The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-03-16
EDISON'S LATEST WONDER.

EDISON'S LATEST WONDER.
A Machine that Does for the Eye What the
monograph Does for the Ear How Ii til
| the words and Gestures, the Full Repre-
sen alton of the o ator will be Presented
for Future Generations.
Thomas A. Edison, the inventor, has &C.
complished the reproduction of the motions
of an OBJECT by photography.
Everybody has seen the nickel-in-the-slot
machines which contain monographs and
play any kind of tune previously sung into
them. Mr.. Edison has now ready for market
similar machine containing his moving pic.
lures, which is set a.going when nickle is
put In the slot. This machine he calls kin.
etoscope. The ktnetograph is the machine
which takes the photographs. and the kineto.
scope the machine which displays them to the
eye.
| In the top of the kaleidoscope, which Is a
polished oak box just like the photograph
machines, Is peephole about two inches long
and half an inch broad, covered with glass.
The interior of the box is lighted by electr,-
city, and shows picture about two inches
broad and one inch high.
The kaleidoscope In Mr. Edison's workshop
contains pi ture of a barber 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 liliputian
actors rises and walks across the picture to
the chair. sits down and Is tilted back. The
apron and towels are adjusted In trice with
no gentleness ct 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 u few times
and then begins five cent shave that resem-
bles the swing of a scythe In the hands of
farmer. The victim writhes, but be has to
stand 1t.
just at this moment one of the waiting
manikins VINO ha picked up Newspaper and
has been reading is attacked with fit of
laughter at something he sees. rises from the
chair, slaps the paper, 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 vic
m to laughter. The barber all this time has
been busy, He rubs the head of the man In
the chair and combs his hair.
Mr.. Edison says: "Some time ago 1t &C.
vent sometime that would do for the eye
what the phonograpn does for the ear. an IN
strument in fact that would faithfully record
and reproduce practically all motion. ] was
familiar with zeotrOpe, an instrument on
which certain pictures were painted, and
which seemed to give the figures sort of mo-
ton. and was also very much interested In
the experiments of Muy bridge, who photo
GRAPHIC 1horses In motion by instantaneous
photo land reproduced the movements,
nut W9Ee very crude and resulted In
j.rky pc eye is too quick for such
photd that to produce pure mo-
lion taken with sufficient ra-
emenIs OF less thsn an
ehe body. q longer move
ment - reducing jar, whtah de-
'rhpn began series of experiments In
Photographic moving objects. and we got
"ur apparatus TO take twenty five different
photographs In second but this was not
sufficient. l und that the human retins
WAS capable of 'aking about forty-fve or
forty.sx photographs and communicating
them to the brain. Any more rantd photo
giaphv was lost upon the brain. or course
perceptions differ In different individuals.
Some men on looking at twenty five pho'o-
graphs a second regard them as continuous,
and others are expert enough to detect the
differences even when forty--iX second are
displayed. But forty six second Is practi-
caiy continuous for the average eye and
brain. That will record every motion, every
change of cial expression. An exception to
this state ment Is the band Of the pianoforte
PLAYER. In order to get every motion o an
expert pianist, inclu Ing the movements Of
The fingers, between sixty-nve and seventy |
photographs a second are required
The diff .ulty was to give sufficient eX
posure even for the best instantaneous photo |
graphic apparatus. 1t is necessary for a
good picture that the gela'ine plate should
be allowed to have q certain fraction OF time |
in when to REGARD the rays of light that form
the picture and The great problem was t. get |
an electrical machlue that would moy' the
posures that fOrty-SiX pic ures a second could
be taken and enough time could be given for
each picture to be taken properly.
found that II plate were expOsed the
sXtpth part OF q second to scene that was
yer, light, with very dark background,
perfect photograph resulted. 1t was but
simple process tbs to q cure out how fast the
machine would have to run between expos
ures to give fort, Xix pictures. eacn sixtieth
part of second exposure. l figured that 1t
would have I" move from one exposure to an
other In one 1S5th OF a second. That Is to say,
the instrument must be standing stilI for eX-
po.ure three-fourths of the second and must
be racing along at an enormous rate OF speed
he rest Of the second 80 as to get the whole
rs plstos properly placed for exposure.
1t was difficult job, mighty difficult job
not to figure this out. but to get machine
that would do the werk. When we get the
requisite number of pictures we found they
sh wed with eight tremor when we put
hem In kineto>cope. That was because
they had not been focused exactly the same.
II one picture fs tbousandtb part o. an Inch
out of the exact lines OF the preceding picture
the sensitive eye instantly notices q tremor of
The picture which effectualiy destroys the H.
usion.
"That Is the whole story" continued the
inventor. 1.-THE photographiug machine was
he difficult thing. The various devices for
properly displaying the moving scenes is Of
importance, q mere feat In simple
mechanics which anybody can do. You have
'peu the nicke-in the.slot machine. Funny
ov. With or without chloroformi But that
g not what am after. am going to do wis;
set out to do.
Ny experiments with the kinetoscope have
)een directed tnward this end:
"Ftrst, to mount the photographs on glass
,lates nd throw the pictures bV means ola
magic lantern upon q screen. Then, instead
II looking into pee phoe, q large number OF
ps ctators might watch the moving picture
Second to combine the phonogrsph With
be kaleidoscope so that while the figures had
Tisible motion on the curtain their words
o 'ght be plainly heard by the audience.
I am prepared TO announce that this throw
ny OF pictures upon . screen has actually
zen ACCOMPLISHED IN nv laboratory, and We
ave had the fgures IN motion there so that
H. ~ Hssxrx A..N-