Showing Mars the Moving Pictures 



Reflections on the invention of a giant screen 

 which can be seen a quarter of a mile away 



Editor: "Good morning, have you 

 invented anything today?" 



Reader: "Can't seem to think of any- 

 thing." 



Editor: "Perhaps you need a little 

 encouragement. First of all examine cas- 

 ually some great invention. If you find 

 you are unable, offhand, to change or im- 

 prove its function, just change its size. 

 Make it enormous, gigantic, awe-inspiring. 

 Why? Don't ask questions. Apply for a 

 patent at once. When the patent bearing 

 your name and the names of the humble 

 witnesses is issued, keep calm even though 

 manufacturers and promoters do not claw 

 at one another and fill the air with des- 

 perate wailings in their efforts to buy, rent, 

 promote or steal your patent. Console 

 yourself with the fact that the world has 

 not as yet been educated up to your method. 



This imaginary conversation is inspired 

 by the contemplation of a recently issued 

 patent which discloses nothing more than a 

 moving picture screen so large that it will 

 require four or five projection machines to 

 fill it up. We daresay the glittering path of 

 success will shortly dazzle the inventor. 



The advantages so great a picture pos- 

 sesses are not divulged. We have a suspi- 

 cion that the inventor has a scheme which 

 will make it possible to assemble an 

 audience on Mars who will shoot the 

 customary price of admission into the 

 exhibitor's cash register. 



The method for displaying this huge 

 picture is simple. Procure a screen about 

 four times larger than any at present 

 employed. Raising the roofs of picture 

 theaters to accommodate the screen is a 

 matter hardly worth mentioning. Next in- 

 duce photoplay producers to employ four 

 photographers to take the scenes. Each 

 photographer will take one-quarter section 

 of the picture ; one man to photograph the 

 upper right section, another the upper left, 

 etc. The sections must be taken in such a 

 manner that when they are displayed 

 simultaneously on the screen by four projec- 

 tion machines, they will all meet properly. 



You have often done this very thing as a 

 child when you pieced together a rhinoceros 

 or zebra with four spelling blocks. 



A little care should be exercised, how- 

 ever, in the taking of these films. The four 

 men should be instructed to grind in time 

 and at the same speed. 



In displaying the picture, only four 

 operators and assistants are required who 

 will be instructed to keep an even pace for 

 their individual sections. It would not do 

 for the operator who is showing the head 

 and body of the beautiful heroine to run his 

 machine slowly, while the operator who has 

 charge of the feet projection runs his 

 machine fast. No, indeed. Her elbows 

 may just then be on the dinner table while 

 her feet walk off to the ballroom scene. 



A good operator can also be trained to 

 understand the necessity of keeping the 

 head section of the picture in the upper part 

 of the screen. The feet should do their 

 accompanying shuffling underneath. 



A very ingenious method for camou- 

 flaging the lines on the screen where the 

 four sectional pictures meet, has also been 

 devised by the inventor. These edges form 

 a cross directly in the center of the picture 

 field. .Permanently painting a tree, win- 

 dow or telegraph pole over these lines will 

 effectually eliminate the meeting edges of 

 the four picture sections and will in no way 

 detract from the enacted scene. Only a 

 carping critic would object to viewing a 

 play through the branches of a tree. What 

 if the tree does appear in the kitchen scene?' 

 The effect is not necessarily spoiled because 

 you are unaccustomed to seeing it there. 



Anyone intending to embark in this 

 gigantic motion-picture enterprise should 

 not forget that the nearest seat to the screen 

 from which. a fairly good view can be had, 

 will be about one hundred feet distant. 

 This slight loss in seating capacity is more 

 than compensated for by the fact that the 

 screen can be viewed at a distance of about 

 one-quarter of a mile. This will permit the 

 extension of the theater seats out on to the 

 sidewalk, and across the street. 



Those of us interested in science, engineering, invention form a kind of guild. 

 We should help one another. All the specialized knowledge and information of the 

 editorial staff of the Popular Science Monthly is at your disposal. Write to the 

 editor if you think he can help you. He is willing to answer questions. 



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