The Cine Technician (1935-1937)

66 The Journal of the Association of CineTechnicians November, 1935 Cinema Log The First War Cameraman. A great deal has been written in the Press lately abont Film Pioneers. "The British Journal of Photography" quoted the following stories from a correspondent, Mr. W. Coyne, of Derby : "Although I did not view living pictures until 1901, I saw two cinematograph pictures taken years before which, if in existence to-day, would be unique — one in 1897 at Crete, which was then in the hands of an Army of Occupation supplied by the Six Great Powers, owing to a dispute between Greece and Turkey about the Island's ownership. On June 22nd the Sixtieth Anniversary of Queen Victoria's Accession, the Warships in the Bay of Candia, thundered a Royal Salute, and we on land fired a "feu de joie" and gave three cheers for Her Majesty. All the War Correspondents were there, and that famous •one, Fred Villiars, was filming the scene. Invented the Rostrum. "The other occasion was on September 2nd, 1898, at 6 a.m., when we found ourselves forming the front face of the square, five miles outside Omdurman, awaiting the onslaught of one hundred thousand Dervishes. "As soon as they were in range, hell was let loose, and when the fight was at its hottest I saw Rene Bull, the famous black and white artist, turning the handle of his Cine camera. He was not satisfied with the tripod, but had built a bamboo trestle ten feet high." The First Pictures. Another Pioneer was W. K.-L. Dickson, who filmed the South African War for the "Biograph Co." He was with Sir Redvers Buller, and filmed the battles of Colenso and Spion Kop, the Entry into Ladysmith, and was with Lord Roberts on his March to Pretoria. He also filmed the Orange River Colony annexation ceremony at Bloemfontein. W. K-L. Dickson was indeed a pioneer, for it was he who invented the Biograph. He returned to England Positive of Biograph Film (actual size) KENNETH GORDON (Photograph by kind permission of Kodak Ltd.) from America and started the Mutescope and Biograph Co. here. Their works were in Great Windmill Street, on the site of the present Windmill Theatre. The Bio-Camera weighed nearly a ton. The size of the pictures taken were 2|" x 2", and as you filmed you perforated the negative. Dickson, whom we regret died last month at Twickenham, invented the Standard film as we know it to-day. The old Biograph positive had no perforations, as our illustration shows. Strange as it seems, Dickson was an Englishman ! England the home of Cinema. When the "Powers-that-Be" go looking for cinematograph genius for British productions abroad, perhaps the\' forget that we are the founders of the motion picture. Practically every progress made in the Art is English. Fox Talbot' discovered photograph}-. Muybridge invented Motion Pictures when he photographed the movements of a horse. Dickson invented the Kinetoscope and Biograph and took them to Edison. The English chemist. Sir W. H. Perkin, found Aniline Dye. Friese-Greene invented the intermittent motion used in all cameras and projectors. Sanger Sliepherd invented Three-Colour Photography, the basis of modern colour methods. Smith in\-ented Kinemacolor, the first commercial colour film process, and Lauste, the Frenchman, worked in England with our technicians in perfecting the Sound films as we know tliom to-day. Professor Fletcher, of University College, London, invented the amplifying valso. The first Cinema cameras were built here by Prcstwich, Williamson and Moy, and were exported throughout the world as were our films in these far-off days. [Continued on page (S8.)