In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants (1914)

Record Details:

Title:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants
Date:
1914
Publisher:
New York, Appeal Printing Co.
Volume:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants : record volume 6
Leaf #:
000337
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Government & Law
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
These seven volumes contain the testimonies and supporting documents from the U.S. District Court's antitrust lawsuit against the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). Formed in 1908, the MPPC (sometimes referred to asœ"the Edison Trust" or just "the Trust") sought to control the American film industry through pooling patents and demanding that producers and exhibitors acquire licenses to those patents. Independent producers and exhibitors, who refused to license the patents, argued that the MPPC was an unlawful monopoly. In 1912 and 1913, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania heard testimonies from both MPPC members, such as Siegmund Lubin, and "Independents" who later became Hollywood moguls, such as William Fox. Ultimately, in 1915, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which found the MPPC in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and spelled the end for the already weakening MPPC. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012
Date Added:
September 21, 2023
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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. THOMAS A. EDISON, OF LLEWELLYN PARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO MOTION PICTURE PATENTS COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY. KINETOSCOPE. 13,329. Specification of Reissued Letters Patent. Reissued Dec. 5, 1911. Original No. 589,168, dated August 31, 1897. Original Reissue No. 12,037, dated September 30, 1902, Serial No. 110.987. Application /or this re-'ssue filed May 24, 1911. Serial No. 629,240. To ail whom it may concern: Be it known that I, Thomas A. Edison, a citizen of the United States, residing at Llewellyn Park, in the county of Essex and 5 State of Xew Jersey, hare invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Kinetoscopes, (Case No. 928,) of which the following is a specification. The purpose I have in view is to produce 10 pictures representing objects in motion throughout an extended period of time which may be utilized to exhibit the scene including such moving objects in a perfect. and natural manner b}~ means of a suitable exhibit 15 ing apparatus, such as that described in an application filed simultaneouslv herewith, (Patent Xo. 493,426, dated March 14, 1893.) I have found that it is possible to accomplish this end by means of photography. 20 In canwing out my invention I employ an apparatus for effecting by photography a representation suitable for reproduction of a scene including a moving object or objects comprising a means, such as a single camera. 25 for intermittently projecting at such rapid rate as to result in persistence of vision images of successive positions of the object or objects in motion as observed from a fixed and single point of view, a sensitized tape 3C like film, and a means for so moving the film as to cause the successive images to be received thereon separately and in single-line sequence. The movements of the tape-film are intermittent, and it is preferable that the 35 periods of rest of the film should be longer than the periods of movement. By taking the photographs at a rate sufficiently high as to result in persistence of vision the developed photographs will, when 40 brought successively into view by an exhibiting apparatus, reproduce the movements faithfully and naturally. I have been able to lake with a single camera and a tape-film as many as forty-six pho 45 tographs per second, each having a size measured iengihwise of the tape of one inch, and I have also been able to hold the tape at rest for nine-tenths of the time ; but I do not wish to limit the scope of my invention to this 50 high rate of speed nor to this great disproportion between the periods of rest and the periods of motion, since with some subjects a speed as low as thirty pictures per second or even lower is sufficient, and while it is desirable to make the periods of rest as much 55 longer than the periods of motion as possible any excess of the periods of rest over the periods of motion is advantageous. In the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, Figure 1 is a plan view, with the 60 top of the casing removed, of a form of apparatus which I have found highly useful for the taking of the photographs. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section on line a? a? in Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged views of 65 the stop mechanism of the photographing apparatus. Fig. 5 is a plan view of the shutter for the photographing apparatus, and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a section of the tape-film with the positive photographs 70 thereon. . Referring to the drawings, 3 indicates the transparent or translucent tape-film, which before the apparatus is put in operation is all coiled on a reel in the sheet-metal box 75 I or ca'-e 1. the free end being connected to an empty reel in the case 2. The film 3 is preferably of sufficient width to admit the taking of picture cue inch in diameter be ; tween the rows of holes 4. Fig. 2, arranged at 80 regular intervals along the two edges of the | film, and into which holes the teeth of the wheels 5, Figs. 1 and 2. enter for the pur I pose of positively advancing the film. When ! the film is narrow, it is not essential to use S5 i two rows of perforations and two feedwheels, one feed-wheel being sufficient. Said wheels are mounted on a shaft 6, which carries a loose pulley 7 — that is, a pulley frictionally connected to its shaft and forming 90 •a yielding mechanical connection. This pulley is driven by a cord or belt 8 from a pulley 9 on the shaft 10, which shaft is driven by means of the beveled gears 11 12. The wheel 12 is preferably driven by an electric 85 motor 13. which when the apparatus is in use is regulated to run at the desired uniform speed, being "controlled by the centrifugal governor 14 and the circuit-controller 15 in a well-known manner. On the shaft 100 10 is another pulley 1G. which is connected 1 by a cross-belt IT to a pulley IS. also frictionally connected to its shaft, and which carries the reel to which the tape is connected in casing •_>. The film passes from 105 the casing 1 through a >lit formed by the