ANIMATED PICTURES. 



79 



celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Vic- 

 toria. The Royal procession and other imposing features of the 

 jubilee ceremonials were duly recorded upon cinematographic films, 

 of which fine specimens were set aside for future preservation in 

 England's National Museum. These have been " hermetically 

 sealed and deposited in the museum, together with a machine and 

 lantern, by means of which they may be exhibited to future gen- 

 erations." 



We can only strive to realize, in some dim measure, the fascina- 

 tion which those pictured ribbons of celluloid will exercise upon the 

 eyes and minds of future Londoners let us say, at some remote 

 epoch, when the throne of Great Britain will be occupied by a 

 monarch of whom we can form no conception, under social condi- 

 tions which may differ widely from those existing at the present 

 day. 



I have thus far alluded only to the more obvious uses of this 

 beautiful invention. But the subject, as we shall presently see, may 

 be regarded from two very distinct points of view. On the one 

 hand, we are concerned with the ordinary animated pictures, whose 

 properties and functions are already known to the public; on the 

 other, we have to deal with movements originally imperceptible to 

 the eye, but which can be rendered visible upon a screen if the slow- 

 moving bodies are photographed under conditions described in a 

 subsequent part of this article. Pictures of this kind may, for con- 

 venience, be spoken of as motion views of the second type. Such 

 pictures have not, I think, been produced up to the present time. 

 But this aspect of the subject, though hitherto neglected (if not 

 wholly overlooked), is deeply interesting and merits the most careful 

 investigation. It will, accordingly, engage our especial notice, 

 though the reader will first be led to consider in a general way the 

 methods and principles upon which depend the production of ordi- 

 nary animated photographs. 



Although the kinetoscope and cinematograph are regarded as 

 distinctively modern contrivances, it should be borne in mind that 

 they represent only the recent development of a principle that has 

 long been familiar to students of optical science. They are the de- 

 scendants, so to speak, of more primitive forms of apparatus, among 

 which may be specially mentioned the zoetrope and the phenakisti- 

 scope. The latter instrument an optical toy devised by the famous 

 French physicist Plateau merits particular notice, since it appar- 

 ently represents the first stage in that process of evolution which has 

 led up to the elaborate motion-picture machines of the present day. 



Though differing much in the details of their construction, these 

 various machines are. designed to fulfill the same general purpose 



