The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-30
TRICKS WITH THE KALEIDOSCOPE
Effects Produced by Reversing the
Film and Varying the Motion.

Film ana varying the MOTION.
New York Sun: An odd experiment
with the kinetosco3e took place not
long ago in Boston. The subject was
man eating dinner, and the
film, prepared especially for the &C.
casion, was of unusual length, so that
the whole performance could De re-
corded. The man entered the room
and, seating himself at a table, pro-
ceeded to cut up the food The motion
OF the fork from the plate 70 his hps
was carefully recorded until the last
morsel of food had vanished. Then he
arose and walked out of the room,
leaving nothing on the table but bare
dishes The series of pictures was
then reversed. 1t showed the man en-
tering the room backward. He sat
down at the table at which there was
nothing but bare dishes and proceeded
TO extract food from his lips until he
had filled the potato dish with pOta-
toes and gradually put a steak to-
gether on the platter before him. Then
he calmly backed out of the room, and
the waiter did likewise with the meal
that the man had apparently created
Exhibitors of the cinematograph and
biograph, and all the other graphs"
and scopes of the same family are
missing q 9oint here in New York
prove TO be an interesting part of the
performance. The principle of these
machines affords scope for a great deal
of novelty, especially when the ribbon
or long film is reversed and made to
run backward, or when the pictures
are produced at varying speeds. IN
the case of the photograph little
amusement is afforded by reversing the
cylinder. as the result is a conglOmera-
ton of disconnected syllables. but with
the kaleidoscope, a variety of speeds,
from very fast to very slow, Will give
interesting results. Take, for example,
the picture of Niagara Falls. where
the foam is seen to rise from the water
as IT falls into the pool below. Here
the water would descend and run
smoothly back over the brink and
disappear in the distance-a bewilder-
ing effect.
Still another novelty might be pro-
duced with the picture of the Empire
State Express. which is seen to ap-
proach and pass at the rate of nearly
60 miles an hour. 1t probably never
ran backward as fast as that, but it
could be made TO do so on canvas.
The last car would appear first in the
picture, and finally the engine, the
whole train vanishing a mile or so
down the track where. in the true pic
ture il first came into view. IN q
like manner the sOund-mOnev parade
might be turned into a farce, for here
the men would be seen actually walk
ing backward
The biograph, cinematograph and
other machines of that nature merely
show linetoscope pictures enlarged by
means of a stereoDtican lens. All the
pictures shown in the theater are of
moving objects taken while the ma
chine itself is at rest, bat a double
effect may be produced by having the
machine move too. A good example
of this double effect could be made by
placing the machine on the front of a
Broadway cable car and making a
trip of several blocks down Broadway;
or better still, by taking the curves
at Fourteenth street This picture
thrown on a screen in darkened the
alter while some one shouted Hold
fast" would make a scene familiar to
every New Yorker, as the view, looking
through the front window of the car,
would be naturally depicted. It is prob
able that cinematograph and biograph
operators have refrailed from these
amusing exhibitions, as the effect
would not be readily understood and
some time would be required to ex-
plain the reason for il.