Moving Picture News (Jan-Dec 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 7 workmen build two machines, one an intermittent and the other a constantly running mechanism. Now Edison, Dickson, and the workmen, all testified that the intermittent machine was* built in the fall of 1889, and that this was the only intermittent mechanism they EVER built. They tried it out a fcAV times and then, because it would not work satisfactorily, abandoned it for the constantly running mechanism, that is, a mechanism in which the film was fed without intermittent movement, and this intermittent mechanism (they called it a "stop-motion") was never after used by anyone. Nor was any other intermittent mechanism ever again built or used until Mr. Armat showed Edison such a device in jMarch. 1896, seven years later. The orginal "stop-motion" device was abandoned in 1889, and has remained abandoned to this day. It did not and never could produce the kind of pictures claimed in Edison patent Re-issue 12,038. To an expert photographer the testimony of Dickson, Edison, and the workmen (testimony given in various suits for infringement of a patent on this abandoned device) also conclusively proves this. Let us see what was happening elsewhere in the photographic world at this time. 1889 to 1896. The Eastman Kodak Co. was building and selling kodaks, and film for use therein. The shutters on these kodaks were marked to work as rapidl}^ as one one-hundredth of a second. And it was not common for amateur photographers to make exposures at a speed as high as this, though, of course, more often at a less speed of shutter. But at whatever rate of exposure, the manipulation of the camera was as follows : The film was exposed by snapping the shutter, rolled up to a fresh, unexposed place : exposed again and rolled again ; and so on until the film was used up. Intermittent movement of the film, it will be observed, and with successful results, else the Eastman Kodak Co. Avould have been short lived. Now please remember that this mechanism dififers from the moving picture camera of the past and present only in that the mechanisms for opening and closing the lens, and for rewinding the film between exposures, are, in the moving picture camera, both attached to a single crank, whereas, in the kodak these two functions are independent of each other, mechanically, that is. the shutter is snapped by pressing a trip, and then the film is rewound with a separate key arrangement. The exposure in both the motion picture camera and in the kodak are often exactly the same. Don't let it be forgotten that the Kodak amateur was getting results on intermittently moved film, for this is really the kernel of the whole matter, Avhile Dickson (Edison) Avas not getting results. Why? Dickson Avas an expert photographer and was using the same film, Avhy shouldn't HE get results? Let's analyze the situation a little further and possibly a reason Avill appear. Eastman Kodak Co. supplied not only the amateur's film, but the film Dickson Avas using, so the fault wasn't in the film. (For that matter, from the Eastman Kodak Co. the Avriter obtained film for his OAvn experimentation, begun in 1890, except for AA'hat film AA^as obtained of the late John Carbut, of Philadelphia). NoAA' the letters put in evidence in some of the suits shoAv that both Eastman and Blair Avere repeatedly urged to supply a more sensitiA^e film. Dickson saying that the}^ "could not get results at the high rate of speed they employed." This "high rate of speed" is A'ariously stated to be thirty to forty pictures per second. rWhich is necessar}', I admit, in constantly running film, as in the Edison kinetoscope or peep-hole machine, though sixteen pictures per second Avas found ample before Edison came in, and has since been found ample, and remains the standard rate to-day in mechanisms in Avhich the film is fed intermittently). Also, both the Edison patent and his Avitnesses say that the period of exposure was about nine-tenths of this time. That is, the exposure would be about onethirty-second to one-forty-fifth of a second ; more than tAA'ice as long an exposure as many kodak arhateurs found sufficient. And they, Edison, et al., couldn't get results, although the amateur Avas using the same film and getting fine pictures. Why? The sole and only reason AA'as that Edison and Dickson were NOT using an intermittent mechanism at all ; they Avere using a constantly running film in a continuously running mechanism, and all the exposure they could give Avithout blurring Avag not more than 1/200 part of a second, or possibly, not OA^er 1/300, admittedly not long enough to get a fully-timed picture using this film. It is clear then why they Avere so insistent about getting a more sensitiA'e film ; and the Avonder ceases that Dickson, to get any results at all, Avas obliged to employ an absolutely dead black background, in front of AA'hich the subjects Avere required to act while dressed in the Avhitest of AA^hite costumes, as the Edison Avitnesses also testify. Photography on a constantly moving sensitive band required all these aids, and even then they didn't get sufficiently sensitive film to overcome the handicap, or to put out commercial machines until fiA^e years later, 1894, although amateurs Avere getting satisfactory results right along all this time. The "AA^hy" is noAV clear, isn't it? The amateur Avas using intermittently moA'ed film, Avhile Dickson Avas using constantly running film, other statements to the contrary notAvithstanding. The "stop-motion" or intermittent mechanism had been abandoned, and has remained so from that day to this. And no intermittent mechanism was ever again used or built until seA-en years after the first one Avas abandoned, and then it AA'^as a copy of a mechanism built by the Avriter and shoAvn to Edison by Mr. Armat in March, 1896, and immediately copied and put out as the "Edison Vitascope," the first exhibition of which was made at Koster & Bial's Theater in New York (see daily papers of that date). Patent No. 560,800. NoAV, fully-timed pictures CAN be made on constantly moving film, if one goes about it right. Thus, suppose a number of lenses are mounted on a rotating disc in a light-tight box Avith the axis of the lenses parallel Avith the axis of rotation of the disc. Now, if the disc is so rotated that the lenses traA^el across an opening in the front of the camera, an image Avill fall on the film • (if the latter is properly located). And if the film moA-es in the same direction and at the same speed as the lens, a decreet, sharply-defined photographic image Avill result. The usual construction is reversed, that is all; instead of a stationary negative surface, a stationary lens, and a shutter mOA"-ing across the lens, we have a stationary shutter with a lens moving across it, and moving in synchronism AA^th a constantly moving film. Such an apparatus is shoAvn in United States Patent 560,800, a camera Avhich has been in laboratory use for some seA^enteen years, but Avhich has not heretofore been placed on the market because it could not compete in price, the plurality of high grade lenses making the camera cost more than the intermittent film camera having a single high grade lens of same quality. In the present situation, however, the initial cost of the camera is not so im