The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

I 2 THE PHONOSCOPE. November, 1896. The Vitascope The Vitascope is a device, logically following upon the Kinetoscope, for exhibiting upon a large screen a series of practically continuous pictures, the result to the eye being that of a person or scene in motion. The Vitascope has been called an improved Kinetoscope. It is more than that. It is a Kinetoscope enormously enlarged, showing its subject in the desired colors. As a matter of fact, the latter instrument was never considered seriously by its inventor (Edison), but only as a paving the way for a more perfect instrument he had in mind, and which he later perfected and appropriately named the Vitascope— meaning, literally, "the exhibition of life." The machine, as it now stands, differs mat"i ally from the original model of the inventor, which cost months of labor and an expenditure of about $20,000. In the discarded model he had used a shutter, on the principle of the one employed in the Kinetoscope, but it gave blurrirg effects, which, of course, were unsatisfactory. In the later model he dispensed with a shutter, and secured the effects he desired by the use of lenses and an arc-light. The Vitascope, as finally completed and put into public operation, notably upon the vaudeville stage, consists, as to its mechanism, of a small lens, such as is used in a small camera. This b us is nearest the exhibition screen. Just behind it is a metal frame, about an inch and a half square, over which the picture to be reproduced passes. Behind this is a large lens, and just back of this lens is an arc light of 2.000 candle-power. The pictures reproduced have been previously photographed on Kinetoscope films, and are in size about as large as one's fingernail. The films, as prepared for scenic reproduction, are each fifty feet in length, and contain several hundred pictures tliat go to make up a panorama. In use, the film passes over a series of wheels at a very rapid rale, propelled by eleclric power, and, as the picture passes the frame, behind the small lens above mentioned, the light from the arc lamp, passing through t ho large lens and being focused upon it. throws the picture through the smaller lens upon the screen, magnified 000 limes. In this manner the miniature picture 1 a ken by the Kinetoscope is reproduced life-size, or larger, with every minute detail of life and action on the screen. In the operation of the machine, the problem of how to prevent the film from being melted by the focused light from the arc lamp, which is intense, has been solved by suspending a magnet before the frame over which the film passes. Close to this magnet is a small dynamo. When the current is turned into the Vitascope, and its wheels carrying the film are set in motion, the magnet is drawn toward the dynamo, so that the light may strike the moving lens and send its picture through the smaller lens. The film being at this time in motion, of course is not in danger of being melted. When the current is turned off, the magnet falls from the dynamo again to its former place in front of the film, resuming its protective function. What to many is the most surprising feature of the Vitascope is that it throws, in the pictures exhibited, any and all colors upon the screen. But the explanation of this is quite simple. The colors are not obtained by any photographic process— the film produced by the Kinetograph is in monochrome. They are painted on the films later by hand, in such a way that the color will not rub off as the film passes over the wheels of the Vitascope. In subsequent machines it is designed to increase the size of the films to something like 500 feet, for the purpose of displaying such scenes as Niagara Falls, an ocean steamer leaving port, and other pictorial subjects. The Cinematograph The Cinematographe consists of a box S in. x 10 in. x 4, containing a series of reels upon which the band, about 18 yards long, of photographic films is rapidly wound behind a set of five magnifying lenses. Each quotograph is not larger than a postage stamp, and a powerful light reflects them on a white screen in such rapid succession as to reproduce all the infinite and varied movements of nature. The film is made of celluloid and gelatine and so thin that it easily rolls up into a box about I! inches in diameter. The lenses magnify the tiny pictures so as to cover a space on the stage 14 ft. x 18 ft. The pictures themselves are taken at t lie rate of about 45 in a second, so that no movemeut however rapid can escape them. The Biograph The most recent of the inventions for projecting moving pictures is the Biograph, which is now on exhibition at Hammerstein's Music Hall. It is the invention of Herman Casler, of Canastota, N. Y. The Biograph made its debut at Olympia. under splendid auspices, a special interest being given to its performance by the semi-political character of the views and scenes represented. The house was crowded and cheered to the echo each appearance "on the sere u" of the Ohio "Petit Gaporal." The Eidoloscope MOBILE, ALA— Thirty years ago the man who dreamed of talking over 500 miles of wire would have been laughed at. Still, to-day, the Telephone is in universal use throughout the civilized world. The same wonderful inventive gift that prompted Edison to give to the world the Telephone, has made itself manifest in "The Eiuoloscope." This instrument is to the eye what the Telephone is to the ear. It annihilates space, it places before the eye incidents that transpired at a distance of ih.»usands of miles. It perpetuates action, it overcomes death; its resources are so unspeakably wonderful that mere words fail to give any comprehensive idea of its really magic power. The principle involved in the operation of the Eidoloscope is simple, but the actual operation and construction are complicated and intricate, the details of which are kept a profound secret. A sensitive film is fed from a spool to pass before the exposed lens by means of an electric motor, at a uniform but amazing speed. Thus the entire incident of the scene to be photographed is transmitted to the film and indelibly fixed on it by the usual process of development. The spool is now placed in front of the Eidoloscope, and unwound in the same rapid fashion in front of a strong light which throws it, enlarged to life size, upon a large screen, reproducing the incident exactly as it occurred. As the camera can easily take 2,000 impressions pel minute, the photographs, displayed before the vision with such rapidity, form an ever moving living picture. In the bull fight, shown in Rosabel Morrison's production of "Carmen," the possibilities of the Eidoloseop.are well exploited. Clouds of dust kicked up by the bull hiding him from sight, and then rolling slowly away, make it hard to believe that the actual arena is not a tangible reality. The Phantoscope CHICAGO, ILL.— At the Imperial Theatre, the Phantoscope has proved itself a drawing card. The pictures are all French views and include military scenes, and pictures of French street and country life. There is a very large selection, and the films are said to be amongst the most perfect made. Among some recently invented instruments brought to the notice of Chieagoaus, a couple of marvelous ones are those which register the changes in a person's emotions. They are; "The Kymographion" and "the Plethysmograph" of Mosso. The former measures the effect of mental and emotional states upon the chest, and the latter upon the circulation of the arterial blood. The Thealrograph ST. PAUL.— In St. Paul an ingenious device, the Theatrograph. has recently been exhibited at the Grand by an Englishman. The Theatrograph is to all intents and purposes a powerful storeopticou provided with a series of wheels, over which is passed a spool of films or pictures, taken of the same scene at innuite'y shoit intervals. By this means a continuous action is projected on the screen, whereon the scene appears as real and animated as life. The Theatrograph. in short, is an English adaptation, more or less perfect, of an American invention, the Vitascope. X ><