The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-05
WONDERFUL INVENTION
MOVING PICTURES UTILIZED
 IN INTEREST OF SCIENCE.
The Munchausen Story of Frozen
 Conversation vindicated by the Kinetoscope.

Boston, Mass, Correspondence of the
 Chicago Chronicle.
 The lecture-rooms of the department of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be enlivened hereafter
 by the use of a kinetoscope. The ma chine Is first step toward equipping an
 him not only to illustrate his lectures with ordinary motion pictures" but to transfer to the screen the continuous rec ords of experiments In original research as they are carried on in special labora- tories under the most delicate and favor- able conditions.
 The new, machine is of the latest pat ern, with device for shutting off the light between each successive picture by means Of shutter that opens and closes at rate fifteen times or more a second, the object being to prevent a blur in changing from one picture to another,
 and to save wear on the films. The last point Is important when one remembers
 that the life of each picture of a kineto- scope film under exposure is only three seconds Stopping the exposure even for a fifteenth of a second saves the film and l Is too short a time to make an impression on the eye of the audience. Shows Air Waves Movement. The first use to which the kinetoscope will be put-out of many that are pos sible-will be in illustrating the move-
 ment and character of air waves by a reproduction of certain notable exper-
 ments made not long ago by Prof. R. w.
 Wood, of Johns Hopkins, and the under taking vii be interesting proof of the way an invention that most people sup pose Is only an amusing toy has been utilized in scientific instruction and in- l vestigation. Air waves are the tangible atmospheric phenomena produced by a moving body A book laid on a table, the movement of the lips in speaking, the opening of a door-any active force, big or nttle-sets them in motion very much as the surface of pond is broken into ripples. by the fall of a pebble. 1 Like the rippies, the air waves are de- | the surfaces with which they come in | contact Also they are actually visible, | provided the eye Is in the right position | to see them. although this happens but I seldom.
 1 The old Munchausen story of conver- sation that froze. in the water and thawed out in the spring illustrates a real fact by describing an imaginary one The | air about us is full of unnoticed sound waves-produced not by sounds, but. by | the various motions that make sounds. These waves can be photographed and a given wave, by means of the k!netoscope. can be reproduced, not only greatly mag nifed, but so as to show it In progress | from one point to another, The great value of this moving picture, however, l lies particularly in the fact that. the | regulated by the mechanism of the knet- oscope-that is. although the speed of the SC und waves is about 112o feet a second. by means of the kinetoscope a wave can
 be made to travel visibly across the
 screen of the lecture-room at a rate slow ! enough to permit careful analysis and study. It will be seen. too, that this
 point of retarded speed Is of value in
 every form of experiment based upon progressive motion.
 Pictures Are Very Striking.
 It is not intended, of course, to use the ktnetoscope for the purpose of producing illustrations that are merely interesting. but the circumstances of an experiment that Is to be run off on the film will as often as not result in pictures that
 will be almost spectacular in their appeal , to the average mans sense of the strlk- | ing and picturesque-as, for instance, in | the case of exploding a submarine tor | pcdo. Here one may see the surface of | the ocean. perfectly smooth or naturally | broken by waves. from which appears a | great burst of water. rising like the back 1 or a whale above the waves. The eA- 1 plosion follows, scattering the water in l all directions. and then the surface grad
 uaily resumes its normal condtton-the whole phenomenon taking place as slowly | or rapidly as the instructor may desire | to present it.
 1 Very often, indeed, greater speed in.
 stead of less is required in exhibiting a l phenomenon on the screen of the kinet- | oscope. The Smithsonian Institution 1T
 Washington has recently afforded an eN- cellen; example of the accelerated spec d
 in it's use of the kinetoscope in studying
 the growth of a plant Kinetoscope pic
 lures were taken steadily and system
 atically as the plant grew. delicate | piece of work which required severn
 months before the film was complete | and involved the use of an aut Imatt- | flash light and other contriVances in or der that tho hourly growth of the plant l could be observed from first to last
 When the film was finished. however. IL
 could be run through the kinet)scope as
 fast as the operator wished As re.
 suit the plant could be seen, in tha com. | pass of few minutes. actually groHlno
 from seed to maturity. each stage O. l growth being in the same proportion t.
 all the others as in the original dAvel- ! opment of tha plant itself. The pictures It may be added recorded an interestIn.
 similarity between plant and human
 growth Thes little plant grew like
 ! human child at first rapidly, then Wit, i a period of rest and finally with re- ' newed season of active growth. lessen ing gradually until it reached the ful | stop of physical maturity.
 Will Aid Electrical Perfection.
 One of the early uses to which tn 1 kjnetoscope will he put at the Institut, ! of Technology has to dn with the solu l tior of an imp0rrant and difficult prob
 lem in the construction of dynamos cdN 1 corning the relation between aC alter ! mating current dynamo and the stea2
 engine that supplies it's power. I'll
 stroke of the cL>,le on its piston is ua
 even. being at first strong and the
 diminishing to no power at all, defec