The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-08
A SPEAKERS GESTURES.
Wizard Edison Invents Photographic
Adjunct to the Phonozraph-
Fron he Nele York Herald

ORANGE, Y. J., Feb. Lit seems almost
like fairy tale to read Of the new and
wonderful directions in which the fertile
brain Of the great electrical wizard,
Thomas A. Edison, Is reaching out. Those
who live at a distance hear occasionally OF
some of the more remarkable things
that he has done, but those who,
Ike myself, live near to his great
experimental laboratory, who are daily
brought into more OF less intimate contact
with the corps Of trained experimenters
who are directed by his colossal genius, are
continually hearing Of wonderful things
that he has done OF is doing, II any of which
never find their way into print IL was
only by accident the other day that l got a
clew TO a series of of remarkable expert
ments which have been silently gong on
for nearly a year past, and which have
been brought to a successful conclusion
and-dropped
RIFLE BULLET PHOTOGRAPHED.
TIE great inventor at once harnessed the
| lightning 10 do the work, and before the
camera arranged a series of vertical wires
| so fine as to be practically invisible and so
| connected that the breaking of any one of
them would complete an electrical circuit,
and furnish an illuminating spark for the
| O.OOOth of a second. At first the expert
merits seemed to he fruitless, as the rapidly
| was such as to exceed the limits If sensitiza-
| ton In the plate of the camera; but weeks
of careful experiment brought a solution in
| new combination Of sensitizing chemicals
by which even this infnitesimal period of
time sufficed for perfect image.
About year ago Mr.. Edison became in
tensely interested in instantaneous pho
Biography in its possible availability in con
nectioD with the photograph, and at once
began an exhaustive series of experiments
IN that direction. The first thing was to
develop the possibilities of the camera as to
Tapidlty of exposure, and an elaborate sys-
tenn OF experiments was begun to try if
possible to photograph rifle bullet in lis
passage through the air at its maximum
initial velocity of 5 600 feet a second To
do tins successfully no known mechanical
means were adequate-5,0 900 feet means
10000 inches, an inch being about the
length of a rife bullet. But to secure a
perfect picture of bullet moving at this
extraordinary velocity it must apparently
be at rest, and hence the actual time of ex-
posture must be brought down to incredibly
lnfinitesmal limits.
But new difficulty arose. The slight,
lmperceptlole tremor of the room in whica
the experiments were conducted caused by
the motion of the machinery and dynamos
in another part of the building, was suffi-
Gent to destroy the sharpness and value of
come by erecting a special building for the
purpose, and placing the camera on pier
OF solid masonry running down to the prim-
tive rock. Then. and then only, it was
that success attended the experiments.
A SPEAKERS WORDS AND GESTURES.
But the reader will doubtless ask the
question cui bonO2 What possible good
was it to get picture If rifle bullet show
ing the condensation Of air in front it. the
vacuum behind and the air eddies that were
thus createdi Much every way! Not only
as a practical means of studying the best
form for bullet in overcoming the re-
slstance of the air, but more especially as n
means of developing the great idea that
Mr.. Edison had IN his mind of bringing
photography to bear as an adjunct to the
photograph. He thought that If speakers
personality could be brought before the eve
by means of photography and the stereop-
tlcon while the phonograph was bringing
the subject matter before the ear. that an
Important end would be- gained, and to ac-
complish this the elaborate series of expert
ments were planned and carried out The
result has been the most marvellous success
and the most wonderful machine it is posi-
bic to conceive Of
REALISTIC PICTURE
Let the reader imagine popular lecturer.
preacher or orator delivering an address
In front of him, at the so-called reporters
table, are two small machines, one the well
known photograph, and the other an ingen-
lous piece OF mechanism by which photo
graphs OF the speaker are taken in success
sion with enormous rapidity at intervals,
let us say, of from one-eighth to one
twentieth of second, and suppose both
these machines are at work silently re-
cordlng both the uttered speech and the
personal appearance Of the speaker at each
fractional part of second. The results
thus obtained may be- sent to any
desired point and the photographs thrown
on screen by an ingeniously contrived
piece of mechanism. Thus the exact ap-
pearance of the speaker, with all his
gestures and play of features, are exactly
reproduced, while the photograph simulta-
neously delivers the speech. The interval
between the successive photographs is so
infnitesimal that the screen picture is
apparently living one, moving, gesticu-
lating and apparently uttering the ords,
photograph. the greatest difficulty
experienced by Mr.. Edison in his
experiments was the experimentation of
the two instruments, so that the
utterances of the photograph should ex-
actly coincide with the gesticulations, but
this was finally overcome, and t1e expert
mentS were crowned with the most perfect
success. What the commercial value of the
invention may be is yet to be decided 1t
cannot fail to be intensely interesting as an
exhibition feature, but whether it will fill
useful niche in the everyday life Of the
world is another question entirely.
Mr.. Edison is not pushing the matter at
present, being absorbed in his experiments
on electrical traction for street cars When
that problem is decided he may bring this
new invention prominently before the
public.