The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (May-Jun 1923)

74 THE FILM RENTER. & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. (Technical Supplement). May §, 1923 THE EARLY DEVELOPMENTS OF THE MOTION PICTURE. The Disc Picture Carrier and the Flexible Film. No. 3. By C. FRANCIS JENKINS. al Nd concentrate a considerable length of entertainment on a convenient area a disc picture carrier was attempted by several inventors. In one scheme a giass plate was employed, upon which series of pictures were spirally arranged, as in the Anthony device. “A British patent of 1900 to Rosenberg discloses another plan, a film having two rows of pictures thereon, each row being half of the whole show. At the end of the first row the film was shifted and run in the opposite direction to show pictures of the second row. Edison in his home projector of 1911 followed the same scheme. ‘In 1886 Augustus Le Prince, of New York State, filed an application for U.S. Patent which disclosed transparent picture ribbons having a row of perforations along each edge of each lm. Four such strips were used in the machine, four pictures being made on each in succession bebind sixteen lenses. A single lens modification is suggested, with perforated film driven” hy a sprocketed drum. Failure to Follow Up Work. “It is curious that those who came nearest anticipating future accepted methods and mechanisms should have failed to follow up their work. As another shining example I might cite Mr. Levison, who publicly exhibited at the Brooklyn Photo Club an apparatus much like present-day devices; it had flexible film, moved step by step, and behind a single lens. ‘“‘ Plates, cards, paper strips, druins and glaxs discs had been used for animated pictures, but when, in 1885, Rev. Goodwin invented the transparent celluloid flexible film the way was opened to rapid advance, for the necessary unlimited capacity in the picture carrier was then possible. The First Kenetoscope. “In 1889 Mr. Dickson began, at Thos. A. Kdison’s direction, the development of a picture machine. News of what was being CLARKSON Costumes, Wigs, Properties, etc., FILM PRODUCTIONS, 41-43 WARDOUR STREET, W. 1. A few-of the Films I have Dressed: “THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURE” “DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS” “JANE SHORE” “SIXTY YEARS A QUEEN” “BATTLE OF WATERLOO” “ GAME OF LIFE” ETO., ETO. done appeared in print from time to time, and the summer of 1894 saw the beginning of the public exhibition of his Kenetoscope, a box into which one looked to see a picture in animation. ‘“‘ The picture ribbon was passed continuously between a smail lamp and the eye of the observer, the view being cut off by a rotating dise about a foot in diameter, and having a one-eighth by one inch radial slit therein near the periphery. Through ‘this flying slit the observer got a momentary sight of each picture frame as it came into positicn above the light. The frames passed at the rate of 46 per second, a high speed being required because of the instantaneous view and meagre illumination. The pictures were small, of course, but excellently done. The excellence of the Edison pictures without doubt proved a stimulus to the rapid development of the art, far more than any contribution in mechanical design or new methods, as was later demonstrated when the courts held that the Edison patents and reissues were anticipated and invalid. Early English Workers. “Among the early English workers were Friese Greene and Mr. Evans, who exhibited a camera before the Bath Photo Society, February 25, 1890, and in 1895 were working on a projector, work which was concurrent with the work of the Lumicre Brothers in France. The Lumiere camera was also used as a projector, however, and as. such came to America in 1897. “Phe American Biograph, built by Herman Castler in 1896, was one of the very best of the projectors of these early development years. He worked on the theory that the larger the frame the sharper the definition on the screen because of the less enlargement required. This machine used 23 in. width of film. The film, unperforated, was advanced through the projector by the gripping action of mutilated cylinders, which contracted for only a fourth of a revolution. The resultant screen picture was excellent, but, like all the other mechanisms employing film differing from the general standard, had its day, played its part and dropped from sight. (Lo be continued.) The successful close-up portraits of the Royal group on the baleony at Buckingham Palace, taken of the Royal Wedding, and shown in the Gaumont Graphic, Pathé’s Gazette, and the Topical Budget, were taken by W. C. Gimber, of the Gaumont Co., with the aid of the Dallon Anastigmat Telephoto Lens. These pictures were most clear in their definition, and have occasioned much appreciative comment on all hands. This is another proof of the great value of this wonderful new Dallmeyer Telephoto Lens.