiar. As a result of that litigation, Mr. Edison's position in the moving picture art has been judicially determined. He was the first, according to the decision, to make a motion picture camera using a single lens and with a single film, wherein the film is brought to rest and so maintained during each exposure, and is moved forward during each period- of non-exposure, the movements be- ing sufficiently rapid to secure the. desired number of photographs per second, and the mechanism being of such a character that the photographs shall be uniform and sharp and shall not require cutting up and rearrange- ment prior to printing. Until August 31, 1914, at least as I interpret the de- cision of the Circuit Court of Appeals, no one can make a camera having these features without embodying Mr. Edison's invention, and in infringement of his patent Possibly inventors may succeed in producing forms of apparatus in which continuously moving films or a con- siderable number of lenses, or a plurality of films may be used which.could not be fairly said to embody the Edison invention, but it is sufficient to say that no such device has so far been constructed, and we must, wait until it appears before we can say that it does or does not invade the right secured by the Edison patent. Mark M. Leichter, the noted Western cartoonist, has been served with an injunction preventing him from using an enlarg- ing apparatus that he has invented to project his cartoons. Bert Levy, now playing the United Time and a native of the Anti- podes, is the complainant. Mr. Leichter*s apparatus is said to be built entirely on dif- ferent plans and he has prepared himself to defend his successful invention, which is. an improvement, on Levy's apparatus. The time that Mr. Leichter built his apparatus he had not the slightest idea of Mr. Levy's machine nor did he think that there was any- thing of that variety on exhibition. The case is called for the first Monday in January and should be of interest to all vaude- villians. Tearing this time Mr. Leichter is kept from showing and * good ^ct is kept from the public. - ■