Moving Picture World (Mar-Dec 1907)

68o THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. But before Mr. Edison’s advent.in the field, about the year 1888, or possibly earlier, modern instantaneous photography had been very completely developed. In fact, the work of Muybridge in the photography of men and animals in motion has not been excelled in beauty and perfection of detail by any modern photographer. Professor Marev also had obtained exquisite photographs of flying birds, as well as other examples of animate movement. by means of which an analysis of such movement was obtained and in one or two instances these movements were reproduced synthetically in apparatus of the zoetrope type. All of this was, however, from the modern point of view, crude and ineffective, necessitating more a vivid imagination than the production of an illusion which appealed directly to the sense of sight. Obviously, with the zoetrope at hand, together with its numerous modifications, including apparatus for actually projecting a picture on a screen, the perfection of an exhibition device required more the work of the skilled mechanic than of the inventor. Even with the problem of instantaneous photography solved, and with the ultimate possibility of obtaining moving pictures by photography clearly understood, the solution of the difficulties involved the construction of a camera by means of which the necessarily large number of instantaneous pictures per second could be obtained. An examination of the literature of the art shows that this was the problem to which the various inventors primarily addressed themselves. Some of the early workers suggested the employment of glass plates, and Marey actually succeeded in obtaining a series of twelve photographs of a flying bird in this way ; but the use of plates would be obviously impossible in any practical apparatus when we consider that nine hundred plates or more would be required per minute. Other inventors suggested flexible bands or belts, carrying plates or sections of sensitized paper, and in some instances coated directly with a sensitized surface. But in every instance the difficulties encountered were in securing an enormous number of sharp impressions in practically an instant of time. Numerous suggestions, some of them very ingenious, were made for accomplishing this result. For instance, in one case the sensitized surface was moved continuously and a series of lenses travelling at the same speed were moved behind the sight opening, so that the image remained — and here was the difficulty — practically stationary. In another case during the period of exposure a single lens was moved in the direction of the film so as to keep the image stationary, the lens being moved in the opposite direction during the period of nonexposure ; but such an apparatus was not suited for rapid work. In still another case sixteen lenses were used with two films, one of which was moved during the successive exposures of eight of the lenses, but such an apparatus in addition to necessitating the cutting up and rearrangement of each picture was open to the optical objection that the pictures were not all taken from the same point of view, as observed by the eye. Mr. Edison, in his first work, endeavored to solve the problem by making the pictures microscopic, so that the necessary movements of the surface would be very slight. Is it not remarkable with our present knowledge that during the fifty years or more that the possibility of obtaining motion pictures was appreciated no inventor was courageous enough to even suggest, much less than to attempt, to secure the pictures on a single film with a single lens, holding the film stationary during the moments of exposure and moving it forward during the periods of non-exposure? Simple as it now seems it was a bold conception on Mr. Edison’s part that photographs in this way could be secured at rates between fifteen and forty per second. The birth of the modern moving picture art may be said to date from the Summer of 1889, at which time Mr. Edison had constructed a camera possessing all the attributes of the perfected apparatus and by means of which he was enabled to secure on a continuous celluloid film forty-six pictures per second, sharp in detail and each one inch in width and substantially three-quarters of an inch in height. The first camera thus constructed is still in existence, and, except for its size, being affectionately referred to as the “dog-house,” it is as good and as perfect a device for its purpose as any camera that may now be built. It uses a sprocket feed, engaging two rows of perforations in the sides of the film, it has two retorts for containing the unexposed film and for receiving the exposed film, and in all other respects is a fully developed apparatus. Mr. Edison made application, for his patent on August 24, 1891, and the patent was issued on August 31, 1897. As a result of litigation it was found that the patent was too broad, numerous prior descriptions of which Mr. Edison knew nothing, but of which the law presumed he should have known everything, not having been cited by the Patent Office. Consequently to correct the error the patent was reissued on September 30, 1902. This patent has been sustained by the Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in litigation, with which I presume everyone in the business is familiar. As a result of that litigation, Mr. Edison’s position in the moving picture art has been judicially determined. He was the first, according to the decision, to make a motion picture camera using a single lens and with a single film, wherein the film is brought to rest and so maintained during each exposure, and is moved forward during each period of non-exposure, the movements being sufficiently rapid to secure the desired number of photographs per second, and the mechanism being of such a character that the photographs shall be uniform and sharp and shall not require cutting up and rearrangement prior to printing. Until August 31, 1914, at least as I interpret the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals, no one can make a camera having these features without embodying Mr. Edison’s invention, and in infringement of his patent. Possibly inventors may succeed in producing forms of apparatus in which continuously moving films or a considerable number of lenses, or a plurality of films may be used which could not be fairly said to embody the Edison invention, but it is sufficient to say that no such device has so far been constructed, and we must wait until it appears before we can say that it does or does not invade the right secured by the Edison patent. Mark M. Leichter, the noted Western cartoonist, has been served with an injunction preventing him from using an enlarging apparatus that he has invented to project his cartoons. Bert Levy, now playing the United Time and a native of the Antipodes, is the complainant. Mr. Leichter’s apparatus is said to be built entirely on different plans and he has prepared himself to defend his successful invention, which is an improvement on Levy’s apparatus. The time that Mr. Leichter built his apparatus he had not the slightest idea of Mr. Levy’s machine nor did he think that there was anything of that variety on exhibition. The case is called for the first Monday in January and should be of interest to all vaudevillians. During this time Mr. Leichter is kept from showing and a good act is kept from the public.