480 Professor W. Stirli?ig [May 10, 



Co-ordination and synchronisation are marked functions of the 

 central nervous system. The perfect co-ordination between the exe- 

 cutive as represented by the motor organs of the body and the re- 

 ceptors of various kinds, and the way in which these organs are in- 

 fluenced now by one receptor, now by another, are trite facts in 

 nervous physiology. A sound or a flash of h'ght to the left is followed 

 immediately by a turning of the head and neck and eye-balls to the 

 left. One organ sets the completed machinery in orderly motion. 

 As an example of the efi^ect of a bugle sound falling on well-trained 

 disciplined ears, I know of no more pathetic example than an event 

 which happened on the battlefield at Thionville in 1870. 



" After the slaughter of Thionville on the 18th August a strange 

 and touching spectacle was presented. On the evening call being 

 sounded by the first regiment of Dragoons of the Guard, six hundred 

 and two riderless horses answered to the summons — jaded and in 

 many cases maimed. The noble animals still retained their disci- 

 plined habits." 



Royal Tnstitutmi and the Cinematogra'ph. 



The question of the synchronisation of two very different instru- 

 ments will be presented to-night ; but before I do so, I should like to 

 recall what an important part the Royal Institution has played in con- 

 nection with one of these instruments, viz. the Cinematograph. It 

 was on February 28, 1896, in the Eoyal Institution that Mr. Robert 

 Paul showed an instrument which he called the " Theatrograph." 

 This was the first demonstration before a scientific Society of the 

 wonders of what was then called Animated Photography. The Cine- 

 matograph is merely a modified camera with a special projector. As 

 a matter of fact, the Cinematograph as employed to-day — no doubt 

 with numerous modifications — is in principle the same as the machine 

 first used by Mr. Paul, and demonstrated to the members of the 

 Royal Institution. Nor do I forget the lectures on the (xramophone 

 delivered by Prof. McKendrick. In the Kinetoscope of Edison only 

 one person at a time could see the moving picture. 



The Problem stated. 



The problem before us to-night is how to obtain at the same 

 time records from a Cinematograph and from a Phonograph, Gramo- 

 phone or talking machine, and having obtained these, how can they 

 be reproduced and presented simultaneously, the one record to the 

 eye and the other to the ear, so that a large audience — even six 

 thousand in number — shall be able to see and hear that all marches 

 in unison and produces an illusion so complete as almost to represent 

 real life. 



In the ordinary speaking and moving pictures which have been 

 presented hitherto, the actgr or singer has just to speak or sing into 



