Few businesses have had a more spectacular rise than the motion-picture
industry. It may be true that there are other industries of recent
growth that are more highly capitalized than the motion-picture
business. I shall not make any comparisons nor look up statistics, but
will present some facts about an enterprise that, scientifically,
industrially and commercially, is one of the great wonders of the world.
It is fair to estimate that more than $375,000,000 is invested in this
business in the United States. It looks like an exaggeration or as if
the typesetter had slipped in several extra ciphers by mistake, does it
not? Nevertheless, the estimate is said to be extremely conservative. In
the first place, it concerns every branch of the business, of which
there are five. Taken in their natural order there are: 1. The
manufacture of motion-picture cameras. 2. The manufacture of films. 3.
The taking of the pictures. 4. The manufacture of the projecting
machines. 5. The exhibition of the pictures.
The projecting machine is the subject of this story. One sees very
little about it in the newspapers and popular magazines, in spite of the
fact that it is the keystone, so to speak, of the motion-picture
industry. Of the entire business, in all its ramifications, this machine
is the most important not only from a technical standpoint, but as
regards both the pleasure and safety of the public. Here, again, a great
deal of money is invested. Its manufacture involves costly and highly
specialized machinery, the most intelligent of mechanics and the
constant thought and endeavor of the men at the head of the business.
The advancement in the manufacture of motion-picture projecting machines
from the start has been along two avenues--to secure better projection,
a sharper, clearer and steadier picture, and to eliminate the danger of
fire resultant from the ignition of combustible film. Experts have
watched and studied the picture machine through all its stages of
development. For seventeen years they have slowly improved the machine
and brought it to its present high state of mechanical perfection. The
development of the fireproof magazine, the automatic fire-shutter, the
loop-setter, flame shields and the famous intermittent movement have all
been vital factors in the elimination of fire and also in securing
perfect projection. The oldest invention was patented by W. E. Lincoln
on April 23, 1867. The contrivance was a mere toy, employing no light
and being merely a little machine which, when revolved, gave figures,
printed in different positions, the semblance of motion. The second
oldest was of an “optical instrument” patented by O. B. Brown on August
10, 1869. This was really the first American motion-picture projection
machine. There was a sort of disk or moving-shutter movement which, on
revolving, gave projected objects the appearance of animation. Of
course, there were no films in those days and the inventor had used
translucent glass to obtain the results. Yet here was the germ of our
native modern machine.
[Illustration: THE LATEST MOTION-PICTURE PROJECTING MACHINE]
A well-known moving-picture projecting machine manufacturer tells the
following story: “A bet was made in 1871 by the late Senator Leland
Stanford, of California, that a running horse at no time had all four
feet off the ground. Edward Muybridge, an Englishman, by way of
experiment, placed numerous cameras at regular intervals about the
track, which, by electrical contact, were snapped by the horse in
passing. It proved that the horse always had, when running, one foot on
the ground. Although this was not the first record of motion pictures,
it served to demonstrate their practicability.
“Development had dragged until the Muybridge experiment. In 1880
Muybridge produced, in San Francisco, the ‘Zoopraxiscope,’ which
projected pictures (on glass positives) on a screen. Later Muybridge
conferred with Edison regarding a combination of his machine with the
phonograph, then in its infancy; about 1883 he went abroad and held
frequent conferences with M. Marey of the Institute of France.
“Marey first utilized the continuous film, though it was George Eastman
who brought it to its present state of high perfection. A great deal of
the tremendous present popularity of motion pictures is due to the
invention of the translucent film. The early kodak film became the great
factor in the cinematograph manufacture.
[Illustration: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LAMPHOUSE AFFORDS EASY ACCESS]
“In 1893 Lumiere produced the ‘Cinematograph,’ the first machine to
project from a film. Edison in 1896 produced his ‘Vitascope.’ These
machines became the models of the greatly improved article of today.
“The first real machine was brought to America in 1894. At least, that
is as near as I can recollect the date. It was a Lumiere cinematograph
and was exhibited at the Union Square Theater, New York City. The French
manufacturing firm instructed J. B. Cole & Co. to furnish an operator.
The Cole Company was interested in the sale of lanterns and slides and
the foreign firm naturally turned to them for assistance.
“They furnished an operator, Edward Hadley. Although he had never seen a
motion-picture machine, Hadley was a man who had been in their employ
and was naturally familiar with lanterns and electricity. To the best of
my belief, Hadley was the first motion-picture operator in America. He
afterwards became the operator for Lyman H. Howe, the well-known pioneer
traveling motion-picture exhibitor, and later became an exhibitor
himself.
[Illustration: THE NEW ARC LAMP]
“The films then had one perforation on either side of each picture. That
was the French method. The American method of four perforations on
either side of each picture, formulated by Thomas A. Edison, was taken
up later. The Edison perforation method became the standard in America
and finally throughout the world. We find no more single-holed films.”
Here, for the benefit of the uninitiated, a little description of the
film and the projecting head of a machine is necessary. A motion-picture
film is a thin ribbon of transparent pyroxylin plastic or
nitrocellulose, which is highly inflammable. The photographs on the
film, one by three-fourths of an inch in size, leave a margin of five
thirty-seconds of an inch on each side. In the margins are the
perforations necessary to feed the film through the machine head. There
are sixteen pictures to the foot.
The mechanism of the machine head moves the film over an aperture, so
that the rays of light from the lamp will project an enlargement of the
film picture upon the screen. The reels upon which the film is wound are
mounted above and below--the upper is the feed reel and the lower is the
take-up reel. Sprocket wheels control the action of the film. The top
feed sprocket pulls the film from the upper feed reel, the middle
intermittent sprocket (below the aperture) turns in a way to give each
picture a certain time of stop over the projection aperture, and the
bottom take-up sprocket assists in winding the film on the take-up reel.
[Illustration: NARROW SHUTTER WINGS AFFORD BRIGHTER ILLUMINATION ON THE
SCREEN]
“The early films were in very short lengths,” continued the
manufacturer. “The average was from twenty to seventy-five feet. A
hundred-foot film was considered extra long. They were mostly comic and
not educational. The vast possibilities of the film had not yet dawned
upon the pioneers. They aimed only to get a laugh with a crude comic
picture.
“But those with more foresight realized that the film had come to stay.
So the advancement began. Today the public is always looking toward
something better. It has been educated up to an exceedingly high
standard. The average spectator today can see a defect in an exhibited
film as quickly as an expert.
“Machines in the early days were very crude, permitting only short
films, which were an endless belt. They were threaded over spools
contained in a box at the rear end of the lamphouse, passing over the
lamphouse to the head of the machine; thence down through the head, past
the projection aperture and back to the spools. This exposed the film at
all times, which was extremely dangerous. About 1900, longer films came
into use, which necessitated a change in handling. At the machine head,
the film was piled on the floor. This being dangerous and destructive, a
receptacle was devised and fastened to the frame below the reel, into
which the film passed. This soon gave way to a reel known as the take-up
reel, which received the film after it had passed from the upper reel
through the head and before the aperture, where it was projected on the
screen.
“These are a few steps in the march towards improvement. My first
machine was called the ‘Peerlesscope.’ I kept continually improving it,
and in 1902 changed the name to ‘Cameragraph;’ my latest machine, No.
6B, possesses every known device for safety--fire-shutters, which
automatically cut off the film from the rays of the lamp while
motionless; film-shields, which enclose and protect the film;
fire-valves, which prevent entrance of flame into magazines; the
loop-setter, which prevents breakage of the film while in motion, etc.”
Concerning projection, this manufacturer said: “Pictures cannot succeed
without perfect projection, resulting in absolutely clear, flickerless
pictures. The longer the period of rest of each picture on the screen,
the better the detail and the clearer the picture. This I accomplished
by means of an intermittent movement.
“You know that in projecting pictures the motion in the film is not
continuous in front of the aperture of the machine head, each picture
pausing long enough for proper projection on the screen. Through this
intermittent movement I obtain a longer period of rest for each picture,
which accomplishes perfect projection of pictures without flicker.
“A very annoying feature until recently has been the losing of the lower
film loop, due to poor patching of the film, tearing of the perforations
in the films, etc., causing the film to jump the lower sprocket, with
the probable tearing and re-adjustment of the film. This I overcame with
my loop-setter invention. To explain briefly--
“As the full movement at the upper and lower reel is continuous, while
at the aperture it is intermittent, a loop is necessary as a feeder for
the take-up or the lower sprocket. If this loop is lost, the film
becomes taut, the machine stops and the film may break. The loop-setter
instantly readjusts this loop automatically, keeping it always in
force.”
The taking of pictures is, of course, one of the interesting phases of
the business from a popular standpoint. Here we find not only large sums
invested but the action, setting, plots--in fact, the entire order of
pulsating life and convincing reality that give to motion pictures their
remarkable hold upon the public. In vying with each other to make the
most attractive films possible, the concerns in this end of the industry
engage the most talented players, who are transported on long journeys
so that the settings may be realistically satisfactory; while often the
company includes not only two-footed actors, but horses, one or two
clever dogs and sometimes a trained bear and other animals, besides all
of which there is usually an array of “properties” that far exceeds in
quantity and variety the list of such appurtenances carried by the
average stock theatrical company or theater of the ordinary kind.
Then, too, there is the presentation of the pictures, where we find
another vast outlay of money in land, buildings and equipment. And,
remember, the matter of taking and presenting the pictures must not be
considered only from the amusement standpoint. Motion pictures are being
employed more and more every day for educational and industrial
purposes.