Abstract
THERE are few articles of scientific import in the magazines received by us. By this we do not mean to say that science is unrepresented in magazine literature for June, but that the articles, while affording an excellent pabulum for the omnivorous reader, lack originality of thought. They are, in fact, more descriptive than suggestive. “In the year 1887” (writes Mr. Edison, as an introductory note to an article by Antonia and W. K. L. Dickson in the Century) “the idea occurred to me that it was possible to devise an instrument which should do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, and that by a combination of the two all motion and sound could be recorded and reproduced simultaneously.” The development of this idea, and its practical realisation, are well described by the authors of the article on Edison's kineto-phonograph—this being the comprehensive term given to the invention that is able to record and give back the impressions to the eye as well as to the ear. Muybridge, Marey, Boys, and others have shown what can be done in the way of instantaneous photography, but the plan used by Edison to obtain pictures of movable objects appears to differ from any previously used. After many trials, a highly sensitised strip of celluloid one and a-half inches wide has been adopted for the production of negatives, each strip being perforated on the outer edge. “These perforations occur at close and regular intervals, in order to enable the teeth of a locking-device to hold the film steady in the nine-tenths of the one forty-sixth part of a second, when a shutter opens rapidly and admits a beam of light, causing an image of phase in the movement of the subject. The film is then jerked forward in the remaining one-tenth of the forty-sixth part of a second, and held at rest while the shutter has again made its round, admitting another circle of light, and so on until forty-six impressions are taken a second, or 2760 a minute. This speed yields 165,600 pictures in an hour, an amount amply sufficient for an evening's entertainment, when unreeled before the eye…. The advantage of this system over a continuous band, and of a slotted shutter forging widely ahead of the film, would be this, that in one case only the fractional degree of light comprised in the 1720th part of a second is allowed to penetrate to the film, at a complete sacrifice of all detail, whereas in the present system of stopping and starting, each picture gets one-hundredth part of a second's exposure with a lens but slightly stopped down—time amply sufficient, as any photograper knows, for the attainment of excellent detail even in an ordinarily good light.” The perforations in the film, referred to in the foregoing, are of assistance in establishing harmonious relations between the kinetoscope and phonograph, in making the action recorded by the one suit the word imprinted upon the other. Several reproductions of series of pictures obtained by the kinetograph accompany the article. In order that the subjects leaving their “passing moods” upon the kinetograph film may be brilliantly illuminated, a new kind of studio has been constructed. The building is pivoted at the centre, and is capable of being rotated so as to present any desired aspect to the sun. Another article in the Century, entitled “Field Notes,” by Mr. John Burroughs, contains some interesting notes on the habits ot a few common animals. This kind of contribution is very common in the magazines. “The Dog,” by Mr. N. S. Shaler, and “American Game Fishes,” by Mr. L. M. Yale, both in Scribner, belong to this anecdotal class.
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Science in the Magazines. Nature 50, 140–141 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050140a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050140a0