Edison In Commerce And Manufacture - 6

Edison In Commerce And Manufacture - 6

 Besides this, the National Phonograph Company maintains a special staff for carrying on

the business with foreign countries. While the aggregate transactions of this department

are not as extensive as those for the United States and Canada, they are of considerable

volume, as the foreign office distributes in bulk a very large number of phonographs and

rec- ords to selling companies and agencies in Europe, Asia, Australia, Japan, and,

indeed, to all the countries of the civilized world.[19] Like England's drumbeat, the voice

of the Edison phonograph is heard around the world in undying strains throughout the

twenty- four hours.

[19] It may be of interest to the reader to note some parts of the globe to which shipments

of phonographs and records are made:

Samoan Islands

Falkland Islands

Siam

Corea

Crete Island

Paraguay

Chile

Canary Islands

Egypt

British East Africa

Cape Colony

Portuguese East Africa

Liberia

Java

Straits Settlements

Madagascar

Fanning Islands

New Zealand

French Indo-China

Morocco

Ecuador

Brazil

Madeira

South Africa

Azores

Manchuria

Ceylon

Sierra

Leone

In addition to the main manufacturing plant at Orange, another important adjunct must

not be forgotten, and that is, the Recording Department in New York City, where the

master records are made under the superintendence of experts who have studied the

intricacies of the art with Edison himself. This department occupies an upper story in a

lofty building, and in its various rooms may be seen and heard many prominent

musicians, vocalists, speakers, and vaudeville artists studiously and busily engaged in

making the original records, which are afterward sent to Orange, and which, if approved

by the expert committee, are passed on to the proper department for reproduction in large

quantities.

When we consider the subject of motion pictures we find a similarity in general business

methods, for while the projecting machines and copies of picture films are made in

quantity at the Orange works (just as phonographs and duplicate records are so made),

the original picture, or film, like the master record, is made elsewhere. There is this

difference, however: that, from the particular nature of the work, practically ALL master

records are made at one convenient place, while the essential interest in SOME motion

pictures lies in the fact that they are taken in various parts of the world, often under

exceptional circumstances. The "silent drama," however, calls also for many

representations which employ conventional acting, staging, and the varied appliances of

stage- craft. Hence, Edison saw early the necessity of providing a place especially

devised and arranged for the production of dramatic performances in pantomime.

It is a far cry from the crude structure of early days--the "Black Maria" of 1891, swung

around on its pivot in the Orange laboratory yard--to the well- appointed Edison theatres,

or pantomime studios, in New York City. The largest of these is located in the suburban

Borough of the Bronx, and consists of a three-story-and-basement building of reinforced

concrete, in which are the offices, dressing-rooms, wardrobe and property-rooms, library

and developing department. Contiguous to this building, and connected with it, is the

theatre proper, a large and lofty structure whose sides and roof are of glass, and whose

floor space is sufficiently ample for six different sets of scenery at one time, with plenty

of room left for a profusion of accessories, such as tables, chairs, pianos, bunch-lights,

search-lights, cameras, and a host of varied paraphernalia pertaining to stage effects.

The second Edison theatre, or studio, is located not far from the shopping district in New

York City. In all essential features, except size and capacity, it is a duplicate of the one in

the Bronx, of which it is a supplement.

To a visitor coming on the floor of such a theatre for the first time there is a sense of

confusion in beholding the heterogeneous "sets" of scenery and the motley assemblage of

characters represented in the various plays in the process of "taking," or rehearsal. While

each set constitutes virtually a separate stage, they are all on the same floor, without

wings or proscenium-arches, and separated only by a few feet. Thus, for instance, a

Japanese house interior may be seen cheek by jowl with an ordinary prison cell, flanked

by a mining-camp, which in turn stands next to a drawing-room set, and in each a set of

appropriate characters in pantomimic motion. The action is incessant, for in any dramatic

representation intended for the motion-picture film every second counts.

The production of several completed plays per week necessitates the employment of a

considerable staff of people of miscellaneous trades and abilities. At each of these two

studios there is employed a number of stage-directors, scene-painters, carpenters,

property-men, photographers, costumers, electricians, clerks, and general assistants,

besides a capable stock company of actors and actresses, whose generous num- bers are

frequently augmented by the addition of a special star, or by a number of extra

performers, such as Rough Riders or other specialists. It may be, occasionally, that the

exigencies of the occasion require the work of a performing horse, dog, or other animal.

No matter what the object required may be, whether animate or inanimate, if it is

necessary for the play it is found and pressed into service.

These two studios, while separated from the main plant, are under the same general

management, and their original negative films are forwarded as made to the Orange

works, where the large copying department is located in one of the concrete buildings.

Here, after the film has been passed upon by a committee, a considerable number of

positive copies are made by ingenious processes, and after each one is separately tested,

or "run off," in one or other of the three motion-picture theatres in the building, they are

shipped out to film exchanges in every part of the country. How extensive this business

has become may be appreciated when it is stated that at the Orange plant there are

produced at this time over eight million feet of motion-picture film per year. And

Edison's company is only one of many producers.

Another of the industries at the Orange works is the manufacture of projecting

kinetoscopes, by means of which the motion pictures are shown. While this of itself is

also a business of considerable magnitude in its aggregate yearly transactions, it calls for

no special comment in regard to commercial production, except to note that a corps of

experimenters is con- stantly employed refining and perfecting details of the machine. Its

basic features of operation as conceived by Edison remain unchanged.

On coming to consider the Edison battery enterprises, we must perforce extend the

territorial view to include a special chemical-manufacturing plant, which is in reality a

branch of the laboratory and the Orange works, although actually situated about three

miles away.