Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-06-04
EDISON'SNEW WONDER
ONE CONTINENT CAN YET LIS
TEN TO ANOTHER

ICN ~ HtNO
The wizard Says We Will Sit I'm a
New York Theater and Enjoy a
London Play and Grand OPera
AisO-What the Facts Are as Stat.
ed by the WOrId.FamOus Scien-
list.
Edison, the wizard, has said it, and
it will be. The day is coming when
We will sit in a New York thcater and
enjoy play or an opera at London'
Paris or Vienna. Edison has pre-
dicted stranger things, and they have
come to pass. "I am certainly not
going to give up till l am successful"
he says of this, "and every experiment
| make brings me appreciably nearer
the mark" So we may look forward
with some confidence to the realiza-
ton of this wonderful scientific dream.
Such development of the combined
powers of the kinetoscope and phono-
graph is indeed far from improbable.
Both these mechanisms have produced
marvels familiar to us all. it re-
quires little Imagination to foresee q
combination of the kinetoscope on a
a tremendous scale, with a multiple
ity of greatly improved monographs,
capable of transferring an entire play
to big screen of a city theater.
Let us project ourselves for a few
minutes into the future and see what,
according to Mr.. Edison we will some
day enjoy.
There is play, we will say, running
in London, that New York manager
thinks would be splendid attraction
here. The players have long en-
gagement there. The metropolitan
public want to see the play while it is
new and creating n sensation, so the
New York manager reproduces it by
the means of Edison's mechanical de-
vices.
The stage of New York theater is
entirely cleared, even the scenery be-
ing removed. A huge white sheet is
stretched from the flies to the stage.
1t covers the stage completely, like an
immense white curtain. The regular
drop curtain rolls down over it.
Behind the white curtain are placed
a number of monographs, with inn
mense vibrating horns, capable of
multiplying sound one hundred times.
One of these monographs is for each
actor. If there be ten players in the
cast, then ten monographs are ar
ranged behind the curtain. Each is
loaded with the dialogue of that par
ticular player.
In the gallery, ont of sight of the
audience, is huge kinetoscope, con-
tanning hundreds of yards of film,
upon which is the whole play, actors,
costumes, scenery and everything.
The theater is then darkened.
Suddenly there is flash of electric
light and the curtain goes up on the
first act. There it is, as perfect as
life. You don't realize that you are
looking at a white curtain. You see
what looks like real stage. 1t is the
picture of stage of London theater.
There are the scenery, the houses,
trees and pathways. The chairs look
SO real that you would almost dare to
sit in them, and even natural colors
are reproduced.
The orchestra is playing softly and
from the wings walk out an actress,
not by the jerky fits and starts of the
kinetoscope, but with a slow, easy,
likelike stride. She walks over to q
table and picks up bunch of flowers
flowers full of life and color. She
turns toward the audience and speaks.
Her voice is as clear as a bell. You
hear every word as distinctly as ii you
were listening to the living woman.
The hero then comes on the stage.
You can hear his footsteps as he walks
along. He greets his sweetheart.
The moment his lips begin to move
you hear his voice.
The monographs and kaleidoscope
are timed to the fraction of a second.
The characters On the stage are life
size and their voices are natural. You
are looking at the pictures of the real
players; you recognize them at once,
and you are listening to their own
voices, as natural as if it were them
selves, instead of their pictures, ac-
tually before you.
The play runs on to the end of the
first act, when a climax is reached and
the curtain goes down in the regular
way. The theater is instantly illumi-
mated again and the next act pro-
ceeds.
But up in the gallery the two kinet.
oscope operators are working with
great rapidity, keeping track of the
film that is running through the ap-
paratus at lightning speed. On this
film will be over $4,000 separate and
distinct photographs, each one of
which will in turn be thrown upon the
white sheet at the rate of forty-eight
second-so fast that they appear to
the eye as one moving, realistic scene,
without break or blemish.