The Moving Picture World (November 1907)

550 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. be connected to a dissolving key by means of rubber tub- ing and by manipulating the controlling handle of the key from one position to the other you alternate the gas sup- ply from one burner to the other; thus you will see that the burner that'is being fed the full flow of gas will give a brilliant illumination and this light will project the view that you have placed in the slide carrier of this lantern upon the screen, and while this view is on the screen the operator places another view or slide in the slide carrier of the other lantern, turns the controlling lever of the dissolving key in the opposite position, and the bright light of the first lantern will gradually fade away and the second lantern will become brightly illuminated and the view contained in the slide carrier thereof will be project- ed upon the screen instead of the one that was previously thereon. Remember that you must place all views into the slide carrier in a reversed position, that is, upside-down;. if this is not done the views will be projected upon the screen upside-down. A Moving Picture Machine is a combined optical and mechanical instrument designed for public exhibitions with the mechanical and optical parts thereof so constructed and arranged as to enable the operator to brilliantly illuminate and project instanta- neous photographs of objects in motion upon the surface of the screen, making the pictures visible to the audience filling the theater or public hall. The great improvements made by the manufacturers of films and machines enable the operator to exhibit every movement of the object with an effect so true to nature that the people in the audience are almost led to believe that they are looking at the origi- nal rather than a photographic reproduction. This won- derful effect is accomplished by what is known as a film being passed rapidly through the mechanical part of the cinematograph while the light from the optical part of the same penetrates the emulsion or picture part of the film and projects the images upon the screen in life size and life movements. Trusting that the brief description given above will be sufficient, I will now impress upon your mind something that you should always remember when operating a mov- ing picture machine, and that is that you, the operator, will at all times have the safety and lives of the audience in your hands. Familiarize yourself with the machine you intend to operate before you attempt to give an exhibition either private or public, for, unless your machine is prop- erly adjusted, you cannot project a good steady picture, and when your machine is out of adjustment the film is liable to jump out of the sprocket wheel and become ruined. Therefore you will see that it is very important that you learn the mechanical workings of your machine so that you will be able to make such adjustments and repairs as you will be called upon from time to time to make, otherwise you will make a failure as a successful cinematograph operator. One of the most important adjustments of the moving picture machine is the adjustment of the intermittent sprocket shaft upon which is fitted the geneva wheel or star wheel. This is the mechanical part of the machine which pulls the film in front of the aperture, thus permit- ting the rays of light to penetrate the picture and carry it into the objective lens, which in turn enlarges the view and projects the same upon the screen. If this adjust- ment is not properly made the picture will continually jump up and down on the screen. Another adjustment equally important is that of the shutter; close attention should be paid to this so that the set screws will not work loose and permit.the shutter to get out of adjustment, for if the shutter is out of adjustment the picture on the screen will be blurred. The shutter should be set so that it will commence to darken the aperture just as the geneva drive wheel starts to drive the intermittent sprocket When buying your machine it would be well for you to ask the dealer from whom you buy to show you .how to make these two important adjustments. Whether you are buying a moving picture machine for yourself or others, you naturally want to obtain a thor- oughly reliable outfit, and right here I desire to say that there are a number of different makes of. machines on the market, some are good, some are fair and some are bad. I shall only refer to those makes of machines and appli- ances with which I have had satisfactory experiences dur- ing my experience of seventeen years in the electrical field. I wish to state, however, that I am not trying to knock any make of machine upon the market nor am I paid one cent by any of the makers of the machines I describe, illustrate and recommend. It is my desire to teach you, my reader, how to operate a machine, and in teaching you this I must refer to some machine; my ex- perience has been with the following machines: Power Cameragraph; Edison's Kinetoscopes; American Projec- tograph; Selig's Polyscope; and last but not least, the old Columbia Model, of which I owned .and operated the twelfth one made in this country; however, as that ma- chine is off the market now, I will not refer to it. With the machines mentioned above I have always been able to project a good, clear, steady picture (provided the film was in anything like a fair condition, for unless the film is good you cannot get a good moving picture), and it has always been a pleasure for me to operate any of the above-named machines, while with some other ma- chines with which I have had all the experience I want to have I lost business, time and money, and as I cannot say anything favorable about them I assure you that I shall say nothing against them. Of the machines men- tioned herein I admit that I like one of them better than the others, but they are all good machines and arty one of them will give you good pictures. (To be continued.") The Gem Theater has opened at Cohoes, N. Y., under the management of J. H. Smith, with first-class moving pictures and illustrated songs. * * * Mr. N. H. Mosher, of the Actograph Company, the well- known film renting firm of 50 Union Square, New York, de- parted last week for the Canadian woods to take special pictures of hunting scenes for the coming Sportsmen's Show at Madison Square Garden. While in the woods Mr. Mosher will take sev- eral pictures that will be of interest to the moving picture trade. The following well-known sportsmen accompanied Mr. Mosher: Mr. Henry C. Kreuger, of New York, and Mr. R. M Colt, man- ager of the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad. * * * A new moving picture theater, known as the Electric Family Theater, was opened October 15 by Frank Sullivan, expert elec- trician and operator, of Hamilton, Ohio, in Oxford, Ohio, a college town of 3,200 inhabitants, and is making good with con- tinuous shows from 6 to 9 P.M. daily, except Sundays. * * * Magistrate Higginbotham, sitting in the Lee Avenue Court, Brooklyn, N. Y, rendered a unique decision in relation to the