The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

12 THE PHONOSCOPE September, 1899 IDarieb "Clses of tbe IRinetoscope Already an institution in recording for both present and future the notable scenes and occurrences of the world, kinetoscope of moving pictures are becoming useful for scientific as well as for amusement purposes. In hospitals, particularly, the invention is finding wide application. One hospital in New York is now adopting a machine to record minutely the actions of patients in epileptic fits and similar affections and many moving pictures have been taken showing the movements in walking of persons afflicted with locomotor ataxia. Reproduced a number of times, slowly, on the screen, doctors are enabled to study their systems more carefully in their laboratories. And the pictures taken in Vienna, showing operations being performed by famous surgeons become valuable instructors to medical students. It is also in hospital work that this invention with the microscope attachment, or micro-kinetoscope, is finding the greatest practical use. The movements of all kinds of microbes when thus photographed make striking animated pictures, which mean a good deal to the practitioner, and the actions of healthy and diseased corpuscles are easily distinguished when thrown upon the screen and magnified thousands of times. Such pictures of diseased blood, taken from time to time, show the improvement or decline in patient's conditions. Dr. Robert L. Watson, was one of the first to discover many strange phenomena in the action of live blood corpuscles in this way. It has just been found by one of the leading experimenters that X-ray photography now so valuable in hospitals, may be wonderfully developed by the use of the biograph camera, as it is equally possible to take moving pictures with the penetrating light. He believes there is no function of the human body which may not be shown in action by such pictures, even to the beating of the heart and blood circulation, affording great possibilities for new researches in philosophy. Many of the animated pictures that are exhibited now for their beauty alone will likely be useful in school instruction and lecture work, but the difficulty, so far, as was the case with the early development of the Phonograph, is that these machines are reserved for exclusive prices, and will only be brought within the reach of public instructors as their possibilities and improvements bring great demand for them. One of the novel subjects that will soon be put on exhibition will show minutely the growth and flowering of plants from the time of planting until in full bloom. To obtain such results as these a special room is being set aside in the new botanical gardens at Bronx Park, N. Y. In order to show the entire growth of a lily on the screen in one series the biograph cameras and the growing bulb will be arranged in position in this room and a picture will be taken every half hour continually for about thirty days and nights. In order to get a uniform light for every view artificial illumination will be employed. Something like 1,000 will therefore be made of one subject, the final pictures showing the opening of the lily, and then its fading away. Though such results have previously been obtained, they were not taken with the necessary uniformity of light. This work will be under the direction of T. S. McGregor, curator of the gardens. Experiments of this kind, too, are being made to show rapidly the changes in scenery from winter to summer, etc. The experiments of F. Flammarion, the celebrated French astronomer, show the possibilities of the biograph for recording astronomical wonders. He has taken moving pictures which show moonrise, the milky way, lightning, shooting stars, sunrise and sunset. Professors of astronomy in Columbia college also realize the possibilities of the invention in their work and experimenters are improving extremely sensitive films necessary to take impressions of the weak astronomical rays of light. It is particularly the phenomena of the heavens seen at intervals of many years — a strange eclipse, transit or metoric shower — which men travel far to observe, which astronomers hope to preserve in photographic effects, making it possible for those at home to observe the heavenly wonders that few now have the opportunity of seeing. And as the microscope has been combined with the biograph, so also the astronomer's telescopic lenses are being combined, so that we may see distant movements invisible to the naked eye. Many of the moving pictures of naval actions, which naturally could not have been taken at close range, have resulted from the telescopic attachment. Captain John Finley, the expert on tornadoes, now in the American meteorological service, has taken some remarkable moving pictures of lightning storms and expects to get some striking pictures of the approach of a Kansas tornado. Another new and novel exhibit is a brilliant display of fireworks, taken at night. While it has hitherto been impossible to photograph fireworks, by the use of magnesium powder the biograph has faithfully recorded the shower and pinwheel effects of the most costly pieces made. An adventurous operator in Europe devised the idea of taking pictures from the bottom of the car of a balloon in motion. As it ascended rapidly successive pictures were taken straight downward, showing the spectators, then the surrounding houses and trees, then the roofs and country, fading rapidly until all that could be seen were dark patches on the earth. The biograph camera was made to perform another remarkable feat. Placed on the top of a Brooklyn bridge tower one clear day, it was turned so as to take pictures in every direction of the compass, covering fifteen miles in every direction. In the few moments it takes to show these pictures on the screen the spectators are given a panorama covering something like 500 square miles. An operator, speaking of some of his experiences, remarked: "I was crossing a ferry with my machine one day when I saw what was sure to be a collision between two schooners. I at once set my machine working and when these boats struck it made an exciting scene for exhibition purposes, with snapping of spars and rigging. I got the pictures, but they never appeared on the screen. The case was taken to court and one of the interested parties who saw the pictures taken gave me $250 to desroy what would have proven an unquestionable witness in court. In exhibiting a Hamburg bridge scene in Boston recently one of the persons who was shown to cross the bridge was recognized as one for whom detectives had been searching. This at once put them on the right track for his capture. And the value of the kinetoscope on the race track was recently shown, having proven evidence which settled a discussion over the places in a road race. Exciting and amusing magical moving pictures are being exhibited by clever Parisian entertainers. By curious methods resorted to in taking the pictures almost any result may be produced on the screen as though it really happened. By the use of their wands magicians make hosts of living creatures appear and disappear, apparently behead and shoot one another in battle scenes on the screen and immediately restore them to life again or make them appear in two places at once. To get these natural effects dummy figures made up exactly like the persons they represent are used momentarily when the pictures are taken, the living persons suddenly taking their places again and apparently reviving from death. And by omitting several of the pictures in a series of films, strange disappearances and sudden reappearances are produced in elaborate dramas. One expert, who is doing perhaps as much as any one man in improving and developing the biograph, is constantly finding remarkable new applications for the machine. He believes that it will, furnish the best means of identifying criminals. Animated pictures for the rogue's gallery may be made of criminals while walking or talking, from an adjoining room, without their knowledge, showing their real characteristics. It is thought that a person's general actions 1 are remembered better than simply one's features and the pictures so taken would be placed in the small mutoscopic cabinets, in which pictures are observed by turning a handle. In fact this will soon be the popular way to have pictures taken. A large public gallery will shortly open in one of the world's greatest hotels, where people can have moving pictures taken of themselves in characteristic actions, which will be placed into the small mutoscopic cabinets, such as are used for home amusement. When these cabinets have become household articles this expert sees a new field for them, in that they will enable people to witness the popular events of the daj-. Sets of pictures showing the exciting scenes — the yacht race, athletic game, court scene or other evsnt — will be made in such quantities and so reasonably as to be distributed daily like newspapers for home use in the cabinets ; thus we may see the day's notable occurrences as well as reading the reports. pictures of tbelRIonbike Kinetoscope Views Which Edison Will Send to the Paris Exposition A remarkable collection of films for a moving picture machine is now being developed at the laboratory of Thomas A. Edison in West Orange. The pictures are from the Klondike and are intended for the exhibit Mr. Edison is to make at the Paris Exposition. All the films which have been developed have been successful. The entire series will show actual life in the Klondike as it has never been shown before. The photographing party started for the Klondike in June, 1S9S. Thomas Crahan and R. K. Bonine, the latter Mr. Edison's personal representative, being at the head of the party. Dr. Bonine had previously visited the region and was in charge of the route and the selection of the views to be taken. Mr. Edison made a machine for the expedition which took pictures nine times the size of the ordinary ones. In order to use the larger film it was necessary to reduce the speed of the machine from forty-five to twenty pictures a second. The reduction in speed has resulted in a gain in clearness. Charles A. Van, with Washburn's Minstrels, has an immense success in the reigning ballad, "My Little Georgia Rose," also featured by Lillian Jerome, J. J. Cluxton, Lloyd Gibbs, John P. Curran, Gus. P. Thomas and George B. Alexander