THE BIOGRAPH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 282, 28 November 1925, Page 21

THE BIOGRAPH.

(By 1.H.5.)

The real inventor of motion photographs was Edward Muybridge, who was born at Kingston-on-Thames in 1830. . While in charge of the Photographic Survey of California in 1872, he made many experiments in "moving" pictures. His first demonstration took place in 1879, when he started to tour the United States. In London he gave an exhibition at the Royal Institution on March 13, 1882.

The first cinematograph (more correctly kinematograph) that used a continuous roll of film, was patented on June 21, 1889, _by W. Friese-Greene and M. Evans. In 1890 Thomas A. Edison produced the "Vit_escope," which first used the present standard Edison gauge film, .with four holes on both sides of each picture. Charles Urban was the first to apply the name- of "bioscope" to the cinematograph,'"while "biograph" was a word coined by Herman Casler. Nowadays the biograph is generally termed a projector, while the operator, now that he is no more a mere handleturner, calls himself a.projectionist. The projector consists of a lantern in combination with a mechanism for giving intermittent movement'to the film. The film receives never less than "sixteen impulses every second, and for the same number of times in that period is brought to a stop in the path of a beam of light. While the film moves, a rotary shutter cuts off the light from the screen. Thus we are really subject to an optical illusion when we see "moving pictures."

According to text-books the biograph shows film at the rate of sixteen pictures ( a foot) a second. Therefore the number of feet for each hour's uninterrupted screening would be C3OO. In cities like Auckland five to six thousand feet are screened each hour. In country towns the average is smaller.' Five thousand feet an hour equals approximately 22 pictures per second. " In two hours 100,000 separate pictures travel through ' the mechanism.

In large centres two machines are used, so that a whole picture-play can be screened, without a stop. The average "star" picture is between 5000 and 6000 feet long. "Intolerante" and "The Ten Commandments." measured 12,000 and 13,000 feet respectively.The days of the limelight and acetylene are long past. For many years the electric arc has been the sole ilhyninant. Lately, however, a new arc—the horizontal mirror-arc—has been coming rapidly into favour. In this city fully half the theatres are equipped with the new arcs. Besides having no condenser lenses, the mirror-arc cuts the current bill down by a'; least half.

Audiences quite • wrongly blame •an operator *for a break, bad focus, or the "raining" effect. A break is very often caused by a bad join (made by the film exchange). The "white-sheet" which sometimes follows a break is unavoidable. Other'breaks are caused by the usual wear and tear. .Bad focus is not only caused by the machine, but also by the motion-picture camera which photographed the scene. "Paining," which, is caused by general.wear, is noticed- mostly! at the end'of.alpart.