Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-10-12
HOW IT STARTED.

The moving picture mama IS an
other of those phases of our modern
T life which show the widespread pro
portions which fad may assume in q
comparatively short space of time
There has been some recent discus
sion as to the origin of the moving
picture business, and the Moving Pic.
ture News has been making some In
vestigation. It has traced the various
stories back to- their origin and finds
that the moving picture dates from
1885. The inventor, 1t announces, re.
ally was Edward Muybridge, though
there may have been others who did
what Muybridge accomplished with
out realizing that they were inventing
anything. Muybridge was employed by
Governor Stanford of California, the
owner Of the famous Palo Alto horse
ranch, to take photographs OF some OF
his trotters. The governor realized
that the eye is frequently deceived In
its attempt to appraise the gait OF q
horse at racing speed and he desired
to have every movement photographed
SO that he could study the record at
leisure. Muybridge hit on the scheme
of setting up a long line of cameras
beside the training track. From each
camera thread was run across the
track at about the height of the horses
knee
AS the trotter passed each camera
he broke the string and was photo
graphed. In the course of the tenth OF
a mile lined with cameras, several
hundred pictures were taken, each
showing the horse in a different posi-
ton. BY setting the pictures together,
like the pages of book, and riffling
the edges with the thumb, the horse
was seen in motion. Thus was the
first moving picture made. Muybridge
went to England and associated him.
self with half dozen photographers
and mechanics. The result was the in
yention of the first moving picture
camera. That was in 1885. The next
wear some Of the cameras were sent
to the United States, and by 1887 a
hundred other inventors were hard at
work
At the Chicago worlds fair several
moving picture machines were shown
but nobody realized what they were.
They were regarded as toys and it
was some years later before they were
Cak0u I'D NY LuOhIl lCc11 lIdud6OAo Go
features of their vaudeville perform
ances. In these early days the Edison
and biograph companies had monop-
oily Of the business and made for
tunes out Of the theaters. Each be-
lieved, however, that there was room
for only one in the field, and they
were constantly locked in litigation.
In the meantime, the public appetite
for the pictures was growing enor-
mously and the vaudeville managers
encouraged others to go into the bust
ness OF manufacturing films.
The next important epoch in the
business was in 1904, when the Amer
lean market was invaded by a number
Of European firms looking for BUSH
ness, and for two years there was the
liveliest kind of war among the man
ufacturers Then peace was declared
and the first moving picture trust was
organized. Today, the whole business.
as far as the American continent is
concerned, is in in the hands of the
Motion Picture Patents Co. and the
Producing Co. The DOM
inent partner in the former Is Thos.
Edison, whose royalties amount to
100000 year Edison has made
more out of the business than any one
Des Moines Capital.