Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-03-28
TINY KALEIDOSCOPE
SHOWN BY EDISON
Old AstOr House in New York
Scene of Demon
strati0n.
FILM NON-INFLAMMABLE
AND REMARKABLY SHORT
Wizard Intends Instrument
Mainly for Home and
School Use.

NEW YORK, March 2S.-Thomas A
Edison. the veteran inventor, sent over
two of his young assistants to the AS
tor House. yesterday morning to demon
strnte fer the instruction and edifica-
ton of a group of experts and report
ers the actual workings of his very
latest-the Home kaleidoscope. This In
vention, which is the product Of a
great deal of labor and a great deal OF
money. is simply a miniature moving
picture machine. a biograph thai a
child can handle, and that an ordinary
living room can hold. Its chief differ
ence from the ordinary commercial
kaleidoscope lies in the fact that 1t Is
very simple, very compact, n that It's
films are non-infiammable.
Parlor L in the old downtown hostel
ry was devoted to yesterdays demon
stration, and the little machine, about
as large as a talking machine, was set
up about twenty feet from an alum
mum screen. a film not much larger
tha a narrow typewriter ribbon was
adjusted, the connection was made
with the nearest chandelier socket, and
off started the story on the screen.
The pictures shown vary in size. ac-
cording to the strength of the lens
used, the size of the machine and the
distance from the screen. The ones
produced yesterdcy were about two feet
by a foot and Z .Ialf. The machine
will Project a + ora e on your visiting
.ord r.AI1 g1nca ~ u-t1 prn1aof On a.
screen sixty feet away. The best home
results, however, are obtainable at q
distance ranging from fifteen to twen-
ty-fve feet, but a perfectly distinct
and satisfactory series can be run off
with the machine and the screen only
ten feet apart.
The films, both as to their size p
their material. presented the most knotty
problem Mr.. Edison had to deal With. So
far all those prepared for demonstration
ia been made by reducing from films
Edison has a system of reversing the or
binary photographers process OF. enlarge
ment, and his result is a tiny, thin ribbon
of film, eighty feet at the longest, which
carries in infinitesimal proportions the
material for moving pictures that take
sixteen minutes TO operate.
by a contraction of the actual pictures on
the film and Il TRIPPING of the pictures. on
II given film length, for each hlm has
three rows Of pictures which are run off
successfully. A tiny white spot appear
ing on the picture, and therefore on the
screen, is the warning to the operator
that one row is nearly finished, and that
it Is time to reverse the course of the
turning.
The three rows are run off without an
objectionable break. and the space saw
ing is considerable, for a single foot of
the Home kaleidoscope film will contain
210 pictures, seventy in each row.. The
af0bfr faaf Of film OOTrQSpnnHa IN "A thOIf-
sand feet of commercial film. The re-
versing process needed for this space
saving enables the facetious operator. 60
nave a vast amount of amusement by re-
versing the film at the wrong time 80
that the reporters yesterday were divert
ed by the sight of whirling. agile people
falling into, instead OF out of, trolley cars,
and particularly by the vision OF Niagara
Falls falling toward the sky.