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LIVING PICTURES AND PEEP SHOWS 7
tion photography suggested the idea that animated pictures, united with music in his talking-machine cabinet, would provide a very popular amusement. The new preparation, celluloid with its coating of film, seemed to him to be the medium to use for motion photography. He had to design a camera that would roll the film to the lens, hold it there long enough for a photograph to be taken, and then roll it along so that a series might be registered. An exhibition cabinet had to be constructed to hold the phonograph and the motion picture film, with mechanism to operate them simultaneously, so that the auditorspectator at the peep-hole could see the movies and hear the music at the same time.
Edison, deciding to produce a camera and a film-cabinet mechanism before attempting to unite talking-machine and motion picture, organized a department for the experiments in his laboratory at East Orange, New Jersey, and put one of his assistants, W. K. L. Dickson, in charge of the work. After three years of experiments, the result, in 1889, was the Edison "kinetoscope," a cabinet in which fifty feet of celluloid film revolved on spools. By dropping a coin in a slot, an electric light was flashed on the film, a tiny motor moved the spools, and the observer at the peep-hole was startled to see little pictures of humans and animals in motion. Although these first movies gave their brief shows in less than a minute, and the subjects were such simple things as a man sneezing, a girl dancing, a boxing-match, a horse eating hay, or baby taking a bath, people were enchanted by the novelty of motion in pictures.
Edison, deep in numerous laboratory experiments, was too far removed from the public to realize that his invention was anything more than a toy. His mind was so occupied with other research work which he regarded as more important that he did not even carry out his original intention to combine talking machine and movies, and let his business partners manage the kinetoscope department without giving it much of his own thought.
Edison phonographs were well distributed throughout the