June, '17] COLEMAN: MOTION PICTURE AND EDUCATION 371 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOTION PICTURE AND ITS 

 PLACE IN EDUCATIONAL WORK 



By Geo. A. Coleman, University of California, Berkeley 



The story of the development of the motion picture camera and 

 motion picture projectors reads hke a fairy tale of romance, yet it is 

 the story of real scientific achievement unequaled in its account of 

 the overcoming of apparently insurmountable difficulties. For the 

 solution of the scientific problems involved it has demanded the best 

 talent from among European and American mechanical experts, 

 designers and manufacturers of lenses, camera equipment, and chem- 

 ists. The successful solution of these problems has only been possible 

 through the cooperation of all. 



Motion picture photography was born on the Stanford Ranch, Palo 

 Alto, California, about 1872, when Governor Stanford was induced by 

 IVIr. Muybridge to allow him to experiment in photographing the 

 governor's horses. The first motion pictures were made by setting up 

 twenty-four cameras in a row facing the racetrack, each camera being 

 equipped with an ingenious arrangement of a string and spring at- 

 tached to the shutter. The horse in trotting past the cameras touched 

 each string and so released the shutter, thus taking his own photo- 

 graphs, a series of snap shots. Governor Stanford rendered a real 

 service to the science of Cinematography when he took these photo- 

 graphs to Paris and exhibited them, thereby gaining the attention and 

 interest of Messioner, the great animal painter. Messioner was fas- 

 cinated by them, because he was himself a great student of the curious 

 attitudes which horses assume when in rapid motion, and had already 

 attempted to incorporate in his paintings some of his own observa- 

 tions. These photographs gave him just the proof he needed to estab- 

 lish the correctness of his own observations with his fellow artists who 

 were disposed to criticize his ideas and work. Indeed here we have 

 the keynote to the use of the motion picture in scientific investigation 

 and instruction, viz., an infallible record. 



The motion picture camera has now been brought to a high state of 

 mechanical perfection and optical efficiency. There are a number of 

 good makes on the market. After a somewhat extended investiga- 

 tion of a number of foreign makes, the author has chosen the Univer- 

 sal camera and tripod, made in Chicago, which, equipped with a 

 battery of lenses of from two to six inch focus, or longer if desired, 

 makes an outfit adapted to all kinds of work afield, and will withstand 

 the trying effects of all kinds of climate from the tropical jungle to 

 the rigors of the arctic. (The outfit was here exhibited.) 



