i8 PICTURING MIRACLES 



year, perpetuating its life of beauty and usefulness. 

 Only a few can see it, but a motion picture, starting 

 at either end of its life history, shows one step, then 

 another. Later they are joined in their natural se- 

 quence, and in a few moments the story is told, to be 

 seen. 



Man looks at a flower in passing; the eye would 

 soon tire in trying to watch its growth or change of 

 position, but the lapse-time camera, running at a 

 speed to record in the time we have to see it, reg- 

 isters every change of position day and night with a 

 tireless lens eye, and all from the same chosen posi- 

 tion, writing on the film what happens in lines, ex- 

 pressing position, growth and color until finally 

 death, or better call it, when its parts have fulfilled 

 their life's duty, passing on into another form. 



A beam of light for a brush, a silver salt for paint, 

 a transparent ribbon of celluloid for the canvas, 

 chemicals to render it visible and permanent, the 

 thousands of individual sketches, taken at uniform 

 intervals of figured seconds or minutes, then pro- 

 jected some 1,440 a minute on the screen, the result, 

 true and lasting representation of form, color and 

 also sound. 



Such are the modern results. Starting as I did, in 

 the corner of a small crowded room, with a home- 

 made camera run with a small motor, fitted with a 



