ANIMATED PICTURES. 



177 



studied by spectroscopic methods, to have any attendants comparable 

 with themselves in magnitude, have originated in a manner like that 

 of the sun, and may be the centers of true planetary systems re- 

 sembling ours. The argument, I think, goes further than to show 

 the mere possibility of the existence of such planetary systems sur- 

 rounding the single stars. If those stars did not originate in a 

 manner quite unlike the origin of the sun, then the existence of 

 planets in their neighborhood is almost a foregone conclusion, for 

 the sun could hardly have passed through the process of formation 

 out of a rotating nebula without evolving planets during its con- 

 traction. And so, notwithstanding the eccentricities of the double 

 stars, we may still cherish the belief that there are eyes to see and 

 minds to think out in celestial space. 



A NIMATED PICTURES. 



By J. MILLER BARR. 



ANEW and wonderful field in the realm of photography has 

 lately been opened up to the world a field whose extent, 

 variety, and richness are as yet scarcely realized, though its assiduous 

 cultivation by inventive minds has already afforded a harvest of 

 interesting results. 



The nature of this new domain is pointed out by the title of our 

 present sketch. Aided by ingenious devices, the scientific photog- 

 raphers of to-day are enabled to portray motion in all its varied 

 forms with a realism that impresses the beholder. They have, in 

 effect, contrived to breathe life into normally changeless records of 

 the camera; and the process is now applied, with marked success, 

 to animated scenes of the most diverse description. The busy 

 traffic of city streets, the play of expression upon the human counte- 

 nance, the movements of waves, waterfalls, fleeting clouds these 

 and many other effects have been depicted upon the screen with 

 equal fidelity before audiences that have seldom failed to show their 

 appreciation of the novel form of entertainment thus provided. 



It is true that these " motion views " are subject to certain im- 

 perfections. Apart from the flashing or pulsating effect * which 

 <listi iguishes the pictures, there are frequent blemishes, arising in 

 part from mechanical, in part from photographic and other causes. 



* This effect can be got rid of only by considerably increasing the rate per second at 

 v/hich the individual pictures are shown. When, however, this rate is as high as forty or 

 fifty per second of time, the light-pulsations are hardly noticeable, and can not be said to 

 raar the riotures in any appreciable degree. 

 vol. lii. 14 



