The Washington herald., 1908-06-28
COLORED PICTURES AGAIN
Process Described Where Tints Are
Reproduced by Photography.
Invention Is Promising, but Seems
Not TO Have Passed Beyond
Experimental Stage.

Processes for the automatic production
Of coIored pictures continue 20 crop up.
The latest is an application 10 moving
picture machines.
Hitherto the reproduction Of any color
IN a moving projection has been impos-
sible except by the laborious method OF
hand-coloring the films. and as each pic
ture is only about the size OF a postage
stamp. % reproduce the image Of highly
colored insect or bird by hand is impos-
sible
The inventor OF the new process. which
was exhibited in London May last,
lis G. Albert Smith. who in an address
qouted In the Lancet london, May 81
gave the theory OF his system in the
following words:
When ] show you a wax phonograph
or gramophone record and observe that
IL is q band OF music or the voice Of a
singer you are aware that it is in re
ality an engraved record OF the complex
sound-waves set in motion by these per
formances. and you know that when the
wax tablet or cylinder is placed in a
suitable machine these sound-waves can
be repeated and the original music re
produced.
In the same way, when I show you a
small roll OF kinematOgraph films bear
ing, say. 5000 little photographs. these
photographs having no trace Of color
about them, you are 20 understand that
they carry within themselves, in their
long range of tones and half-tones. so 20
speak, a record Of the color-waves re-
ceived by the lens when the picture was
taken, and when this film is run through
a biosCOpe protector htted with the prop
er attachment the record cOlor-waves are
again set in motion and the scene is re-
produced TO our eyes in its proper
colors.
This. taken by itself. would seem rather
fanCiful. but as further elucidated by the
Lancet reviewer IL would appear TO be an
adaptation Of the "three-color' process in
which the fundamental color pictures are
combined by beinS thrown successfully
on the screen with such rapidity as to
blend in the observer S vision. The eX-
PLANTATION follows:
First of ali. a film is used which is
rendered as sensitive to red, yellow, or
green rays as the ordinary Photographic
film is to blue rays. This is run through
a kinematoEraph camera in the usual
way. with the exception that between
the film and the lens is q rotating disk
part Of an annUlus Of which is composed
Of a green gelatin screen, T. e., blue plus
yellow. and another part Of the same an
nulus Of an orange-red screen, T. G., red
plus yellow.
'The film when developed shows no
color at all but only the ordinary grada-
tions Of black and white. When, how
ever, this film is again run through the
kinematograph lantern. with the revOlv-
ing disk between IL and the lens, the
color-waves are again aCtuated, and the
photographs on the film appear upon the
screen in color.
'"The demonstration referred TO. though
Mr. Smith impressed upon his audience
that the invention was yet in an expert
mental and inChoate stage. was of ex-
treme interest. 1hus. the photograph of
a lady in a white dress. with red sash and
red roses IN her hat, came out in very
pure coloring. while another photograph
Of a child dressed mainly In green who
lid up az intervals tartan plaid the
tartan containing a great deal Of red and
yellow, came out equally well
Allowance has TO be made for the fact
that as the films were taken by daylight
and exhibited by the arc light the colors
naturally showed sCme slight deviation
from the appearance which they would
have presented by daylight SO far as
we can see. the invention has promising
future before H."