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The Portable Projector; Its Present Status and Needs
By Alexander F. Victor
Those of you who ventured into the new and untried, in the davs when the motion picture was an undeveloped possibility, may recall that the first projectors were readily and easily portable. At that early stage of the industry, motion picture projectors were made as attachments to such types of optical lanterns as were then in use.
Film reels were rarely over fifty feet in length; and the usual method of manipulating was to run them through into a box, to be re-wound after the entertainment.
A later innovation was to run them in an endless fashion over a series of spools, lengthening the projection until the audience tired of the film episode.
Never-to-be-forgotten classics were "The May Irwin Kiss," and ''The Watermelon Contest." "The Baths of Milano," a Lumiere product, added a full measure of enjoyment to many an evening's entertainment.
I do not know who first realized and expressed the magic possibilities of visualized story-telling. The first reaching-out in this direction that I personally saw, was the "Spanish Bull Fight." This subject was taken and shown by the Electragraph, a projector employing a film somewhat larger than at present used.
The next was the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight at Carson City. I do not recall the exact footage of these films; but at that time they seemed very impressive.
A little later, an eager explorer reached out and placed a new milestone in the land of the motion picture industry, in the shape of a film dramatic production. Heretofore the "movie" had been a novelty without a permanent field and following. With the advent of the story, the motion picture became an essential part of the people's entertainment.
W^ith the evolution from the short-story to the novelette, and thence to the complete novel — the film length increased amazingly.
The small apparatus of twenty-five years ago naturally proved inadequate to properly handle and project film reels, measuring ten inches and more in diameter. The many mechanical requirements necessary to a creditable performance all conspired to make the portable projector an impossibility. The arc lamp and it's housing; the take-up mechanism, and the resistance element, added weight and subtracted portability.
In spite of these handicaps, the inventor has consistently striven to keep pace with the ever-increasing demands upon his ingenuity.
At this moment, it would seem that the limit in film length had been attained. The film width and reel length have been established by this Society.
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