PICTURES THAT TALK.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10593, 24 October 1910, Page 6

PICTURES THAT TALK.

ME EDISON'S LATEST.

The American newspapers have a good -deal to say about the latest invention of ilr Thomas A. -Edison —the kinetophono, otherwise liis talking pictures. A demonstration was given recently at the West Orange laboratories. The picture that was thrown 011 the screen explained itself, we are told, literally.

"'The figure of a -man stepped forward, bowed, and then began to talk — j tlie lips moving in perfect unmistakable unison with the words that couldn't have come from any place else, it seemed. The man dropped a croquet ball; its impact sounded instantly from the floor. He pounded the table with a little hammer, and there wasn't the fraction of a second between the sight, and the sound of the blow. He. •dropped a plate, and as the pieces flew; the crack resounded. ■ Finally, an auto-; mobile horn was sounded, and "the j "demonstration was at an end." gomg to put metropolitan grand-) opera into the liamlets of Illinois in a ; ; couple- of years,j" Mr Edison is report-; ed ; - to have said. "I'mgoing.to take] John Drew into/gartjs of "lowa x he'liever | heard of." Finally, ' I'm going to take I Colonel Roosevelt to the. cabins of the frames with his campaign":speeches," j : / jMr Edison's prophecies may be fuj-i filled':*" jt is, to. fee Sloped; >li£y will be. ,But he is so confirmed ;an optimist..,with, r'egac.d,-t(£'liis'-oivn inventions that, on this side of the Atlantic, at any rate, i praetLcai men generally.: prefer to v ait until the creations of the "Wizard; of Elertridityi'. materialises Ijefore accepting them at their- prophetic value. ; .ibkis 'partdcultir case, if Mr. Edison has done "uo more than, is-described in the account of the demonstration, he ■is--■ about eighteen/months behind the times It was in November 1908 that the Cinephone 'made its public , appeaiv ance,' and jt lias-.beeii pursuing an active -career' ever.-sinQe jjn many -picture theatres all over the ,worl{L- . The Cinephone-is the invention of ;Mr -Jeaps, l . tJie, lengineer' of the Warwick Trading Company,: which is .one of the largest producers of film subjects in the w&rfd . Y There ;are other systems-.of syn- i chronising the Voice record, and the, pic- i ■ ture, but his. device makes it impossible to lose the _ synchronism even if some part of the film is missing. There,, is always perfect unison between the gestures ot the singer, the movements of his lips, and the accompanying gramophone record. Development of this particular line cann'ot, however, proceed very much further" than it ' lias done. "\ r Thp„- chief -'drawback to what'may be called" .'"talking "pictures'-' is tliat the sound record is limited. The biggest which lias-yet been: produced* does i'Oaot '.extppd ; beyond 7^mihi,- and'tliat would; make.-it) impos-j sible to produce "grand," or any-other) kind of opera, except in small sections.;) Ijiut there is already promise that by a.? system <jf endless wire on which • the sound- record is made even this difficulty 1 may be overcome. j Anyone-who uses, his eyes will knowi that'the biograph -theatre is a large and ! increasing factor in public amusement, i England has liad to wait longer • than America, and "scSme Continental countries tor the establishment "of this institution, but now that it'lias arrived it' is making rapid; progress. Picture halls, many of them large and substantial buildings, are springing up in all directions. There is aii : ever-increasing demand for cinematograph films—both -of those which represent current events and those which record fanciful incidents in the form of a drama. There is actuality in both; the"compelling attraction in cinematograph pictures is that they are as real as tlie photographs winch compose them, however remote from reasonable experience tlie story they have to tell. -: No amount of ingenious manipulation in" arranged incidents, however, can equal the interest which belongs to the biograph records of what has really happened. For this reason the pictures of Mr Cherry Keartou, the daring naturalist, who took his camera almost mto the lion's mouth in East Alric.i, will, when tliey are displayed next month in all parts of the u orld, form a unique attraction. The Warwick Trading Company has for months past been multiplying the films which Mr Ivearton took of lion hunting as practised by the Masai, who pursue the animal with fepears,'and, for fear of accidents, will not permit anyone to carry firearms during the llunt. Three separate encounterswith tlie king of beasts, which is often inUnkingly retreat, are. depicted, and in two oi them the animal at bay ' is" shown charging down upon the natives.