The Moving Picture World (1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. 39 brought about by those new methods, are not more in- jurious to eyesight, from a physiological point of view, than the longer periods which are not quite so much concealed. No serious, well-directed effort was ever made success- fully to completely eradicate the evil, which obviously could not be done without effecting an entire change in the existing methods of projection, by introducing a new principle or system through which a continuous evenly illuminated picture could be obtained. It is in that direction that my efforts were directed, and considerable experimental work was done by me towards the perfecting of a new continuous illumination system, and the production of instruments for carrying it into effect Before explaining these experiments, or describing my apparatus, let us carefully consider what is the "ideal of perfection" to be aimed at in the reproduction of living pictures, in order that it may be more clearly understood how far my system will contribute towards its consum- mation. , Manifestly the highest perfection that could possibly be attained would consist in the reproduction of the mov- ing objects, in such a manner that they v/ould appear upon the screen exactly the same in every respect as they in reality naturally do^-that is to say, that in their repro- duction upon the screen they should be presented to the eyes precisely as they are in nature. Notwithstanding the very many improvements in the art which have been made from time to time, cinematog- raphy is still far from reaching that ideal. On carefully considering the matter with the view of determining, its constituents it will be found that it comprises three im- portant essentials: First—That all the still objects in the composition must remain stationary and the moving ones should per- form their movements steadily and at the proper rate of speed, while the whole picture must be evenly and con- tinuously illuminated without a variation, interval, or interruption of any kind whatever. Second—That all the objects in the picture must be correctly proportioned and in their proper relative posi- tions to one another, while they stand out solid in relief, that is to say, "stereoscopically." Third—That they must appear on the screen in the true colors of nature. It might be contended as an essen- tial, that the sounds should accompany the actions, but I do not consider that such is necessary while we regard the subject from a pictorial point of view. m . If a systematic and well-directed effort is to be made with the view of ultimately attaining perfection, obviously the first and most important step to be taken is to bring about the conditions necessary to fulfil the requirements of the first of these essentials, for no matter what per- fection may be reached in producing "stereoscopic effect" and "natural colors" the reproduction would still be very incomplete without it. When we look at moving as well as stationary objects in nature, the light is continuously and uninterruptedly reflected from them, so that there is formed upon the retina of each of our eyes a picture which continues with- out any break, interval, or interruption, so long as our eyes continue to be directed towards the objects and nothing intervenes to obstruct our view; although the objects are moving, the picture, so formed, is not com- posed of a series of successive images of their different positions blended together into one composite picture, but is one complete continuous picture of the subject, mo- mentarily visible at every point in its path of movement. The objects moving slowly at first, are clearly well de- fined and distinctly recognizable, but as their speed in- creases they become blurred and less distinct, until at last they are not visible at all. Our physiological capacity for receiving impressions therefore lies within the range, commencing with the clearest impression where the ob- jects are still, and ending where the speed is such that the eyes fail to receive any impression of them. The image continues to persist or exist upon the retina for a definite period, and I conceive that when the objects move beyond the limits of that persistence, notwithstand- ing that the movement is continuous, there would be a continuous overlapping of the persisting impression on the fresh image or phase of the motion, which is being continuously received and forms a distinct impression at each point in its path. It is this overlapping which causes the "blur," and in order that the image on the retina, from which our conception is formed, shall appear sharp and well defined, the speed of the objects must not be greater than will allow the image to cease to exist during the time that the objects take to travel between the two nearest points, which would be clearly visible as distinct points at the distance from which the object is viewed. There would then be no overlapping, and consequently no blur. (To be continued.) Novel Uses for Moving Pictures. The United States Government is trying to get recuits for the army and navy by exhibiting in interior towns and cities, moving picture representations of the daily life of the sailor and soldier. As far back as 1889 mov- ing pictures were used to record an eclipse in South Africa. Another Government use of moving pictures is to make records of the daily life of many tribes of Indians which are rapidly becoming extinct. The same thing has been done with some of the re- maining herds of wild animals in the West, which also will soon have disappeared, such as the buffalo, elk, etc. Dr. Walter G. Chase, of Boston, took-a moving picture machine, some time ago, to the Craig colony of epileptics at Sonyea, N. Y. He remained there for two months, watching his chances. He succeeded from time to time in getting many moving pictures showing patients in epileptic fits. The value of these photographs as a means of demonstration to students is very great, for in no other