Motion Pictures - 2

Motion Pictures - 2

 It is a curious fact that while the modern art of motion pictures depends essentially on the

development of instantaneous photography, the suggestion of the possibility of securing a

reproduction of animate motion, as well as, in a general way, of the mechanism for

accomplishing the result, was made many years before the instantaneous photograph

became possible. While the first motion picture was not actually produced until the

summer of 1889, its real birth was almost a century earlier, when Plateau, in France,

constructed an optical toy, to which the impressive name of "Phenakistoscope" was

applied, for producing an illusion of motion. This toy in turn was the forerunner of the

Zoetrope, or so-called "Wheel of Life," which was introduced into this country about the

year 1845. These devices were essentially toys, depending for their successful operation

(as is the case with motion pictures) upon a physiological phenomenon known as

persistence of vision. If, for instance, a bright light is moved rapidly in front of the eye in

a dark room, it appears not as an illuminated spark, but as a line of fire; a so-called

shooting star, or a flash of lightning produces the same effect. This result is purely

physiological, and is due to the fact that the retina of the eye may be considered as

practically a sensitized plate of relatively slow speed, and an image impressed upon it

remains, before being effaced, for a period of from one-tenth to one-seventh of a second,

varying according to the idiosyncrasies of the individual and the intensity of the light.

When, therefore, it is said that we should only believe things we actually see, we ought to

remember that in almost every instance we never see things as they are.

Bearing in mind the fact that when an image is impressed on the human retina it persists

for an appreciable period, varying as stated, with the individual, and depending also upon

the intensity of the illumination, it will be seen that, if a number of pictures or

photographs are successively presented to the eye, they will appear as a single,

continuous photo- graph, provided the periods between them are short enough to prevent

one of the photographs from being effaced before its successor is presented. If, for

instance, a series of identical portraits were rapidly presented to the eye, a single picture

would apparently be viewed, or if we presented to the eye the series of photographs of a

moving object, each one representing a minute successive phase of the movement, the

movements themselves would apparently again take place.

With the Zoetrope and similar toys rough drawings were used for depicting a few broadly

outlined successive phases of movement, because in their day instantaneous photography

was unknown, and in addition there were certain crudities of construction that seriously

interfered with the illumination of the pictures, rendering it necessary to make them

practically as silhouettes on a very conspicuous background. Hence it will be obvious that

these toys produced merely an ILLUSION of THEORETICAL motion.

But with the knowledge of even an illusion of motion, and with the philosophy of

persistence of vision fully understood, it would seem that, upon the development of

instantaneous photography, the reproduction of ACTUAL motion by means of pictures

would have followed, almost as a necessary consequence. Yet such was not the case, and

success was ultimately accomplished by Edison only after persistent experimenting along

lines that could not have been predicted, including the construction of apparatus for the

purpose, which, if it had not been made, would undoubtedly be considered impossible. In

fact, if it were not for Edison's peculiar mentality, that refuses to recognize anything as

impossible until indubitably demonstrated to be so, the production of motion pictures

would certainly have been delayed for years, if not for all time.