Choreutoscope
The choreutoscope[pronunciation?] is the first pre-cinema device which employed a system similar to early film projectors.[1] It was the first projection device to use an intermittent movement, which became the basis of many cine cameras and projectors. It was formed by a sheet of glass on which different drawings were made, and the sheet was mounted on a type of Maltese cross mechanism, which made the image move suddenly.[2] The most common drawing was the 'dancing skeleton' in which six sequential images of a skeleton were animated in the viewing pane.
History
[edit]In 1869, O.B. Brown received a U.S. patent for an optical instrument that used a Maltese cross mechanism for the intermittent projection of sequential images from a rotating disc.[3]
In 1870, "The Popular Educator" featured an article about a very similar instrument (with an "intermittent motion-piece") that was produced by Greenwich engineer John Beale. It was called "The Dancing Skeleton" and projected a skeleton in various positions. An earlier article described Beale's related "Automated Picture" or "automatic face apparatus". This had a bust of a young lady painted on a screen, with a hole in place of the face filled in with a mechanically randomised succession of 16 different facial expressions painted on a rotating disc. A rotating "interceptor" (shutter disc) with 8 apertures in front of a lantern produced a stroboscopic effect that made the apparent movement of eyes, mouth and tongue look natural.[4] Early British film historian Will Day claimed that Beale's choreutoscope had already been invented in 1866.[5]
William C. Hughes created his own choreutoscope in 1884.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ "Choreutoscope". Museum of the History of Science. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
- ^ "Pre-cinema resources". www.museudelcinema.cat. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
- ^ US93594A, "Optical instrument", issued 10 August 1869
- ^ Popular Educator a Complete Encyclopaedia of Elementary, Advanced, and Technical Education. Cassell. 1870. pp. 248–249, 304.
- ^ "The Physical Chemistry of the Photographic Process". The Photographic Journal. 64. The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and the Photographic Alliance: 59–61. 1924.
External links
[edit]- Dancing skeleton (animated) from the Alexis du Pont stereoviews and lantern slides collection at Hagley Museum and Library