American Developments

 American Developments

The Mutoscope (1894)

Woodville Latham and his sons Otway and Gray

1) Make one considerable contribution to film technology.
2)Most cameras and projectors could use only a short stretch of film,
   lasting less than three minutes, since the tension created by a longer, heavier roll would

   break the film. 

3)The Lathams added a simple loop to create slack and thus relieve the tension, allowing much
   longer films to be made.
4)The Latham loop has been used in most film cameras and projectors ever since.
5) Indeed, so important was the technique that a patent involving it was to shake up the entire
     American film industry in 1912.

C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat
1) A second group of entrepreneurs, the partnership of C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat,
    first exhibited their Phantoscope projector at a commercial exposition in Atlanta in
    October 1895, showing Kinetoscope films.
2)Partly because of competition from the Latham group and a Kinetoscope exhibitor,
    who also showed films at the exposition, and partly because of dim, unsteady projection,
    the Phantoscope attracted skimpy audiences.
3) Later that year, Jenkins and Armat split up.
4) Armat improved the projector, renamed it the Vitascope, and obtained backing from
   the entrepreneurial team of Norman Raff and Frank Gammon.
5) Raff and Gammon were nervous about offending Edison, so in February they demonstrated
   the machine for him.
6) Since the Kinetoscope’s initial popularity was fading, Edison agreed to manufacture
    Armat’s projector and supply films for it.
7) For publicity purposes, it was marketed as
   “Edison’s Vitascope,” even though he had no hand in devising it.

The Vitascope’s public premiere
1) was at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York on April 23, 1896.
2) Six films were shown, five of them originally shot for the Kinetoscope;
3) the sixth was Acres’s Rough Sea at Dover, which again was singled out for praise.
    The showing was a triumph.
4) Although it was not the first time films had been projected commercially in the United
    States, it marked the beginning of projected movies as a viable industry there.

Herman Casler patented the Mutoscope

1) In late 1894, Herman Casler patented the Mutoscope, a flip-card device.
2) He needed a camera, however, and sought advice from his friend W. K. L. Dickson,
   who had terminated his working relationship with Edison.
3)With other partners, they formed the American Mutoscope Company.
4) By early 1896, Casler and Dickson had their camera, but the market for peepshow
    movies had declined, and they decided to concentrate on projection.
5)Using several films made during that year, the American Mutoscope Company soon had
    programs playing theaters around the country and touring with vaudeville shows.

6)The camera and projector were unusual, employing 70mm film that yielded larger,
   sharper images.
7)By 1897, American Mutoscope was the most popular film company in the country.
8)That year the firm also began showing its films in penny arcades and other entertainment
   spots, using the Mutoscope.
9)The simple card holder of the Mutoscope was less likely to break down than was the
   Kinetoscope, and American Mutoscope soon dominated the peepshow side of film exhibition
    as well.
10)Some Mutoscopes remained in use for decades.

By 1897, the invention of the cinema was largely completed.
1) There were two principal means of exhibition: peepshow devices for individual viewers
     and projection systems for audiences.
2) Typically, projectors used 35mm film with sprocket holes of similar shape and placement,
    so most films could be shown on different brands of projectors.

*But what kinds of films were being made?
*Who was making them?
*How and where were people seeing them?