INVENTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM
No one at that early date had thought of using anything but glass plates, and they were difficult to handle, both in the camera and in the projector. It was not until 1887 that the celluloid film was invented by Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, and then it became possible for Edison to invent a camera with a film that was intermittently moved so as to take a series of pictures. From the negative thus obtained a positive film was then made and placed in a machine known as a “kinetoscope.” Looking through a peephole in this machine the pictures were flashed before the eye in rapid succession. Finally, in 1893, C. Francis Jenkins, of Washington, developed a projector similar to those now in use by which the pictures could be thrown on a screen. Thus was born the motion-picture industry which has taken such a strong hold on the public.
It is now possible to project pictures in their natural color so as to add to their realism, but one more step is needed to give a sense of real life. The figures on the screen must talk as well as move. Efforts to combine the phonograph with motion pictures have so far been only partially successful. Perfect synchronism is very difficult to obtain, but it is highly probable that obstacles which hitherto have been most troublesome and seemingly insurmountable will, in time, be overcome. Then the “silent drama” will no longer be silent and we shall have “animated pictures” that will be really animated.
In addition to machines that talk we have machines that hear—machines that will respond to sound waves. A diaphragm flexed by sound waves closes an electric circuit and starts the operation of a machine. Some toys have been made which operate on this principle. Experiments have been made with a typewriter that will respond to a spoken message, but so far they have not been attended with much success. Boats have been built whose steering gear may be controlled by sound waves, but as yet nothing of commercial importance has been developed in machines controlled by sound.