TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13710, 18 April 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Living pictures, so-called, Romance play such a large part in of the amusement and edifiLiving cation of civilised people Pictures, to-day that the time is, most opportune to exploit original causes. A writer in "Cham* here's Journal" ascribes to Mr William' Friese-Greene, who was at one time.oni.siof the most successful fashionabirj photographers in the West End of Lori ► don, tho honour of having invented ni>fc only the system of living picture projection by means of celluloid films, hut of designing the first apparatus by which such an accomplishment i./as made possible. Contrary to *<ihe generally-accepted popular bej ief, neither E_»n A "the wizard of M/Milo Park," nor tlie Lumiere Brother*, of Paris, originated the idea. They sir hply -began where the ingenious young Englishman left off; but at the same* time the world owea them much for thin perfecting of the general principles upon which cinematography has latterl; f proceeded. It comes as somewhat i of a surprise to learn that as far br *ck as 1885 Mr Frie&e-Greene was en_J»led to startle members of the British Photographic Society with a demon! Jtration of the beginnings of animated photography. Ho had prepared an ( enlarged magic-lantern slide with a seffies of photographs of a moving subject, and upon the slide being passed thf oughthe lantern the animation of tj j© actual scene was faithfully reprodoci id. The whole thing, of course, last* d only a few seconds, but the germ or; the idea was there, although none of those present could have had the fa/; latest idea what a tremendously importr-nt place tho invention was destined to take in the world subsequently. "Ur FrieseGreene improved upon his ' original apparatus, but his task was .•Rendered extraordinaruy difficult by ffte fact that only "wet" photographic plates were available. However, he r} fcrsevered, although the appliances, att the best, were very crude and cumbroui i. And then there was a difficulty vj\j the way of

securing long series of pictures, owing to tho weight of the glass plates. For a- considerable time Mr Friese-Greeno <iid little but experiment, and at last he stumbled upon the idea of celluloid films, and the first perfect machine for projecting pictures imposed upon this material was exhibited ?.t the Photographic Jubilee at the Crystal Palace in 1889, when it created tremendous pnblic excitement. It is interesting to note that the celluloid films used were each as lar_e as n playing-card. But Mr Friese-Greene'er enthusiasm led him into financial straits. In the course of eijjht years he had expended £16,000 upon his invention, and finally everything he possessed was put uo to auction and sold for a tithe of its value. But others followed tho trail that had been blazed by the enterprising young Englishman, and to-day the animated picture stands almost supreme in the amusement world.

Since Mr C. Silvester Religious Home disturbed the peace Man. at Whitefields by the assertion that "men are more religious, deeply, genuinely religious, than women," the "Sunday Strand" has been collecting opinions from other quarters on thia vexed matter. On tho side of woman, the defence varies from Miss Jane Stoddart's neat reproofs to Mr W. T. Stead's thunderous declaration that such a statement can be "only the latest manifestation of the insufferable egotism of the male." Mr Atkins, for many years editor of "The Young Man," considers women sentimental, superficial, and selfish, therefore Mr Home's view is to be judged as correct, as h© is brave. Father Adderly is on the side of the men, who ire less emotional, "less inclined to hypocrisy"; while Mr C. B. Fry acknowledges that the average woman is more religious, but assures us that no woman can match the depths of tho exceptionally religious male. No one associates this modern discussion, however, with that curious sex-jealousy which in arimitive life dehie3 any chance of religious development to the females of the tribe. Yet the artless savage entirely agrees with Mr Home. Still more, ho acts on his convictions, going, off ta religious orgies only with his peers, while must bo contented to a-doro the distant religious sound of tho bull-roaror. The Hebrews, building on primitive material, also gave religious dominance to the fathers in Israel. Upon the man depended all religious ceremonies. The woman had a few domestic observances for her sh&re, and might attend tho synagogue, provided that she was not seen or heard. When Mahomet desired the adherence of men, he attracted them by hhs" scorn of tho unimportant souls of women. Christianity rose above this prejudice, yet a trnce of it must linger, or why should the great modern resource for calling back strayed members of the Church of England he the "C.E.M.5.," an association which gratifies the desire for exclusive gatherings at which no woman may appear?- Perhaps it should be reckoned as one of the greatest triumphs of the Salvation Army that it has accepted the gervicta of men and women on precisely equjal terms, with no detriment to- its wojrld-wide success. And Mrs Bramwelt Booth, speaking on this topic,, records her conviction that each sex, taken as a whole, may be said to be equally religious, though she courteously accounts for the superiority observed by Mr Home. "Ho being himself a rw/ui. and a religious man, has he not acted as a spiritual magnet upon thifc men around him?"

Great discoveries have Birth • often been stumbled on oj? the accidentally, hut that Telephone, epoch-marking instrument, the telephone, is nab ono of them. The world owes this marvel to the persistent and deliberate search of a young Scottish-American professor, Alexander Graham Bell. In ,1871, while he was devoting himself enthusiastically to the teaching of deaf-mutes, he was also toiling at an attismpt to invent a musical telegraph. Thftt is a telegraph with a piano keyboard, so that many messages could be sent at once over a single wire. T_M._ in 1874 came an extraordinary incident. A medical frilmd suggested the use of a huiaian ear in the experiments, and Belli, acting on the advice, took a fragment of a skull, consisting of an eaU t together with the ear-drum and tbq associated bones. He arranged it so that a straw touched the ear-drum tf.t, the one end, and a piece of moving I'lrnoa'ed glass at the other. Thus, when 'Ftell spoke loudly into the ear, the. trtbrations of the drum made tiny markings on the glass. At last the inventor was on the right track, and in a flash the ooitoe-ption of a membrane telephone was pictured in his mind. It remained to find how the electric current could best be harnessed. Then lie fell into a sea of troubles. The two men who were supplying funds*—one of them tho father of the girl Bell hoped to marry .—declined to continue paying if ho wasted time on "the ear-toy"; they j wanted him to follow up tho musical j telegraph, which subsequent events j proved to be a chimera. The investi- i ! gator shifted to Boston, where, under | the compulsion exercised by tho sup- | pliers of funds, he devoted' himself i nminly to the musical telegraph, finding, however, spare time for his experiments with the telephone. Then I suddenly, on o, hot afternoon in June, 1875, while he and two assistants were toiling at making a nondescript machine, a sort of crude harmonica, with a clock-spring reed, a magnet and a wire, Bell heard almost inaudible sound —a faint twang come from the machine itself. One of the odd-looking machines Taj in each room, and the two were connected by an electric wire. The assistant had snapped the reed en one machine, and Bell had heard from the other exactly the same sound. "That twang of the clock-spring was the first tiny cry of the new-born telephone -uttered in the clanging din of a machine shop and happily hoard by a man whose ear had been trained to recognise the strange voice of the little j newcomer." For forty bng weeks the telephone could do no more than gasp and make strange inarticulate noises; its educators had not learned how to manage it. Then on March 10th, 1876, it talked, actual words could bo heard, and after that, day by day, the tone of the baby instrument grow clearer. Th© years wrought steady imr-rovc-mehte, until the telephone attained its present perfection.