People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-01-22
tiAKiNG "scopE" PICTURES.
Interesting Process of Photograplling a
Mnying Sfraet Crowd.

bTasE-GAFEnE EEGSE8s OF InpIOEG6pHluss a
Moving street Crowd.
e f6w days ago an unpretentious
looking vehicle was standing near
the Curb on Pennsylvania avenue
near tho Seventh street transfer
station. In tho wagon was a large
pine boz and upon this a smaller
bog OF cherry. This sma1ler box
proved upon inquiry to 30 a cam
era for making tho long bands of pic
lures used in phantoscope, cinema
togEaphe, vitascoDe and all the va
rious members Of the constantly
growing family of scopes" and
"graphs, devices for exhibiting q
series OF rapidly shifting photo
graphic transparencies, arranged
successfully, so that one blends into
the other uuinterruptedly, giving
tho impression Of objects in motion.
A photograph OF the moving crowds
at the transfer was being made by
Mr.. c. Francis jenkins, who told a
reporter about the methods and
mechanism employed in the process.
In company with Mr.. Jenkins,
who carried the box in his hand,
the reporter visited the laboratory,
which was a dark room, where the
strip containing the pictures was re-
moved from the box. And dark the
room is, too, after being out in the
bright sunlight, the only light visi-
bic being red globe swinging from
the ceiling.
Upon entering the room a tick,
tick, tick, not unlike the sound of a
clock, is noticed, and as soon as the
eyes become accustomed to tho semi
darkness of the subdued illumina-
ton it is found to proceed from the
far side of the room, where a little
machine is busy stamping out the
tiny square holes along the edge Of
the tspe, or film" as it is called.
These little holes are punched along
the edges Of the film to insure per
feet register, as was explained.
The punching must be done with
extreme accuracy, but SO skillfully
is the mechanism designed and so
delicately made that it can be trust
ed 10 care for itself, running all
night, when occasion requires, with
out attention, punching out its myr-
lads of little squares Of cel1uloid,
which for all the world resemble in
miniature the piles of sawdust in
the mills. The pictures are three
fourths by seven-eighths of an inch,
and are laid on, in the camera, at the
rate Of 1000 minute and up.
After the photographs are made
tho film is developed and dried and
automatically fed, i'll contact with a
like strip of sensitive film, beneath
a powerful lncandescent lamp and
"positivcs" printed therefrom, very
much as q cylinder press prints the
long strips Of newspaper. This ex-
posed film is taken into another
dark room, whore it is spirally laid
on to 8 large cylinder rotated by an
electric motor. This cylinder is sup
ported in half moon shaped bearings
at the ends of a large trough re-
sembling the great wooden sugar
troughs in which our grandfathers
used to catch the sap of the naples.
The "developer," a dark colored
fluid, is poured on from q pitcher,
the film continuing to rotate therein
until fully developed. The end of
the film first laid on is then fastened
to another cylinder, which quickly
rolls it off the first and passes it
through another bath until it is
fixed, " whatever that may mean.
Then The film is given a thorough
washing under a long tube pierced
with dozens Of little holes, from
which the water is projected in tiny
streams against the passing film.
The washing is continued for half
an hour, when the film is reeled off
on to drying rack and hung up,
where, under the forceful action of
electric fans, it is soon converted
into a hard surfaced, flexible band,
so feet long, containing 800 pictures,
but which is rolled up until 1t is
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R. NJ. ROSE, ESTABLISHED