The Indianapolis journal., 1894-03-12
EDISON'S NEW WONDER
Machine That Is Even More Mar
velOuS Than the PhOnOgraph.
The Wizard Says His KinetOscOpe Is
Now COmplete-A Novel Photo
graphing Apparatus.

tions of an object by photography. This is
the first direct announcement that the new
kinetograph, as the Photographic apparatus
is called, has proven successful.
Everybody has seen the nickel-in-the-slot
machines which contain Photographs and
play any kind Of tune previously sung into
them. Mr.. Edison has now ready for The
market a similar machine containing his
moving pictures, which is set agoing when
a nickel is put into the slot This ma
chine he calls a kinetoscope. The kineto-
graph is the machine which takes the pho
tographs, and the kinetoscope the machine
which displays them to the eye. In the top
of the kinetoscope. which is a polished oak
box just like the phonograph machine,
is peephole about two inches long and
half an inch broad covered with glass.
The interior of the box is lighted by cleo
tricity. and shows a picture about two
inches broad and one inch high.
The kinetoscope in Mr.. Edison's work.
shop. which was exhibited to a Sun reporter
at Mr. Edison's suggestion by w. Heiz. the
workman in charge of this department
contains a picture of 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
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 a trice with no gentleness
Qt is five-cent shop and the hand of the
barber moves professionally over the pa
irons face and under his chin befCss the
proper razor is chosen. The razor Is
slapped vigorously over the strap few
times. and then begins a five-cent shave
that resembles the swing of a scythe in
w
but he has to stand it.
Just at this moment one of the waiting
and has been reading is attacked with n
ut or laughter at something he Sees rises
from @ the chair. slaps the paper, and. point
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
with or ut-Chloroforme"
Mr edison regards the nickel-in-the-slot
he is after, although it is entertaining. He
said: Some time ago 1t occurred to me
that 1t might be possible to invent some
phonograph does for the ear, an instrument
in fact that would faithfully record and re-
produce practically all motion l was IA
mlllar with the ZeOtrope, an instrument on
which certain pictures were painted, and
which seemed to give the figures a sort of
ested in the experiments of Muybridge. who
photographed horses in motion by instan-
taneous photography and reproduced the
movements. but all these were very crude
and resulted in jerky motions. The eye is
too quick for such photographs. / saw that
to. produce pure motion pictures must be
taken with Sufficfent rapidfty to record
movements OF less than an inch in any
part Of the body, a longer movement than
that. producing a jar. which destroyed the
illusion.
Then began a series of experiments in
photographing moving objects. and we got
our apparatus TO take twenty-five different
photographs in a second, but this was not
sufficient. | found that the human retina
was capable of taking about forty-five or
them to the brain. ANY more rapid photog-
raphy was lost upon the brain OF course,
perceptions differ in different individuals.
Some men, on looking at twenty-five pho
tographs a second, regard them as contin-
uOus, and others are expert enough to de-
tect the differences even when forty-sx a
second are displayed. But forty-six a sec
ond is practically continuous for the
erage eye and brain. That will record ev-
sion. An exception TO this statement is the
hand of the pianoforte player In order TO
get every, motion of an expert pianist, in
cluding the movements of the fingers, be-
tween siXty-five and seventy photographs
q second are required.
The difficulty was to give a sufficient
Photographic apparatus. 1t is necessary for
good picture that the gelatine plate
should be allowed to have q certain frac-
ton of time Elm which to record the rays
of light that form the picture and the
great problem was to get an electrical ma
chine that would move the gelatine plate
along so rapidly between exposures that
forty-six pictures a second could be taken
and enough time could be given for each
picture to be taken properly.
II found that If a plate were exposed the
sixtieth part of a second to a scene that
was very light, with very dark back
ground, a perfect photograph resulted. 1t
GsRA cfNNN la
out how fast the machine would have to
run between exposures to give forty-six
pictures each a sixtieth part of second
exposure. / figured that 1t would have TO
move from one exposure to another in
one 1S5th of a second That is TO say, the
instrument must be standing still for ex-
posure three-feurths of the second and
must be racing along at an enormous rate
of speed the rest of the second so as TO get
the whole forty-six plates properly placed
for exposure
cit was a difficult job a mighty diff
cult job--not to figure this out, but to get
q machine that would do the work When
we got the requisite number of pictures
we found they showed with slight tremor
when we put them in kinetoscope. That
was because they had not been focused
exactly the same. If one picture is a thou
sandth part of an inch out of the exact
lines of the preceding picture the sensitive
eye instantly notices tremor of the pic
ture which effectually destroys the flu
sion.
''That is the whole story" continued the
the difficult thing. The various devices for
properly displaying the moving scenes is Of
secondary Importance, a mere feat in sim
pie mechanics which anybody can do. You
have seen the Observation-Disclosures machine
Funny TOW With or without chloroform"
But that is not what I am after 1 am go
ing to do what l set out TO do.
MY experiments with the kinetoscope
have been directed toward this end:
'FfrSt-TO mount the photographs on
glass plates and throw the pictures by
means Of a magic lantern upon a screen.
Then, instead of looking into a peephole,
q large number of spectators might watch
the moving picture.
"Second-To combine the phonograDh
with the kaleidoscope so that while the fig
words might be heard plainly by the audi
ence.
II am prepared to announce that this
throwing of pictures upon a screen has ac-
tually been accomplished in my laboratory
and we have had the figures in motion there
so that the eve could detect no change from
one picture to another. There are various
improvements yet to be made, however be-
fore this form of the kinetoscOpe will be
ready for the public.
When these things are all accomplished
as they Will be some time. ii will be pos
sible 70 catch every gesture of Chauncey
NJ Depew delivering an afterdinner ad-
dress and every infection Of his voice
and to exhibit both TO admiring audiences
q hundred years after he is dead. Ii will
be possible to see and hear grand opera by
stereopticon.
This has been largely a work of serti-
ment on my part. do not believe there is
much money in it, But 1 believe il is I'm the
interest OF science and history. a great
man will never die If his pictures and
speeches are saved by the kinetograph
and phonograph."