Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/398

LEFT MOVING PICTURES 336 MOVING PICTURES told solely through action, with the re- sult that moving pictures have become the most popular means of this class of amusement in practically all countries. The invention is the result of numerous experiments made by photographers, sug- gested to them by the old-fashioned zoe- trope, which was popular before and after 1860, whereby pictures of figures in various stages of action, printed on strips of paper, whirled about in a ma- chine, which enabled observation through opment of the invention, but in its util- ization in the field of amusements and pictorial education. As now operated, the actual pictures are photographic positives printed on films, made of a substance resembling celluloid. The film is one and three- sixteenths of an inch in width, and may be a thousand feet in length. These stripe are passed before a powerful light within a machine, on the same principle as the old magic lantern, which projects American Jumping Mouse Striped African Mouse MICE 3. House Mouse 4. Egyptian Jumping Mouso 5. Kangaroo Mouse slits, gave the delusion of action. The first experiments with photographs that gave practical results were made by an American, Muybridge, in 1877, who photo- graphed horses in action by means of the newly developed instantaneous process. The invention of the ribbon films, in 1880, constituted another step in advance toward the present state of perfection. The first utilization of the invention for amusement was made by Thomas Edison, in 1894, in the kinetoscope, whereby posi- tives on a film, about the size of postage stamps, were passed before a light and gave the illusion of sustained action. The first moving pictures projected to a large size on screens, on the principle of the magic lantern, were perfected oy Lumiere, in Prance, shortly after tBe appearance of Edison's kinetoscope. Since then there has been continuous improve- ment, not only in the mechanical devel- them on a white screen, where they are enlarged to much over life size, if neces- sary. The film passes before the light at a rate of speed averaging from 60 to 80 feet a minute, depending on the rapid- ity of action desired for the figures on the screen. Were this film to pass before the light continuously, the effect on the screen, as was observed in the early experiments, would be an indistinguishable blur. To produce the desired results, it is neces- sary that each picture be retained on the screen, and there held stationary, for the slightest fraction of a second. During the interval between the presentation of one pictui'e and the succeeding one, the screen must be dark. But so slight is this interval that it is not obvious to human perception, as now operated, though formerly the action was slow enough to produce the effect of observing