Plateau’s few lines were devastating. He pointed out that the passage of Lucretius used by Dr. Sinsteden and picked up by Abbé Moigno had suppressed one line of the text and had mistranslated others. It was proved that Lucretius was describing not an optical instrument but dreams.
Plateau concluded, “These few words suffice, I hope, to show the true relationship which exists between the passage of Lucretius and the Phénakisticope, and to remove from me all suspicion of having stolen the idea of my instrument from antiquity.”
A re-examination of the Latin text of Lucretius leaves no doubt whatsoever that Plateau was correct and Lucretius was writing about dreams and not the first movie device. The lines of Lucretius talk about images, the imagination and dreams. Dr. Sinsteden and others in the 19th century who believed that Lucretius was describing an instrument were confused by failing to understand his words and confusing his theory of vision with an actual piece of apparatus and its effects. It was a simple mistake and accounts for Lucretius’ recorded connection with the origin of the motion picture which has been repeated in many books.
A few years before his death Plateau published a complete, annotated bibliography of works on vision from the earliest time to his own day. He started with Aristotle and followed the entire historical trail. About 100 years before his own experiments, the first efforts to measure the persistence of vision were made. All the many years he was blind he was most interested in light, color, vision, the illusion of motion and related phenomena. Plateau regularly attended scientific meetings and his fame was well known throughout the scientific world. He was well known for his religious devotion and piety.
Plateau, honored by his scientific colleagues and the Belgian Government, died at Ghent on September 15, 1883, a few years before the motion picture was presented to the public and acclaimed throughout the world. The art science of magic shadows had made great progress under this Belgian who was endowed with rare talent and an indomitable spirit.
XII
THE BARON’S PROJECTOR
First impact of war on magic shadows—General Uchatius invents a projector combining Kircher’s magic lantern and the Plateau-Stampfer picture disks—Motion pictures reach the screen.
The first man to combine Kircher’s magic lantern and the Plateau-Stampfer disk and thereby achieve moving images on a screen visible to an audience was Baron General Franz von Uchatius. A type of bronze was named for this Austrian ballistic expert but, though his machine was the pattern for motion picture projectors until the advent of film at the end of the century, his name was not linked with the device. With Uchatius also came the first impact of projected pictures on the science of war. From these small beginnings, in less than a century, the motion picture—in our day—became a great weapon of psychological warfare.
Franz Uchatius, the second son of a former artillery officer and instructor in the cadet school who resigned after 19 years’ service to become street commissioner in a small Austrian town, was born on October 20, 1811, at Theresienfeld, Wiener Neustadt, Austria. The father had married a woman from Bavaria and lived comfortably, for in addition to his town job he managed an estate and derived income from an agricultural sowing machine which he had invented.