Chapter VII: Introduction (4)

David Brewster (1781–1868), Scottish scientist whose work on the polarization of light led him to invent, around 1815, the Kaleidoscope--an optical instrument which creates and exhibits by reflection a variety of beautiful symmetrical designs in varied colors--was the first to comment in print on the Thaumatrope of Paris, the year before the latter’s book appeared. In the fourth volume of his _Edinburgh Journal_ Brewster wrote, under the description of the Thaumatrope, “a very ingenious philosophical toy, invented, we believe, by Dr. Paris.” Brewster remarked that the circular disks should be 2½ inches in diameter and that the cord should be of silk. Brewster described the following Thaumatrope cards: Rose-tree and garden-pot, horse and man, a branch with and without leaves, woman in one dress and then another, body of a Turk and his head, watchman’s box and the watchman, Harlequin and Columbine, comic head and wig, a man asleep and awake, and the use of the cards for cipher writing. According to Brewster, “the principle of the thaumatrope may be extended to many other devices.” He also commented on the imperfections of the toy arising from the hobbling effect of irregular rotation. He suggested that a “solid axis of rotation is decidedly preferable and will produce much more pleasing combinations.”

Brewster himself was deeply interested in light and vision phenomena. Despite its original scientific purposes, his Kaleidoscope also was a popular toy. Brewster patented the toy in 1816 but it was pirated. Some 200,000 were sold in three months. In his _Treatise on the Kaleidoscope_, 1819, Brewster told it was discovered while he was testing the successive reflections of gold and silver plates. He also noted the application of the Kaleidoscope to Kircher’s magic lantern in order to bring the effects before a large audience at one time.

The invention of the Thaumatrope has been attributed to others besides Paris, despite the weighty authority of Brewster and Paris’ own book. Charles Babbage (1792–1871), English scientist and mathematician noted for his calculating machine and his campaign against noise (which he said robbed us of one-quarter of our working life), attributed the discovery of the Thaumatrope to his friend and classmate, John Herschel, the astronomer, (1792–1871). Babbage wrote in his autobiography that one evening Herschel spun a shilling before a mirror so that both sides of it could be visible--the Thaumatrope effect. Dr. William Fitton, Captain Kaster and Dr. William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828) were told about the method and various Thaumatropes were made, according to Babbage, about 1818 or 1819. “After a lapse of some time the device was forgotten. Then in 1826,” Babbage wrote “during a dinner at the Royal Society Club, Sir Joseph Banks being in the chair, I heard Mr. Barrow, then Secretary to the Admiralty, talking very loudly about a wonderful invention of Dr. Paris, the object of which I could not quite understand.” Babbage then claimed it was his invention. At any rate, Paris and not Herschel, Fitton, Wollaston or Babbage, was the one to popularize the Thaumatrope.

In passing, it may be noted that at the time Paris was making the Thaumatrope well known Babbage was thinking about submarine craft: “Such a vessel” (a four-man submarine equipped for a 48-hour stay under water) “could be propelled by a screw and might enter, without being suspected, any harbour, and place any amount of explosive matter under the bottoms of ships.”

_XI_

PLATEAU CREATES MOTION PICTURES

_Plateau, blind half of his life,
develops devices to show motion from
hand-drawn images, opening the road to
the modern motion picture--Stampfer
independently invents similar
apparatus--Persistence of vision studied._

Plateau, a Belgian scientist who became blind in work that resulted in making it possible for millions all over the world to see motion pictures, deserves more than anyone else the title, “Father of the Motion Picture.” Just as Athanasius Kircher originated projection as we know it with the magic lantern, Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau has the best claim of all to credit for making the motion picture illusion a reality.

Never interested in profits for himself, Plateau did not trouble to patent his magic disk picture machines but took pains to issue correct instructions when commercial imitators made devices lacking in some essential.

Plateau was born on Oct. 14, 1801, at Brussels, Belgium, the son of a landscape and flower painter. His mother was the former Catherine Thirion. From earliest boyhood, Plateau was trained to be an artist and the nature of his studies and work in later life indicated that he must have shown great promise, for he had the temperamental qualities of a great artist. After his elementary studies, his father lost no time in directing his son’s attention towards the arts by sending him to the Academy of Design at Brussels.

At the age of 14 Plateau was left an orphan, and was made a ward of his maternal uncle. In delicate health young Plateau was sent into the country to recuperate from the shock of losing both his parents in two years. The location selected was near Waterloo and Plateau had to take shelter in the woods for ten days and nights while the battle raged. Soon the plans Plateau’s father had made for him to study art were altered. The uncle was a lawyer and wished his ward to succeed him in that profession. Plateau himself evidently was strong-willed and persevering even at an early age, for during the next few years he studied both arts and sciences. This would make it possible for him to follow his father’s, his uncle’s, or his own wish. He wanted to strike out into a new field, and this he did.

Higher studies were carried on at the Royal College and in 1822, at the age of 21, Plateau entered the University of Liége as a candidate for a degree both in philosophy and letters, and in science. As the years progressed Plateau turned more and more of his attention toward science, especially problems concerning color, vision and the perception of motion. But all through life he retained the fullness of viewpoint of a man with a background and interests in many fields so his imagination never was dulled, as sometimes happens in the cases of specialists in a restricted field of science. The art of his father never left him.

While studying for the doctorate Plateau carried on his first important work in vision and motion which resulted in the scientific approach to the first motion picture machine. He investigated the visual effects of whirling a disk which was colored half in yellow, half in blue.

In 1827 part of Plateau’s research was published in Quetelet’s _Correspondance Mathématique et Physique_. Quetelet (1796–1874) was a pioneer in statistics and Plateau’s professor at the Royal College, and also taught at the Museum of Science and Letters in Belgium. The next year, 1828, Plateau sent another communication to M. Quetelet on the appearances produced by two lines turning around a point with uniform motion. In that letter Plateau referred to the work of Roget on persistence of vision published in the _Philosophical Transactions_ of the Royal Society, London, 1824.

Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869), English doctor best known for his _Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases_, combined his medical work with interest in the sciences. On December 9, 1824, he read, at the Royal Society, a paper called, “Explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel seen through vertical apertures.” Roget pointed out that the phenomenon had been noted but not explained by an anonymous contributor who signed himself “J. M.” in the _Quarterly Journal_ of December 1, 1820. “J. M.” commented on the curvature of spokes when a wheel is in motion and is viewed through a series of vertical bars. Everyone has noted the strange rotations of motor car wheels when viewed under certain conditions, as in the modern motion picture. “J. M.” pointed out that at times the wheel appeared to rotate backwards; at other times, forward and still again seem to stand still. A nod of praise should be bestowed towards “J. M.” (these are not the initials of any of the better known English scientists of the period). Ten years later the great Faraday confessed he did not know the identity of this man who had stimulated those investigations which we now know led directly to the first actual motion pictures formed from hand-drawn designs.

Roget, in 1824, noted that a certain velocity and a certain amount of light were necessary before the “wheel phenomenon” was visible--both speed of motion and bright light source are necessary for the motion picture illusion. Roget said, “It is evident from the facts above stated that the deception in the appearance of the spokes must arise from the circumstances of separate parts only of each spoke being seen at the same moment; the remaining parts being concealed from view by the bars” (equivalent to the shutters in the motion picture machine). Roget continued, “so that it is evident that the several portions of one and the same line, seen through the intervals of the bars, form on the retina the images of so many different radii.” Roget remarked that the illusion was the same as when a bright object is whirled in a circle--“an impression made by a pencil of rays on the retina, if sufficiently vivid, will remain for a certain time after the cause has ceased.”

A few weeks later, on December 24, 1824, Roget lectured on the persistence of vision with regard to moving objects, a phenomenon first recognized by the ancient scientists.

Plateau wrote in 1828 as follows:

I have made an instrument by means of which I could produce
these fixed images with ease and I also could make visible the
formation of changes in the curvature ... when working at my
first experiments relative to sensations, I observed that while
turning rapidly a wheel whose teeth were perpendicular to its
axis, and placing the eye at some distance from the plane of the
axis, one perceived the image of a series of perfectly immobile
teeth; that also with two wheels revolving, the one behind the
other, with considerable speed and in opposite directions,
produced in the eye the sensation of a fixed wheel. I have
remarked further that, while the two wheels are not concentric,
the fixed image appears to be made up of curved lines.

Today stroboscopic machines, based on the principles of Plateau’s devices, are used to study moving objects. In this way modern scientists learn more about the nature of movement and its stresses on wheels and other objects.

Plateau received the degree of doctor of physical and mathematical sciences from the University of Liége on June 3, 1829, when he was 28. His thesis was on “Certain Properties of the Impressions Produced by Light upon the Organ of Sight.” It is strange that such a learned paper would have so much influence on what was to be the modern motion picture.

The chief points--all of importance in building motion pictures--of the Plateau thesis dated April 24, 1829, were: First, the sensation (result of the picture presented to the eye) must stay for a time to form completely--this hinted definitely at the necessity of intermittent movement for a really successful and practical motion picture machine. Second, the sensations do not disappear immediately but gradually dim--this makes motion pictures possible. If each image disappeared all at once, only individual still pictures would be recognized. The gradually dimming makes possible fusion of one image with the next which results in appearance of motion. The third point covered was the relative effect on the eye of various colors. Plateau concluded that the intensity of the chief colors decreased from white, yellow, red, blue--in that order. He also announced results of perception of various colors at different angles, studies made in the shade and in the light. It was further pointed out that two colors--as two images--changed rapidly result in only one sensation or image.

After receiving his doctor’s degree from the University, Plateau taught at the Royal College of Liége while he continued his research on vision and related matters.

Annuaire, L’Académie de Belgique, 1885

_JOSEPH PLATEAU sacrificed his own eyesight in an effort to enable others to see pictures in motion._]

Correspondance Mathématique, 1829–1833

_PLATEAU’S first real motion picture device, shown above, see page 89. Below, the Phénakisticope with which a single person could see pictures in motion._]

The first machine creating the illusion of motion from a series of drawings was described by Plateau in a letter to Quetelet dated Liége, December 5, 1829, with the scientific title, “Different Optical Experiments.” (_Relative à différentes expériences d’optique._) A similar instrument was already referred to by Plateau in his paper written in the preceding year. Although the device made by Plateau in 1828 and described in the 1829 article followed by several years the introduction of the Thaumatrope, it rates as the first motion picture machine because the Thaumatrope was really only a scientific toy, just as Paris called it.

Plateau illustrated his letter describing his instrument in writing to Quetelet in answer to an inquiry. The drawing (opposite page) of Plateau shows that, though a scientist, he never forgot his early training and was something of an artist. The principles of his machine could be illustrated by drawings of lines and other geometrical figures, but Plateau chose a woman’s head.

In the following words Plateau described his instrument:

Two small copper pulleys, (a) and (b), drive by means of an
endless cord a large wooden wheel, (c), which has a double
groove; the diameters of the small pulleys are such that the two
cords are equally taut and the system is placed in movement by
means of the handle, (d), the speed of one pulley being an exact
multiple of the other; the axes terminate in the form of a vise
and are divised in such a way that you can attach to them by
little screws the drawings or cartoons with which you wish to
experiment. The pulleys are held by iron supports, (f) and (g),
which slide in two grooves practically parallel with the stand or
base (hk), and are held in position by means of thumb screws.

Lines or drawings to be studied are mounted on the two pulleys. The machine is of such a nature, Plateau pointed out, that drawings can be easily changed, the relative speeds of the two wheels (one serving as a shutter when drawings are used) can be regulated, alignment can be readjusted and by crossing the cords the disks can be made to rotate in opposite directions.

Plateau continued by explaining that when the speed on one disk is not an exact multiple of the other they do not keep the same relative positions after rotation.

A different image is produced at each revolution and the eye,
instead of seeing one fixed line (or image), sees only a rapid
succession of different lines (or images); however if the swifter
is little more than a multiple of the other, the difference is
very little in a manner which the eye cannot distinguish one from
another. In this case the spectacle will appear to change little
by little....

There is the germ of the motion picture--a real instrument which makes pictures move.

The diagram illustrates a model in which “a perfectly regular image is produced from a deformed figure” turning in a speed proportional to the distortion behind the shutter disk.

Plateau pointed out that the deformed figure can be painted black and turn before a white surface, or be white and turn behind a slot pierced in a black disk. He said, “This last method is preferable to the other because it gives an image of greater lifelikeness....” This of course is the quality sought in all dramatic representations--realistic living pictures.

“For this effect,” he explained, “you design the deformed figure on white transparent paper and paint the surrounding space with a very opaque black, then make the experiment carefully, and place a strong light behind the paper.”

In the example shown in the drawing the two disks, mounted one behind the other, are rotated in an opposite direction, the motion of the deformed figure is double that of the shutter and the effect produced is that of the regular image shown in Figure 3.

Plateau then remarked, “The construction of these images is very simple.” He gave the method and an example. “While the shutter will be making a third part of a revolution all the points of the circle carrying the deformed figure will be present behind it and in consequence it will produce one regular complete image. Then during the second and third part of the revolution of the shutter it will be able to form itself into second and third images resembling the first.” These were the words Plateau used to explain the nature of the operations of the first movie machine.

He concluded: “As you are master of the production of the figures you can make them as bizarre and as irregular as you wish.” Producers of the modern motion picture have indeed made pictures that are both “bizarre” and “irregular.” Plateau would have liked modern motion pictures because he was fond of the theatre, especially liking comedies.

While Plateau was making the experiments in 1829 which led to scientific presentations of visual and optical phenomena as well as construction of the first motion picture machine to illustrate those principles as well as to entertain, a tragic event happened. Plateau in his investigations of seeing light and motion gave special attention to the chief source of all light on earth, the sun.

One day, to see for himself the effects of a great stimulus, the greatest possible in nature on his eye, he stared at the sun for 25 seconds without glasses or other protection. The intensity was great and the effect equal. He was blind for the rest of that day. In a few days his sight came back but it was permanently injured. It gradually waned and was gone in 1843. A choroid inflammation persisted and blotted out the vision of one of the greatest investigators of vision in all history.

During the period while his sight was gradually going, Plateau continued work on vision and made great contributions to the then unknown motion picture. From 1843 he had to discontinue teaching on account of total blindness but this did not stop his experiments.

In 1830 Plateau published a further explanation of his wheel device in Quetelet’s Journal.

In 1831 and 1832 Plateau and Michael Faraday (1791–1867), English scientist, had a written argument over certain phases of priority in observing the “wheel phenomenon” which led to the motion picture. On December 10th, 1830, Faraday, the son of a blacksmith, who attracted the attention of Sir Humphry Davy, addressed the Royal Institution of Great Britain “On the Peculiar Class of Optical Deceptions.” The paper was published in February, 1831, in the Institution’s _Journal_. Faraday, called by Tyndall, “the greatest experimental philosopher the world has ever seen,” was attracted to the wheel phenomenon which he noted “J. M.” had discussed in 1820 and Roget in 1824. At the lead mills of Messrs. Maltsby Faraday saw cog wheels rapidly revolving one in one direction, the other in another. The optical effect was curious. He designed in his laboratory a disk machine in order to create the same illusion, noting that the effects produced were sometimes beautiful. Faraday said that the device of the revolving wheels could be spun before a mirror and interesting results observed. He did not propose the use of images or pictures. Mr. Wheatstone, Faraday said, was engaged in the general exploration of the subject and hoped soon that the results would be made public.

Plateau later in the year wrote in the _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, a scientific publication printed in Paris and edited by Guy-Lussac and Arago, that scientists both in France and England were studying the effects of two revolving wheels, one placed behind the other and each revolving at different speeds.

Plateau claimed priority in these words: “Several years ago I observed those phenomena and from that conducted experiments whose results were published. My experiments attracted little attention outside the country and Mr. Faraday without doubt had no knowledge of my work.... It is because such a man as Mr. Faraday has decided that the phenomenon in question was not unworthy of his attention that I attach some merit to the honor of having observed it before him.”

In the 1832 edition of the _Correspondance Mathématique et Physique_ of Quetelet, Plateau remarked (in a note dated January 20, 1833) that following the letter published in the _Annales_ of November, 1831, “He (Faraday) wrote me and recognized in a manner most flattering for me the priority of my observations.” Plateau finally concluded that Faraday had had some knowledge after all of his earlier work when the Englishman wrote his paper at the end of 1830.

Plateau acknowledged that Faraday’s paper had some interesting observations which he explained and enlarged upon. Following the principle outlined in his work of 1828, Plateau then constructed the first Fantascope or Phénakisticope, the first machine which created illusions of motion from a series of pictures. Madou, a brother-in-law of Quetelet, was credited with copying Plateau’s drawing with extreme care.

Plateau conceived the idea of having successively different pictures which would give the illusion of motion for use on the revolving disk. With each figure showing some changes of position from the preceding, the illusion is that the figures move and not the disk; and so it is with modern motion pictures. We have no consciousness of the movement of film through the machine before our eyes--only of movement of the figures on the film as projected on the screen. (Illustration facing page 89.)

Plateau also pointed out that a strong light was necessary for the motion pictures--as today--and that the “projector” must be a certain distance from the mirror (now a screen) on which the images are seen.

“I shall not describe the variety of curious illusion which can be produced by this new method,” Plateau concluded. “I leave to the imagination of persons who would try these experiences the care to find out the most interesting.”

Motion picture producers down to this day, using their imagination, have followed the challenge of Plateau, and still the field is inexhaustible.

In the _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_ for 1833 Plateau gave a further explanation of his device, named by others the Phénakisticope. Others had also commercialized it. McLeans’ Optical Illusions, No. 26 Haymarket Street, London, and other firms were selling models based on Plateau’s invention. “I wish to take this opportunity to state, that while the Phénakisticope has been made from an idea which I have published on this new method of creating illusions, I have no part whatsoever in the execution of this instrument which leaves much to be desired according to reports. The theory and experiments have shown that to obtain results as perfect as possible it is necessary to take certain precautions which have been omitted in the Phénakisticope.”

Plateau went on to explain that he had made some models in which the necessary steps had been taken and “these models now constitute a new instrument which has been published in London under the name of Fantascope.”

The improved instrument was described with the original dancer and marching men as illustrations. He also pointed out that the disks must revolve at a certain speed--if too slow, the illusion of motion is not present, and if too rapid the figures become blurred.

At about the same time Plateau invented his Phénakisticope or Fantascope independently, the same device was invented by Simon Ritter von Stampfer, an Austrian geometrician and geologist. Stampfer was born October 28, 1792, in the Tyrol. As a young boy he stared at the sun for a long period but recovered his normal sight after the image of the sun persisted for 24 days. When a professor of practical geometry at the Polytechnical Institute at Vienna, Stampfer published his account of the Stroboscope, as he called it, in 1834. Stampfer in his article mentioned Dr. Paris’ Thaumatrope, Dr. Roget’s paper on the persistence of vision in regard to wheel spokes and the paper of Faraday--all mentioned above. Stampfer’s treatment of the disks to create the illusion of motion was a mathematical one. He explained many complicated mathematical formulae and unlike the Plateau papers his were not accompanied by a drawing. Stampfer, though not having Plateau’s artistic talent, was a more practical man. On May 7, 1833, he took out an Imperial patent on his invention. Stampfer died on November 10, 1864, in Vienna.

Plateau himself is the best authority for the respective claims of himself and Stampfer, though as always he may have been much more modest and generous than the facts warranted for basically his disk had much greater influence than Stampfer’s and his research was started first.

While describing an improved form of his original Anorthoscope, or machine used to create distorted images developed first in 1828 and 1829, Plateau wrote on the invention of the Phénakisticope, Fantascope or Stroboscope, in 1836 in the _Bulletin_ of the Royal Academy of Belgium:

I would like to take this occasion to say here a few words on the
question of my priority to the invention of another instrument,
the Fantascope or Phénakisticope, priority which is shared
equally with Mr. Stampfer, professor at Vienna, who has published
a similar instrument under the name of Stroboscopic Disks.

In the notice which accompanies the second edition of these
Stroboscopic Disks printed in July of 1833, Mr. Stampfer stated
that he had commenced in December of the preceding year to repeat
the experiments of Mr. Faraday on certain illusions of optics
and that these experiments had resulted in the invention of the
instrument which he had published. Also the editors affirmed in a
foreword that in the month of February of the following year Mr.
Stampfer had assembled a collection of these disks and had shown
them successively to his friends, including prominent persons.
They brought it about that on May 7 of that year he was given an
exclusive Imperial patent to the rights to his invention.

So much for what concerns Mr. Stampfer. One sees that the
patent above mentioned was not obtained until May 7, 1833.
The professor has not been able to place his first publication
prior to that time. But, on the other hand, the letter which
gives first description of my Fantascope is dated January 20,
1832. Thus my first publication is over a year before that of
Mr. Stampfer. As for the time when I first got the idea for this
instrument, the idea to which I was also led by the paper of
Mr. Faraday, it is difficult for me to be precise; however, the
drawing which accompanies that letter proved that I had already
at that time finished the first disk and when I recall my labor,
the difficulties which I encountered in the first construction
and the extreme care which I had given to it, I believe that I
can place the invention at about the same time, that is to say,
as Mr. Stampfer, in the month of December, 1832.

Roget also may be considered a pioneer in this field. In 1834 he wrote that Faraday’s writing had called again to his attention wheel devices and that in the Spring of 1831 he had constructed several “which I showed to many of my friends,” he wrote, “but in consequence of occupations and cares of a more serious kind I did not publish any account of this invention which was last year reproduced on the continent.”

From 1835 until 1843 Plateau continued his work and teaching at the University of Liége in his capacity of professor of experimental physics, taking time off to be married in 1840 to Fanny Clavareau. But all the while the man who had helped to bring visual education and entertainment to millions who were to come after him was gradually going blind. He was a popular teacher, despite his handicap.

From 1844, when his vision was entirely gone, Plateau worked continually at home, having set up there a laboratory in which friends and relatives acted as his assistants. Plateau himself gave all the instructions to his aids; they reported to him every detail of the results of the experiments and he then dictated the notes covering the work, relying on a remarkable memory. Later the notes would be revised for publication. Plateau supplied the imagination and piercing intelligence; his helpers supplied the eyes and were the reporters. Plateau was the editor. Scientific critics have held that he not only overcame his handicap but actually did better work.

In 1849 Plateau published in the _Bulletin_ of the Royal Academy of Belgium further studies on revolving disks and the use of a shutter. This time he also treated the effects when colored, and vari-colored disks are used. The system was similar to the Anorthoscope. Sixteen images were mounted on the margin of a glass disk. Another disk with four slots was revolved four times as swiftly. A number of spectators could see the effect at the same time. The chief illusion was a devil blowing up a fire. Edison’s peep-show film machine of 1891 also had a revolving disk with four slots.

The last time Plateau wrote for publication directly on the motion picture machine was in 1852, 20 years after his invention. Once more he had to lash back at critics, this time at those who said he stole not from another of his own time but from the ancient Romans.

In the May 30, 1852 issue of _Cosmos_, a French weekly review of science, edited by Abbé Moigno, comments were made about an article written by one Dr. Sinsteden in the German science review, _Annalen der Physik und Chemie_, which asserted that Lucretius in the fourth book of _De Rerum Natura_ described the Fantascope or Phénakisticope invented by Plateau “with such exactitude that, if it were not for the long series of theoretical considerations and practical experiments that led the Belgian scientist to arrive at the construction of the apparatus one would suppose that he took the idea from the Roman philosopher.”

To back up the position, the text from Lucretius was quoted in Latin and French and Abbé Moigno made another comment, “What is the effect of that but the Phénakisticope--could Lucretius have described it in terms more precise or more clear?”

Plateau replied in the issue of July 25 of the same year and answered for all time the assertion that Lucretius had invented the first motion picture machine many hundreds of years before.

Moigno realized his mistake and prefaced Plateau’s words with an apology, “We are always ready to retract the errors which we print. Our learned friend, Plateau, has written us today about a translation written from a preconceived idea. He has a hundred reasons for complaint.”

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.

After elementary and high school education near his home, Franz was apprenticed to a Viennese merchant. His father had to pay an annual fee of some 300 gulden (about $120) for the privilege. Franz, a small, sensitive boy, was very unhappy as an apprentice, having no interest in merchandising. After much persuasion, for his father evidently had found life happier outside the army, Franz received permission to join his eldest brother, Joseph, in the artillery. There was another difficulty. Franz was under the minimum height established for that branch of the army. Special permission had to be received from Archduke Ludwig, the youngest son of Emperor Francis and the general inspector of artillery, before he could enter the artillery school.

But everything was arranged and on August 5, 1829, when Uchatius was 17, he was taken to the Rennweger armory in Vienna to start training as an artillery sub-cadet. Uchatius was especially interested in physics, mathematics and chemistry. Chemistry was not highly regarded then and was usually reserved for non-commissioned officers. Uchatius overcame this prejudice by becoming the laboratory assistant to the professor.

Military advancement came slowly to Uchatius. At 25 he was a gunner but also was able to attend lectures at the Polytechnical School. The next year, 1837, he again became assistant to the chemistry professor at the artillery school, keeping this position until 1841. During that period he served as special tutor to Turkish officers, then studying in Vienna, and also worked in the gun foundry.

Finally in 1843, at the age of 32, he was commissioned a lieutenant. It was at this period that he did his first inventing. A special fuse for guns was his initial achievement. Somewhat later he invented the first European hydrocarbon lamp. This was a special lantern designed for use aboard ship. It was so constructed that it would not go out even when completely overturned. A modification of this lamp was used by Uchatius in one model of his pre-film motion picture projector.

The description of Uchatius’ “Apparatus for the presentation of motion pictures upon a wall” was not published until 1853. The account appeared in the _Sitzungsberichte_ of the Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften of Vienna.

But, as Uchatius himself said, he was asked to develop the invention as far back as 1845, at the request of Field Marshal Lieutenant von Hauslab. That general very probably thought that if moving figures of the Plateau-Stampfer magic disks could be projected on the wall there would be available a potent instrument for military instruction. In our own day the motion picture has come to be an important aid in military training all over the world.

Uchatius wrote as follows:

The well known illusion caused by means of the Stampfer disk
arises from the fact that the eye receives on the same portion of
the retina pictures succeeding one another at short intervals,
which present some recurring motion in its various phases, and
through this arises an effect which equals that of one picture
observed in motion.

The method used by Uchatius to throw a connected series of images on a wall “in any desired size” is indicated by the illustrations.

Uchatius noted that the Plateau-Stampfer disk had a certain disadvantage not only because but one person could observe the effects at a time but also because the pictures were not sharp and clear.

The first model developed by Uchatius was described as follows:

The pictures (a), (a) ... are painted on transparent glass and
mounted on a disk, (A), at equal intervals, and the lowest of
the pictures was illuminated from behind by the lamp (S) and the
illuminating lens (B). A second disk, (C), contained the slits
(b), (b) ... (the modern shutter) to be brought before each
picture. The slits correspond to those in the Stampfer disk. Both
disks are mounted on the same axis, (D), and are rotated by the
crank (E). The slit, (c), corresponds to the pupil opening of
the eye and the achromatic lens, (F), to the crystal lens of the
eye. The lens is adjustable to allow the picture to be focussed
sharply. The surface, (G) (the screen) finally corresponds to the
position of the retina of the eye.

When the disks are turned, the successive pictures appear on
the wall, (G), just as they are seen in the Stampfer disk, in
intervals so short that they are not noticed by the eye.

This machine was satisfactory but limited. Uchatius was a sharp critic of his own work: “The apparatus produced very good motion pictures whose size, however, could be enlarged to a maximum of only six inches in diameter, because should the wall, (G), be moved far from the projector the pictures became too dark on account of the light cut off by the slits. And an enlargement of the slits brought about greater indistinctness. However, a projected motion picture had been attained which could be viewed simultaneously by a considerable number of people. But it still remained desirable to project this picture in a suitable size on a wall and thus show it in an auditorium or theatre.”

The first model had shown that the use of slits, even with the brightest light, could not result in a successful picture, according to Uchatius. (Illustration facing page 105.)

He then constructed the improved model.

The pictures (a), (a) ... are painted transparently and set
upright in a circle as close together as possible on the wooden
slide (A). In front of each picture is a projection lens (b), (b)
... which can be inclined towards the center of the apparatus
by means of a hinge and set screw. The inclination of all
the projection lenses is so adjusted that their optical axes
intersect at the distance at which the picture appears (in other
words on the screen). It follows there that all the pictures must
appear at one and the same point on the wall, (W).

The light source consists of a lime cylinder, (B) glowing in a
stream of oxyhydrogen gas and the condensing lens, (C), which
gives somewhat converging rays and illuminates only one picture
at a time. The light is turned in a circle by a simple mechanism
by means of a crank, (D), either rapidly or slowly as desired,
(the first slow motion projector as well). During the movement
the light source retains its upright position because of its own
weight, since it is suspended from its support, (c), so as to be
easily movable. The two rubber gas tubes rise and fall through
the opened bottom of the cabinet. The lead weight, (E), serves as
a counterweight to the light source.

Uchatius was pleased with this machine. “The result is now evident. The successively illuminated pictures appear on the wall in the same way as the so-called dissolving views but much more rapidly, thereby causing the effect of a moving picture. The size of the picture is not limited by the slits and the sharpness is not affected since no motion of the object picture occurs.”

In this manner Uchatius solved the problem of projecting these pre-film hand-painted motion pictures. In the very beginning of magic shadow projection Athanasius Kircher had sought the same results but did not have the apparatus or the knowledge of vision and movement necessary to carry out his wish. The lantern model of Zahn equipped with a revolving disk approximates the plan of Uchatius but failed, as did Kircher’s, and for the same reason. So far as Plateau was concerned, the illusion of moving images visible to one person at a time was sufficient. Anyway, the blind man--missing his own sight--probably did not feel impelled toward arranging simultaneous viewing for others. Doubtlessly he thought that to see motion pictures--one person at a time--was a sufficient marvel. Edison, more than half a century later, tended to the same opinion.

Uchatius said that his model projector was equipped with space for twelve pictures painted on glass slides, but he added: “There are no insuperable obstacles in the way of constructing a similar apparatus with 100 pictures, thereby a moving tableau with an action lasting one-half minute could be presented. The apparatus would not need to be more than six feet high.”

This shows that Uchatius also was looking ahead to the story motion picture. Until the middle 1890s there were no real motion picture scenes on any screen for more than the one-half minute indicated by Uchatius. His machine was the basic model for four decades and had an influence on the design of many early motion picture projectors and cameras.

Uchatius pointed out that the projector would be useful in demonstrating its own principle in physics and vision classes and could show in a vivid way action of sound waves and “indeed all motions which cannot be demonstrated by mechanism.”

The first motion picture projector dealer was W. Prokesch, an optician and lens maker of 46 Lainbruge Street, Vienna, who, Uchatius said, “prepares apparatuses of this sort with greatest precision and upon request also furnishes pictures therefor.” Prokesch wrote many years later that the records show that Uchatius began his correspondence with the optical firm about the motion picture projector on February 16, 1851.

It is possible that Uchatius solved the problem of the projector soon after the assignment was given to him by General von Hauslab in 1845. But he was a very busy man from that year, when he became a member of the Academy of Science, until the 1851–53 period when he had time to complete the work, arrange for commercial construction of projectors and write the report for the journal of the Polytechnical School, Akademie der Wissenschaften, _Sitzungsberichte_.

In 1846 Uchatius was given orders to open up a section of the gun foundry and astounded military circles by producing the then great quantity of 10,000 six-pound cannon balls in three months. He taught the Emperor’s brothers at the Polytechnical School in 1847. At the age of 37, in 1848, when he had a family of three children and had been in the artillery service for 19 years, he received a promotion to first lieutenant. Advancement was slow because this extremely talented man had no influence in political circles.

In 1848 Uchatius was assigned to Italy and assisted at the siege of Venice. There he started the unenviable precedent of the aerial bombardment of cities. In three weeks he had constructed more than 100 balloons fitted to carry explosive charges to be dropped on the heads of the “besieged, rebellious Venetians.” Uchatius and his brother, Joseph, studied the problem on the spot. The experiment was only partially successful. The Venetians were probably as terrified by rumor of bombs falling from the heavens as were the invaders under Marcellus before Syracuse when Archimedes developed his Burning Glasses.

Uchatius’ relations with the Navy which was directing the siege were not the best and he was glad to be able to return to Vienna. During the next few years he continued to make little progress in the military world but was doing excellent scientific work. He began to test guns and had an opportunity to travel and inspect foreign ordnance and manufacturing methods. In 1867, at the age of 56, he received his first important recognition. He was decorated for his work and made colonel commander of the artillery ordnance factory in 1871. Previously he had helped to direct the construction of the arsenal at Vienna.

In 1874 he developed the first steel-bronze cannon out of “Uchatius” bronze. Through the next few years he carried on a struggle for the establishment of a native ordnance industry so that Austria would not depend upon a foreign munitions supplier. Some in authority wanted the heavy guns made at Krupp, in Prussia, but Uchatius finally won and was promoted to the rank of major-general by the Emperor, given the Commander’s Cross of the Order of St. Stephen, a lifetime personal annual bonus of 2,000 gulden, together with baronship.

Uchatius’ weapons were used by Austria in the occupation at Bosnia and Herzegovnia in 1878–79, when the Turks withdrew, in accordance with the Treaty of Berlin.

It is easy to see that a man of such activity had no time to further work on the motion picture projector which he had invented as a young man, passing away tedious years while awaiting promotion and responsibility.

Eventually Uchatius became a Field Marshal, but he died unhappy. He wrote a farewell note, “Forgive me, my dear ones, because I am unable to endure life any longer,” and killed himself on June 4, 1881, at the age of 69. He was broken-hearted. Though his artillery weapons had been a great success, he had yet to perfect coast defense guns. The final blow was a remark passed on from the Austrian War Department, that the officials doubted they would live to see successful completion of Uchatius’ coastal guns. Also, an order was sent to Krupp for four such guns for the harbor of Pola, then an Austro-Hungarian seaport, and after World War II, a port in the area disputed by Italy and Yugoslavia. It was said that the general was ill, suffering from an incurable cancer of the stomach.

Uchatius was naturally a hero of the Austrian artillery. A monumental obelisk was raised to his memory by subscriptions from the men who were using his weapons. His biographer, Karl Spaĉil, wrote: “As often as this country (Austria) begins to rearm, it is no wonder that the name of Uchatius is mentioned and praised anew.”

But Uchatius then and now should have been praised not for his engines of war but for his important contribution to the magic shadow art-science. For by perfecting a motion picture machine which would bring living pictures before audiences, Uchatius, together with Kircher and Plateau, the other great magic shadow pioneers, deserves credit and the gratitude of untold millions who down through the years have had their lives enriched through this great new medium of expression.

The use of Uchatius’ projector spread rapidly. It satisfied a natural urge. Man from the beginning sought to recreate life naturally and realistically. Large screen motion pictures, even of but one scene, repeated over and over, represented a definite step on that road.

_Ölbildnis von Sigmund l’Allemand im Besitz des Wiener Heeresmuseums._

Schweizerische Zeitschrift, 1905

_FRANZ VON UCHATIUS in 1853 combined Kircher’s projector of 1645 and Plateau’s revolving disk of 1832 to achieve the first projection of animated designs._]

Within a few years after the publication of accounts of the Uchatius motion picture projector, models were brought out by English and French inventors. Projectors, including one which threw onto a screen by means of a mirror system images of living persons, were used at the London Polytechnic Institute.

For many years after the announcement of the Uchatius picture projector, only hand-drawn designs were used. The new photographs were available only in single stills. But now the modern motion picture was just around a not too distant corner.

K. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1853

_PROJECTORS by Uchatius. Shown are two versions of the 1853 picture projector. In the one above a picture disk is revolved by a crank. Below, the drawings are in fixed mounts, each before a projection lens, and the light source is revolved._]

_XIII_

THE LANGENHEIMS OF PHILADELPHIA

_Brothers Langenheim perfect a system
of printing photographs on glass
slides permitting projection on the
screen--Projectors are made by Duboscq
in France; Wheatstone and Claudet in
England; Brown and Heyl in the United
States._

William Penn’s “City of Brotherly Love”, Philadelphia, was the home of several important American contributors to the magic shadow art-science. The first of these were two brothers, Frederic and William Langenheim.

William Langenheim came to the United States from Germany in 1834, the year Ebenezer Strong Snell, a professor at Amherst College, introduced in America the Plateau-Stampfer magic disks. Successively, he served in Texas during its war for independence from Mexico; was present at the recapture of the Alamo by American forces; was captured himself and sentenced to be shot; escaped, and served in the United States Army in the Second Florida Seminole War.

After three years of adventure, William decided in 1840 to settle in Philadelphia and enter business. He had his brother, Frederic, come to America to be his partner. Frederic Langenheim brought to his brother news of the latest developments in photography and they decided to embark upon that pursuit. The year before, 1839, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (1789–1851), in France, and William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877), in England, had announced successful still pictures made with a modified portable form of our old friend, the _camera obscura_, fitted with a chemically coated plate which after development made the picture permanent.

Frederic Langenheim was familiar with all these advances when he came to Philadelphia in 1840 and he either brought with him a good camera or one was ordered from Vienna shortly afterwards. In the winter of 1840–41 the Langenheim brothers opened a studio at the Merchant’s Exchange, 3rd and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia. They were not the first photographers in the United States but were among the pioneers.

Pictures from the size of a pea to very large ones were advertised. President Tyler and Henry Clay were among those who sat for Langenheim. In an early adventure in the use of photography for advertising, the Langenheims had something less than a complete success, from the client’s point of view. A picture was made showing a number of prominent persons drinking at a local establishment. It was not good for business--a rigorous public objected to the “drinking scene.”

Frederic, who was the “outside man” of the business and the principal photographer of natural subjects--William handled the business end and the portraits--went to Niagara Falls in 1845 and made scene pictures that brought fame and renown to the firm of Langenheim Bros. Copies were sent to Queen Victoria, the Kings of Prussia, Saxony and Wurtenberg and the Duke of Brunswick, the province in Germany whence the brothers originally came; and to Daguerre himself. The latter praised the successful photography in a letter transmitted to the Langenheims.

In 1848 William went abroad and in England concluded a deal with William Henry Fox Talbot, British pioneer in photography, giving the Langenheims exclusive contract rights to the Talbot calotype process which used a negative from which any number of paper prints could be made. It was a vast improvement over the Daguerreotype negative-positive system which did not make possible printing of copies but the Langenheims were not successful in sub-licensing the Talbot process in America.

Shortly after this the Langenheims made an important contribution to the art-science of light and shadow pictures by developing a system which made it possible to project the photographs in the old Kircher magic lantern. This prepared the way for the projection of a series of photographs showing a single movement.

Kircher and the others who used his magic lantern, including the projection model of Uchatius, painted or drew their various scenes on glass slides. Until about 1850 when the Langenheim development was announced, there was no satisfactory method of making glass plates of positive photographs. Of course, the heat of the projecting lamp made it impossible to use pictures printed on paper.