The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-13


markabIe Invention of a washing
ton stenOErnpher-It VIII De
shown for the First Time at the
Atlanta Exposition. Where Ii May
Produce All the Details of a Mexi-
can BuII-Fight without Fear of In
reference by Mr.. BaIIOu.
From the Baltimore Sun.
Washington. Oct 2.-The last concession
of space made by the Atlanta exposition
management before the opening of the big
cotton states show will be occupied by
the machine that Edison has been work.
ing years to perfect. There is no Edison
in this. however. The Wizard of Menlo
Park has been beaten at his own game by
two young Washingtonians, and they left
this city last week for Atlanta. where they
will put up a 5000 building to display
their new device. 1t is known as the
phantoscope and is a combination of the
kaleidoscope principles with those of the
stereopticon. The result is machine that
will throw life-sized figures or figures or
any other size, for that matter, on large
screen and impart to them all the move
ments of life. This may seem a simple
thing at first sight, SO long as the kline
| toscope has reached stage of perfect
| operation, but it is not so easy as it looks.
| Ii is the thing that has bafIled Edison,
| and the kaleidoscope, which produced tiny
figures dancing inside dark box, is the
| solving the problem. The phantoscope
has been successfully running in WASH
ington for some weeks past, but the ma
| chine taken by Mr.. Jenkins, one of the in
/ ventors, to Atlanta last week is the first
| that he and his colleague, Mr.. Armai,
! have ever turned out. 1t is 12X15x24 inches
in size and weighs, all told, fifty pounds.
| But Mr.. Jenkins is now at work on an
other machine that will do the same WORK
II aud ~ ka nut 11W. ell hot
machine is quite simple in operation As
| in the kaleidoscope, the pictures to be re-
produced are taken on continuous film,
| at the rate OF twenty-five or thirty per
/ second. The film is only about an incn
wide, and is wound off one spool In the
machine upon another, and can be almost
| instantly reversed and run back.
The length of any scene reproduced de-
ponds only on the length of the film used,
| nitely, SO that whole act of a theat-
rical performance could be taken, If nee
| essary, on a single film. AS a matter of
Armat and Jenkins carried south with
! them were vaudeville and specially
! turns" of only a few minutes each.
| that had been caught on the fly, so to
| speak, in Washington and New York.
| One virtue of the new phantOscope came
pictures is that it operates with a very
| large aperture and makes it possible to
! take snapshot pictures at a high rate
| of speed in the theater itself, and in many
| other places where heretofore photogra-
ply has been impossible. Another feat
ure of this rather remarkable camera is
| ing device.
The operation of the phantoscope itself
| is silent and almost mysterious. The
| screen used with the present machine
| is twenty feet square. Upon this the lens
! is focused and, without other warning
/ than a soft whir in the darkness a figure
| leaps out into the lighted space. With
| gliding step it moves forward to the edge
Of the stage and gathers its flowing
! draperies in either hand with a sweeping
| courtesy. 1t throws back its hesf with
| a saucy jerk, Tipping the point of a black
/ lace mantilla away from the dark Span
ish face, and then, with familiar flash
and smile of those dark Spanish eyes,
whirls away in graceful, passionate, but
withal stately mazes of the Santiago"
| OF course it is Carmencita, the little
! witch of Madrid, who has had so many
| poor imitators and not single equal.
! But no matter whether Carmenclta has
a worthy successor or not, she is pre-
! served, let us hope, to posterity in the
magic records of the Kaleidoscope
There are any number of other scenes
| and performances which have already
| been caught in the phantom camera, in
Guiding. the acrobatic death of Svengali
| from the burlesque Trilby. But the
! greatest drawing card of the phantoscope
at Atlanta is likely to be the southern plan
/ tation scene which the inventors intended
/ to catch on the spot and reproduce in the
| 5000 building which they are now erecting
/ for the accommodation of their machine.
Besides this, they will keep in touch with
the advancing theatrical season in New
York and reproduce all the hits of the
! hour from the variety and speciality per-
formances. 1t is likely that the exposition,
by means of the phantoscope will get a
glimpse of a Mexican bull fight, in spite
of Mr.. Hosea Ballou and his humane So
ciety. AS soon as the exposition man
! agement was assured of the success of the
phantoscOpe they said that they wanted
one of the inventors 10 go down to old
Mexico and catch a bull fight in his ma
chine. In this event no matter how many
bulls were slaughtered or how many plea
doris were tossed over the barriers, ii is
hard to see how even Mr.. Ballou could in
terfere with the performance unless he got
out extradition papers for the wicked
phantoscope camera while Ii was absorb
ing the bull fight on Mexican soil. Mr.
jenkins says that in case the bull fight
by proxy is made one of the features of
the Atlanta exposition he has a scheme
for turning it into big outdoor entertain
large artificial mist bank" produced on