The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

86 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN July-August, 1952 One scone represents a blacksmith's shop in full operation, with three men hammering iron on an anvil, and who stop in their work to take a drink. Each drinks in turn and passes the pot of beer to the other. The smoke from the forge is seen to rise most perfectly. In another view a Spanish dancer is shown going through her graceful evolutions, as is also Anna Belli in her serpentine dance. There is likewise a wrestling scene and a cock fight, in which feathers are seen to fly in all directions. All the features of an original stage production are given, of course on a small scale, but possibly only for the present, for Mr. Edison promises to add the phonograph to the kinetoscope and to reproduce plays. Then by amplifying the phonograph and throwing the pictures on a screen, making them life size, he will give the world a startling reproduction of human life. GROVES'S DIORAMA From the " Manchester Guardian " of January 14th, 1852 Groves's Diorama. — This pleasing exhibition continues to attract large numbers of visitors to the Exchange Rooms. The diorama consists of nine views of the Holy Land. They are exceedingly well depicted, while the light is thrown upon the canvas so as to give warmth and richness to the scenery. The moving figures in the foreground, are, however, the peculiar features of Mr. Groves's dioramic pictures. We have a succession of richly-dressed soldiers, Turkish ladies and gentlemen, carriages, elephants, camels, flocks of sheep, etc., giving a life and naturalness to the scenic display. The mechanism put in motion by the exhibitor must be very perfect, which gives to these automata their graceful and easy motion across the canvas. A stirring spectacle — Zurich, in Switzerland — succeeds, full of life in all its ordinary phases. Automaton boats cut through the water, and on land all sorts of men and animals flit across the view. Among the figures particularly deserving notice for their life-like movements are, the ancient beggar receiving alms from the lady, the sportsman shooting the hare, and the recruiting party of soldiers. To this view succeeds the Parisian automata — four maidens engaged in the mazes of a graceful dance, every joint and muscle seeming to move properly, according to the attitudes of the dancers. To these succeeds a harlequin dancer, whose agility is really surprising. We need hardly say that the clever movements of all these figures elicit hearty applause. " The Storm at Sea," which we remember to have formed the principal feature of Groves's exhibition many years ago, closes the spectacle — than which none can be selected more pleasing to children and young people. Mr. Groves this week introduces a number of new scenes and effects. THE HORSE IN MOTION From " Image/' Eastman House IN 1873 Leland Stanford, Governor of California, engaged the services of a professional photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, to photograph a horse in full gallop. Although Muybridge's first result was commented upon by the Press with favour, it was not until 1877 that he secured completely convincing results. This he did by arranging a battery of cameras along one side of a race track, opposite a white wall. As the horse galloped past the cameras, their shutters were released one after the other by electro-magnetic control. These first sequence photographs, showing twelve different phases of the gallop, were published internationally and caused widespread comment because they were so unexpected. For centuries painters had shown the horse in gallop with fore feet stretched forward and hind feet thrust backward. Not one of the Muybridge photographs corresponded with this traditional image. The only photograph of the twelve in which all four feet were off the ground at once showed them bunched together beneath the belly of the horse. The Scientific American wrote, on October 19th, 1878: " Before these pictures were taken, no artist would have dared to draw a horse as a horse really is when in motion, even if it had been possible for the Lieutenant Wachter's drawings