(2) The Young Chick pierces the Shell.
(3) The Chick emerging from the Shell.
(4) The Newly-hatched Chick struggling to its Feet.
The preparation of films of this character offer attractive possibilities to the independent worker, especially if he is familiar with teaching methods. The professional producer is often unable to reduce his subjects to the requisite simplicity. As a rule he knows little or nothing about a schoolroom, and the result is that he confines himself to the preparation of extremely fascinating films of a very advanced type, suited to the student in the secondary school or to one who has mastered the rudiments of the science. But it is in the laying of a solid foundation that the teacher finds his greatest difficulty. As a rule he has to go over the ground repeatedly before the elementary points sink into the pupil's mind. This drudgery can be greatly reduced by use of the moving-pictures, if only the right type of film is shown. The professional producer maintains that such an elementary film is useless, merely because he looks at it from the showman's point of view.
Another reason why the independent cinematographer should embark upon this field is that he is generally more ingenious and fertile in the preparation of experiments to suit the limitations of a lesson. He will know how to be simple, so that the pupil, after the demonstration, can go into the laboratory and repeat the experiments with a knowledge of what he is doing.
As the pupil advances the films may be varied. For instance, in the experiments with sulphur he can be shown how sulphur is obtained. Views can be introduced of the mines and processes as practised in Sicily or Louisiana, and in this case the difference between ancient and modern methods can be brought home to him. Similarly in regard to the subject of common table salt it is possible to show the various methods of extraction, from the solar evaporating system practised in the Caucasus and California, and the excavation of rock salt as in Galicia, to the pumping of brine and forced evaporation common to the "Wiches" of England. The film may be "lightened" by glimpses of bathing in the Great Salt Lake or the brine baths of England in order to convey pictorially the difference in the density of salt and fresh water. In many cases it is possible to reproduce upon the screen the processes of Nature, the character of the experiment varying with the stage of the pupil's knowledge.
Attempts are being made to teach geography by moving-pictures, but here again the same defects appear. Most of the so-called geographical films are merely the "Travel Subjects" of the picture palace,—another attempt to make a subject fit both the theatre and the schoolroom. Such films are useless except to form a pictorial interlude in text-book explanation. Yet there is a remarkable scope for geographical films. Let it be assumed that the lesson is about the birth of a river. The teacher dwells at length upon the possible sources, upon the tributaries that increase the volume of water during its journey, upon the navigable reaches and the traffic, and lastly upon the discharge of the waters into the ocean.