The Portland daily press., 1894-03-15
New York SUM-


(New York Sum-
Thomas A Edison, the inventor, con-
sented last evening to tell the readers
of the New York Sun exactly what he
has accomplished in reproducing the
motion of an object by photography
This is the first direct announcement
that the new kinetograph as the pho6o-
graphic apparatus is called. has proven
successful.
Everybody has seen the nickel-ln-the-
slot machines which contain phono-
graphs and play any kind OF tune pre-
viousIy sung into them. Mr.. EDISON
has now ready for the Market sllhllar
machine containing his moving PIC
lures, which is set a-going when nlckei
Is mi into the slot. This machine he
calls kaleidoscope. The kinetograph
is the machine which takes the photo
graphs, and the kaleidoscope the machine
which displays them to the eye.
In the top of the kaleidoscope. which
is polished oak box just like the pho
nograph machines, is peephole ABOUT
Inches lOuS duo uolL tAAA Ah'SAN
covered with glass. The interior OF the
box is lighted by electricity, and shows
a picture about two inches broad ana
one inch high.
The kaleidoscope in Mr.. Edison sswork-
shop. which was exhibited to a Sun re
porter at Mr.. Edison's suggestion by
w. Heiz, the workman in charge OF This
department, contains picture OF bar
her shop. There is the barber. about
one inch in height. standing at his
chair. and three victims waiting to be
shaved. But waiting is not the correct
word TO use of this picture. One of the
lilipuuian actors rises and walks across
the picture to the chair, sits down, anu
is tilted back. The apron and towels
are adjusted in a trice with no gentle
ness lit is a five cent shop), and the
hand of the barber moves professionally
over the patrons face and under his
chin before the proper razor is chosen.
The razor is slapped vigorously over
the strap few times, and then begins
five cent shave that resem bles the swing
of scythe in the hands of farmer.
The victim writhes, but he has to
stand it.
Just at this moment one of the waiting
manikins who has picked up news
paper and has been reading is attacked
with fit of laughter at something he
sees. rises from the chair, slaps the pa
per, and, pointing to the place, hands
the sheet TO the other waiting customer,
who rises notes the place, resumes his
seat, reads the paper, and also falls a
victim to laughter. The barber all this
time has been busy. He rubs the head
of the man in the .chair and combs his
hair. One of the signs on the wall is
suggestive. 1t reads:
With or Without-Chloroform?
Mr.. Edison regards the nickel-in-the-
slot machine as mere toy. That is not
what he is after, although it is enter
tanning. He said:
aSome time ago it occurred to me that
it might be possible to invent something
that would do for the eye what the
monograph does for the ear, an Instru-
ment in fact that would faithfully re-
cord and reproduce practically all mo-
ton. I was familiar with the zectrope,
an instrument on which certain pic
tures were painted, and which seemed to
give the figures sort of motion, and
/ was also very much interested in the
experiments of uybridge, who photo
graphed horses in motion by InstanGane-
Gus photography, and reproduced the
movements, but all these were very
crude and resulted in jerky motions.
The eve is too quick for such photo
graphs, | saw that to produce pure
motion pictures must be taken with
sufficient rapidity to record movements
of less than an inch in any part OF the
body, longer movement than that pro-
ducing a lar, which destroyed the illus
ion.
"Then began series of experiments
in pbotographing moving objects, and
we got our apparatus to take twenty-five
different photographs in second, but
this was not sufficient. | found that
the human retna was capable of taking
about forty-five or forty-slx photographs
and communicating item to the brain.
upon the brain. OF course perceptions
differ in different individuals. Some
men on looking at twenty-five photo
graphs a second regard them as continu-
Gus, and others are expert enough to de-
tect the differences even when forty-six
a second are displayed. But forty six
a second is practically continuous for
the average eye and brain. That will
record every motion, every change of
facial expression An exception to this
statement is the band of the pianoforte
player. In order to get every motion of
an expert pianist, including the move
ments of the fingers, between sixty-fiye
and seventy pho tographs a second are
equired.
1.-THE difficulty was to give sufficient
exposure even for the best instanteous
Photographic apparatus. 1t is necessary
for good picture that the gelatine plate
should be allowed to have certain
fraction of time in which to. recoru the
rays of light that form the picture and
the great problem was to get an electrl-
cal machine that would move the
gelatine plate along SO rapidly between
exposures that forty-six pictures sec
cnd could be taken and enough time
could be given for each picture to be
taken properly
II found that if plate were exposed
the sixtieth part of second to scene
that was very light, with a very dark
background, perfect photograph re-
suited. 1t was but simple process then
to figure out how fast the machine
would have to run between exposures
to give forty-six pictures, each slxtleth
part of second exposure. figured
that it would have to move from one
exposure to another in one 1s5th OF q
second. That is to say, the Instrument
| must be standing still for exposure
| three-fourths of the second and must be
racing along at an enormous rate Of
speed the rest of the second so as to gel
| tho xpboJa d6 MATES DrOner1y placed fol