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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FILM
of a projector using the kinetoscope film pictures, but the process was crude and unsuccessful. About the same time, both Robert Paul in London and the Lumiere brothers in Paris, inspired by the exhibition of Edison's device in their respective cities, brought out projectors ; Paul exhibiting his at Olympia and the Alhambra in the following year.1 The principle upon which the modern projector is based, however, is that of Thomas Armat's machine, which was shown publicly for the first time at the Cotton States' Exposition at Atlanta, Georgia, in September of 1895. Armat's Vitascope, which was illegitimately coupled with Edison's name for box-office reasons, was then shown on Broadway and was an immediate success. It was not long before several other projectors were put on the market, with the inevitable result that in a short time there was turbulent conflict and litigation over patents, which was to last for several years in America and thus to hinder progress. A disastrous damper on the young industry was experienced also in Europe, for at a charity bazaar in Paris, in 1897, one hundred and eighty members of Parisian society were burned to death in a marquee, the cause of the fire being a cinematograph machine. This calamity had a depressing effect on the whole of northern Europe, and it was years before many people would countenance the presence of the diabolical engine.
Gradually the fifty-feet lengths of film used in the kinetoscope lengthened until, in 1897, eleven thousand feet of film were shown by Enoch Rector in America, being a cinematic record of the CorbettFitzsimmons fight at Carson City, Nevada. Exceptionally dull as this enormous length of film must have been, its novelty was probably astounding. During the same year a film version about three thousand feet long of the Oberammergau Passion Play was made by Richard Hollaman. This was not a genuine reproduction of the real spectacle, as was advertised, but was manufactured on the roof of the Grand Central Palace a fact, however, which did not worry the public when they became aware of the deception. Presumably this affair has a vague claim to be the first attempt to photograph a story in pictures, but actually it was a mere photographic record, with no attempt at narration. About this time also, some wonderful trick effects of fade-outs, dissolves, and other photographic devices
1 Several of these early instruments, of historic and scientific interest, are included in the Will Day Collection of cinematograph equipment, which is housed at present in the Science Museum, South Kensington, London.
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