Came the dawn : memories of a film pioneer (1951)

construct a camera big enough to take a thousand feet of film at a time and take no chances. What eventually emerged was a long, narrow, black box, rather like a coffin standing on end. It had three compartments. The centre one contained a 'Bioscope* mechanism, modified to do duty as a camera instead of a projector, and the top one held a thousand feet of film on a spool, while the bottom compartment held a similar spool on which the film was automatically rewound as it came out of the camera. It was a fairly easy matter to lash this contrivance to the rail which had been fitted for safety to the front of the engine extension, and the box-like seat contrived for me and a station-master to sit upon completed the arrangements. I think it was the American Biograph Company, during their long run at the Palace Theatre, London, who started this fashion of Phantom Rides, but it was rather strange that the public should have liked it for so long. Before the craze finished, however, it was given a new lease of life by the introduction of an ingenious scheme called Hales9 Tours. A number of small halls all over the country were converted into the semblance of a railway carriage with a screen filling up the whole of one end and on this was projected from behind these panoramic films, so that you got the illusion of travelling along a railway line and viewing the scenery from the open front of the carriage. The illusion was ingeniously enhanced by the carriage being mounted on springs and rocked about by motor power so that you actually felt as though you were travelling along. The Biograph Company had none of these fancy touches, of course, at the Palace Theatre. Their work was very interesting from another aspect, however, for they used film over four times the 45