The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. I. No. 9 THE PHONOSCOPE 13 which is requisite to placing the type in the proper position on the galley. The machine uses ordinary type, is very simple in construction, weighs about twenty pounds, and will about double the speed of the compositor. The machine will shortly be placed on sale at $300 each. The catalogues of this firm embrace over 1,000 different film subjects taken the world over, from said : " It has come to stay. We have found it very satisfactory and a very attractive business. Our dealers and agents have been enabled to make good profits, and while some cutting has been indulged in by others we have, in every way, tried to protect the interests of our agents. Our dealers report increasing business and their orders give evidence of it. One feature that is unsatis worthless. The outlines of the picture which are clear cut in the original become ragged and imperfect when duplicated. The difference shows perceptibly even in the small kinetoscope where the film is magnified but slightly, but when the picture is thrown upon the screen and magnified 600 or 800 times, the imperfections make a duplicate film absolutely worthless.' It is a mistake for FILM ROOM the Desert of Sahara to Ranche Scenes in Mexico. It is sufficient to say that no public event of any great interest takes place in any part of the world but you can shortly find the reproduction of the scene on the film shelves of this concern's store rooms in New York and London. A stock of about 2,000 films is kept on hand embracing various makes, together with a full supply of leading projecting machines. Mr. Maguire, of the Company, when asked what he thought of the animated picture business, Slot flliacbmes Machine That will Shine Shoes Several mouths ago the Comic Weekly section of the Sunday World contained a cartoon depicting what might some day occur in the way of nickelin-the-slot machines. In the wild burst of his imagination the cartoonist suggested that in the distant future slot machines would take the place of the bootblack. That day has already dawned. John W. Kirby, a young man employed as book-keeper in the office of the Scrantown (Pa. ) Times, saw The World's cartoon, and it set him to thinking. 'Why not?'' he asked; and he resolutely set about making the dream of the cartoonist a reality. Mr. Kirby was unpractised in the use of tools or machines and was unfamiliar with the technical terms employed by machinists. But he was afraid that some one would steal his idea; so he worked it out himself. No one knew exactly what he was doing or how he was doing it. He did a part of the necessary work in one machine shop and a part in another. He was often ridiculed because of his lack of familiarity with tools. Finally Mr. Kirby had drawings and a working model completed. Then he went to Washington and applied for a patent. The wise men in the Patent Office have been studying the drawings furnished by Mr. Kirby, and they have finally allowed him a patent. The machine that Mr. Kirby has completed will not only clean and shine shoes. It will seil gum, perfume your handkerchief and furnish a mirror in which you may examine your face while the shining process is going on. After the necessary coin is dropped in the slot the customer seats him factory, I am sorry to say, is the deception that is practised by a few unscrupulous dealers with new customers by selling them duplicate films as originals. They have offered at ridiculously low prices Lumiere and Edison goods when, as a matter of fact, they have taken a positive film and copied it. The result is very unsatisfactory on a screen and the customer fails to get engagements. A man of large experience and success in the exhibition business had described the duplicate film very tersely as follows. 'A duplicate film is self in a chair. His weight depresses the seat of the chair, thereby setting the machanism in motion and lowering a gate that exposes the cleaning and polishing apparatus. The feet are first placed on a pedestal that cleans the shoes and are then put on other pedestals that apply the polish and rub them until they shine. The cleaning and polishing pre done by a chain which runs around a wooden block the shape of a shoe and carries small sponges saturated with cleaning and polishing fluids. Mr. Kirby invented his own cleansing and polishing mixture. There is a bell that is fixed to ring when the shoes are sufficiently polished. In the mean time a block of gum has dropped from its receptacle and awaits the costomer, and his handkerchief has been scented if he has placed it in a small receptacle intended for that purpose. The automatic mirror has also been placed in position in front of the individual who has intrusted his feet to the mechanical shoeblack. When he rises from his seat the chair is raised by a spring, the gate rises automatically and the machinery for polishing and cleaning is out of sight and safe from harm. It may be seen again only by dropping another coin into the slot. The automatic machine is made of highly polished wood and embellished with brass. The mechanism is run by springs, which are wound and set ready for use by the person attending to the nickles that have been dropped in through the slot for the many little things that help to make one feel dressed. The polishers are to be placed at corners on leading thoroughfares and at railway stations. The irrepressible slot machines are bobbing up again at Peoria, 111. Recently they were ordered out by the State's Attorney and several prosecutions resulted. Within the last two or three TYPESETTER DEPARTMENT an exhibitor to try to save a few dollars on his outfit of machine and films. Subjects that would have brought great applause a year ago get none now. Managers know that subjects can be gotten which have been taken, the world over and they will not pay good money for poor exhibitions. I know of men with a $400 or a $500 outfit making $5,000 a year net out of it. They know their business. Other men, with inferior machines poor films (generally duplicated ones) and careless operator, make a failure — it is so in all business. ' ' days they have come to the front again and are now being operated as if nothing had ever happened. It is possible that more prosecutions will result for the State's Attorney declared himself at the previous trouble as being determined to rid the city of this nuisance. In effect United States Circuit Judge W. W. Morrow, of San Francisco, Cal., decided last month that a nickel-in-the-slot machine is a gambling device only, and not patentable as a "new and useful invention." Some time ago Gustave F. W. Schultz brought suit against Theodore Holtz and a number of others alleging infringement upon certain letters patent granted on a nickel-in-the-slot machine. Holtz in his answer set forth that the machine was not a new and useful device, but suitable for use only in saloons, drinking places and places of simdar character. The same view was taken by Judge Morrow, from the evidence presented, and a decree for the defendant was ordered. Patents on such machines are obtained only on the representation that the device is in the nature of a toy . The ordinance introduced by Councilman Beehel at Omaha, Neb., by which the ordinance licensing slot machines is repealed and the fee ordered returned to the operators of the machines brings up the same difficulty that occurred when similar action was taken with reference to the ordinance licensing coal dealers. All the fees received from nickel-in-the-slot licenses up to September 1 have been turned over to the school fund, and as on previous occasions the Board of Education has peremptorily refused to disgorge funds once turned over, it is expressed