Demeny was the motion picture amateur or home-movie-maker’s first friend. The instantaneous photographic devices of Marey and others were relatively clumsy and expensive. Demeny brought out a portable camera suitable for amateur use. In operation this model was held over one arm, making it necessary for the cameraman to photograph a scene which he did not see at all, or only imperfectly out of the corner of his eye. Demeny’s film was given an intermittent action through two eccentrically mounted pins used as the roll holders. Demeny realized that the pictures must be taken at equal intervals of time and also evenly spaced on the film for successful results. His eccentric camera never actually achieved this result.
In 1891 Demeny became interested in studying speech. In this work he was associated with H. Marischelle, then a young professor at the French national institute for deaf mutes. Marischelle and Demeny had the idea that through photographs of speech the deaf could learn to talk. Demeny developed the Photophone and the Photoscope, which were modified versions of the Marey camera system and a lantern projector equipped with an oxyhydrogen light. Demeny made close-up instantaneous photographs of persons speaking. The phrase, “Vive la France” was a popular subject.
Demeny said that the apparatus, “conserves the expression of the face as the voice is preserved in the phonograph.” He added that it was, “possible even to join the phonograph to his phonoscope to complete the illusion.” That was the idea expressed by Donisthorpe in 1877 and on which Edison had been working since 1887—the combined projector and phonograph or the talking motion picture which indeed was not to be perfected for many decades.
In the Spring of 1892 Demeny tried to exploit commercially the system of Talking Photographs or, more accurately, moving pictures of the action of the mouth in speaking. Demeny always blamed the organization, the Société Générale du Phonoscope with which he was associated, for not developing his work. It is probable however, that the Demeny machines were not entirely satisfactory. A few years later, after successful projection of motion pictures had been achieved on a commercial basis, Demeny became associated with Léon Gaumont, and a number of early French machines carried Demeny’s name though he alone was not entirely responsible for the design. Demeny and Gaumont developed a projector which included a gear wheel which fitted into perforations on the film and an eccentric pin similar to Marey’s camera system.
Anschütz, one of the first successful photographers of motion, after Muybridge, and the one who introduced the electric Geissler tube as a method of illumination and projection of a series of still photos to create the illusion of motion, was continuing his work in Germany in this period. On November 15, 1894, he obtained a French patent on a “process of projection of images in stroboscopic movement.” This projector had an intermittent light arrangement and may have been better than Marey’s sun model of 1893, because Anschütz was a professional photographer and maker of optical instruments while Marey was a professional physiologist.
In November of 1895 Anschütz showed an improved model of his projector at the Postal Building in the Artilleriestrasse, Düsseldorf, Germany. A contemporary account in the journal, Photographisches Archiv, published by Dr. Paul E. Liesegang, reported that the demonstration was “before an invited crowd and was rightly received with great enthusiasm by all the persons present.” Anschütz had improved his projection apparatus to a point at which images could be thrown life-size on a screen. Before that time pictures projected by his Elektrisch Schnellseher were only the size of the original pictures and thus could be seen by only a few spectators at one time. Anschütz had both motion pictures and many stills on his program, including scenes taken when the cornerstone of the Reichstag Building was laid. Once again the military connection of magic shadows was shown as Anschütz projected scenes of army life. After the demonstration Colonel A. D. Tanera stressed the importance of motion picture photography for the study of military history and also for making observations in the field.
Reynaud, the first magic shadow showman of modern times and the immediate forerunner of the motion picture exhibitor of our day, was now operating his Théâtre Optique in Paris. He achieved the first solid commercial success of the art. From 1892 to 1900, when the competition of real motion pictures forced him to close, 500,000 persons attended the Reynaud screen entertainments which were presented every day from three to six in the afternoon and eight to eleven at night. (Illustration facing [page 148].)
The projection apparatus used at the Théâtre Optique was a modification of Reynaud’s original Praxinoscope of 1877 and his simple projector model of 1882. The scenes were painted on transparent celluloid and one magic lantern provided the background and another optical system which handled the moving film cast the motion effects onto the screen. Rear projection was used with the apparatus concealed on the theatre stage behind the screen. In 1889 Reynaud had obtained a patent on a perforated band of film and he was the first to introduce on a commercially practical basis reels or spools to handle the film. Reynaud was not content to show merely scenes of action but wished to tell a story. Before long it was found that the story film or familiar feature picture was the most popular all over the world.
“Poor Little Peter” (Pauvre Pierrot) was one of the most popular of Reynaud’s film shows. Harlequin and Colombine were other popular characters. Reynaud provided some of the earliest uses of trick projection, for his apparatus was fully reversible and at times he would create novel and hilarious effects by making the characters jump backwards.
Reynaud stood between the Shadow Plays and pantomimes of the ancients and the modern motion picture. Though he took no part in the development of motion picture photography and its application to the screen, he influenced the art-science by pioneering in the dramatic use of the medium, as well as introducing technical devices which were readily adaptable to motion picture use.