The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-14
HIS LATEST NARVEL.
Thomas A. Edison Talks About the XII
netOgraph.
OneThe Photograph Knetoscope SO Com
bned IS to Make One Grand
Opera Home.
Copyrighted

New York. April IA visit to Thomas
A. Edison is suggestive Of a pilgrimage
20 the haunts OF so-ae medieval wizard.
The Walpurgisnacht in Faust and the
summit Of the Broken seem tame in com
parison. The greatest inventor that ever
lived has established himself in a dell
hidden among vagrant mountains in New
Jersey Wilds. The neiEhborhood has no in
habitants, with the exception Of the two
hundred odd men whom the wizard en-
plOys IN his lamentations The place is an
old deserted mine. once known as ogden.
but the rockabye railroad with its balky
engines and wheezy. catarrhal cars that
meander that way when the wind is not too
strong, has chris.eued il Edison. There
are buildings all over Edison, large build
ings that walk about the premises if you
press a button. In fact, they rarely do any
thing at Edison without pressing button.
But one must know which buttons to
press, for although some take you to the
opera, there are others.
When you reach the place no one pays
much attention to you. That is one of
its dangerous destinations
II you stay there another minute"
said an unclean. nondescript object, very
pieces and carried underground
But can 1 see Mr.. Edson?"
Il don't know The old mans around
somewhere. Go to that red building"
Easier said than done. For the big, red
building begins to move timidly away the
moment you get near it, stops when you
stop, advances when you advance, and
is altogether a will of the wisp of archi-
lecture.
Finally it hove TO and was boarded. 1t is
an office and they pressed a button, found
out Mr.. Edison's exact location, said he
would be along presently, and then began
to break up mountains.
Breaking up mountains is a very simple
process. 1t is begun. Of course. by press
ing button. A huge boulder is detached
from the solid rock. carried on a movable
nod as large as a barn, dropped upon a
pair OF huge iron wheels and shivered into
cobble stones. The cObbles whirl aloft in
trays or troughs, come down dust and the
grains Of iron they contain are picked out
magnetically. "A three ton boulder is spin
tered into fine iron in three minutes, the
refuse going into the dust hole.
Finally the great Edison appeared. He
was terribly dirty. He looked, so far as
attire is concerned, like a navy. He was
all Crime and dust. But his face was that
of a bright, blue eyed youth, beautifully
his vile, ash covered hat of did the gray
hair reveal that he is no longer young in
years. His face Is almost free from wrin-
1--WE are progressing, progressing" he
said, when informed that his retreat had
been invaded for the purpose of getting
Information concerning the latest and the
greatest of his inventions, the one which
is being eagerly awaited and which very
few have had a chance to see. That is
the combination of the photograph with
he Il Iafa = n wi ran
Mr.. Edison applied the term kinetograph
on this occasion.
The object of this machine" he said,
lis to afford the spectator two inven-
tons in one That is, two senses are
simultaneously appealed to. Suppose. we
will say, an opera Is to be reproduced.
The kaleidoscope affords a view of the
movements Now, however, We wish TO
combine the two, and combine them
far more effectively than ever their dis
tipct elements have heretofore been rem
dered by separate instruments.
Thus, If one wished to hear and see
the concert or the opera, it would only
be necessary to sit down at home, look
upon a screen and see the performance,
reproduced exactly in every movement
and at the same time the voices of the
players and singers, the music of the
orchestra, the various sounds that accom-
pany performance OF this sort, VIII
be reproduced exactly. The end attained
is a perfect illusion. One really hears
and sees the play, because the condt-
tions precedent to the suitable Impress
ions upon eye and ear are obtained"
Mr.. Edison's hearing has improved very
much in the past year. owing, perhaps,
to his perfect physical condition He
spoke well and distinctly, and is never,
apparently as much impressed with the
wonders he performs as are his Workmen.
He was asked if ordinary sights and
scenes, the Pope in the Vatican, or a
speech at a mass meeting, could be as
effectively handled.
"Far more easily" he replied, that
is the least difficult part of the prob
lem. Even now, the spectator could he
treated to a perfect reproduction of Glad
stone making q speech to the House of
Commons. This would be shown of life
size. and, so far as the spectator is con-
eerned, would be the real scene. For eV-
cry word, every gesture of the grand old
man. the gestures of each spectator and
the sounds made on the occasion would
be reproduced exactly. And, of course,
200 years hence, the same scene could be
thrown up at villa new way of re-
cOrdlng histor' you see"
is not TIE mechanism very compli-
cated?"
Not more so than that OF the lxinot-
scope and the photograph, and the diff
Guilty now in the way is the adjustment
of Photographic apparatus in minute frac-
lions OF a second. Certain flashes of mo-
ton are caught in ten forty-ninths of a
second. But in preserving them and in
their reproduction, one or two obstacles
are met with. The negative itself is very
small-not much larger than your thumb
nail. In reproducing these pastures ana
movements great care Is necessary III
maintaining proportions.
To throw upon a. screen a series of
movements each taking up an interval
of time not longer, perhaps than a fifth
part of ten forty-ninths of a second and
at the same time to insure fidelity is the
problem. AS it is, there are occasional
distortions. If a movement in the repro
duction be not, so to speak, run out con-
secuuvely, that is, If looked upon as a
change of posture, it be not accurately
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