 CHAPTER 20 Edison, Portland Cement Few developments in recent years have been more striking than the general adoption of cement for structural purposes of all kinds in the United States, or then the increase in its manufacture here. As a material for the construction of office buildings, factories, and dwellings, it has lately enjoyed an extraordinary vogue, yet every indication is confirmatory of the belief that such use has barely begun. Various reasons may be cited, such as the growing scarcity of wood, once the favorite building material in many parts of the country. In the increasing dearness of brick and stone, the factory remains indisputable and demonstrated flatly by the statistics of production. In 1902, the American output of cement was placed at about 21 million barrels, valued at over $17 million. In 1907, the production is given as nearly 49 million barrels. Here, then, is an industry that doubled in five years. The average rate of industrial growth in the United States is 10% a year, or doubling every 10 years. It is a singular fact that electricity also so far exceeds the normal rate as to double in value and quantity of output and investment every five years. There is perhaps more than ordinary coincidence in the association of Edison with two such active departments of progress. As a purely manufacturing business, the general cement industry is one of even remote antiquity. And if Edison had entered into it merely as a commercial enterprise by following paths already so well trodden, the fact would hardly have been worthy of even passing notice. It is not in his nature, however, to follow a beaten track except in regard to the recognition of basic principles. So that, while the manufacture of Edison Portland cement embraces the main essentials and familiar processes of cement making, such as crushing, drying, mixing, roasting and grinding, his versatility and originality, as exemplified in the conception and introduction of some bold and revolutionary methods and devices, have resulted in raising his plant from the position of an outsider to the rank of the fifth largest producer in the United States in the short space of five years after starting to manufacture. Long before his advent in cement production, Edison had held very pronounced views on the value of that material as the one which would obtain largely for future building purposes on account of its stability. More than twenty-five years ago one of the writers of this narrative heard him remark during a discussion on ancient buildings. Wood will rot, stone will chip and crumble, bricks disintegrate, but a cement and iron structure is apparently indestructible. Look at some of the old Roman baths. They are as solid as when they were built. With such convictions and the vast fund of practical knowledge and experience he had gained at Edison in the crushing and manipulation of large masses of magnetic iron ore during the preceding nine years, it is not surprising that on the homeward railway journey mentioned at the close of the preceding chapter, he should have decided to go into the manufacture of cement, especially in view of the enormous growth of its use for structural purposes during recent times. The field being a new one, Edison followed his usual course of reading up every page of authoritative literature on the subject and seeking information from all quarters. In the meantime, while he was busy also with his new storage battery, Mr. Mallory, who had been hard at work on the cement plan, announced that he had completed arrangements for organizing a company with sufficient financial backing to carry on the business, concluding with the remark that it was now time to engage engineers to lay out the plant. Edison replied that he intended to do that himself and invited Mr. Mallory to go with him to one of the drafting rooms on an upper floor of the laboratory. Here he placed a large sheet of paper on a drafting table and immediately began to draw out a plan of the proposed works, continuing all day and away into the evening when he finished, thus completing within the 24 hours the full day out of the entire plant as it was subsequently installed, and as it has substantially remained in practical use to this time. It will be granted that this was a remarkable engineering feat, especially in view of the fact that Edison was then a newcomer in the cement business, and also that if the plant were to be rebuilt today, no vital change would be desirable or necessary. In that one day's planning, every part was considered and provided for, from the crusher to the packing house. From one end to the other, the distance over which the plant stretches and length is about half a mile, and through the various buildings spread over the space, their passes automatically, in course of treatment, a vast quantity of material resulting in the production of upward of two and a quarter million pounds of finished cement every 24 hours, seven days in the week. In that one day's designing, provision was made not only for all important parts, but minor details, such for instance, as the carrying of all steam, water, and air pipes, and electrical conductors in a large subway running from one end of the plant to the other, and an oiling system for the entire works. This latter deserves special mention, not only because of its arrangement for thorough lubrication, but also an account of the resultant economy affecting the cost of manufacture. Edison has strong convictions on the liberal use of lubricants, but argued that in the ordinary oiling of machinery there is great waste, while much dirt is conveyed into the bearings. He therefore planned a system by which the 10,000 bearings in the plant are oiled automatically, requiring the services of only two men for the entire work. This is accomplished by a central pumping and filtering plant, and the return of the oil from all parts of the works by gravity. Every bearing is made rust-proof and is provided with two interior pipes. One is above and the other below the bearing. The oil flows in through the upper pipe, and after lubricating the shaft, flows out through the lower pipe back to the pumping station, where any dirt is filtered out and the oil return to circulation. While this system of oiling is not unique, it was the first instance of its adaptation on so large and complete a scale, and illustrates the farsightedness of his plans. In connection with the adoption of this lubricating system, there occurred another instance of his knowledge of materials and intuitive insight into the nature of things. He thought the too-frequent circulation of a comparatively small quantity of oil would, to some extent, impair its lubricating qualities, and requested his assistants to verify this opinion by consultation with competent authorities. On making inquiry of the engineers of the Standard Oil Company, his theory was fully sustained. Hence provision was made for carrying a large stock of oil, and for giving a certain period of rest to that already used. A keen appreciation of ultimate success in the production of a fine quality of cement led Edison to provide very carefully in his original scheme for those details that he foresaw would become requisite, such, for instance, as ample stock capacity for raw materials and their automatic delivery in the various stages of manufacture, as well as mixing, weighing, and frequent sampling and analyzing during the progress through the mills. This provision even included the details of the packing house, and his perspicacity in this case as well sustained from the fact that nine years afterward, in anticipation of building an additional packing house, the company sent a representative to various parts of the country to examine the systems used by manufacturers in the packing of large quantities of various staple commodities involving somewhat similar problems and found that there was none better than that devised before the cement plant was started. Hence the order was given to build the new packing house online similar to those of the old one. Among the many innovations appearing in this plant are two that stand out in bold relief, as indicating the large scale by which Edison measures his ideas. One of these consists of the crushing and grinding machinery and the other of the long kilns. In the preceding chapter there has been given a description of the giant rolls by means of which great masses of rock, of which individual pieces may weigh eight or more tons, are broken and reduced to about a 14 inch size. The economy of this is apparent when it is considered that in other cement plants the limit of crushing ability is one man size, that is, pieces not too large for one man to lift. The story of the kiln, as told by Mr. Mallory, is illustrative of Edison's tendency to upset tradition and make a radical departure from generally accepted ideas. When Edison first decided to go into the cement business it was on the basis of his crushing rolls and air separation and he had every expectation of installing duplicates of the kilns which were then in common use for burning cement. These kilns were usually made of boiler iron riveted and were about 60 feet long and 6 feet in diameter and had a capacity of about 200 barrels of cement clinker in 24 hours. When the detail plans for our plant were being drawn Mr. Edison and I figured over the coal capacity and coal economy of the 60 foot kiln and each time thought that both could be materially bettered. After having gone over this matter several times he said, I believe I can make a kiln which will give an output of 100 barrels in 24 hours. Although I had then been closely associated with him for 10 years and was accustomed to see him accomplish great things I could not help feeling the improbability of his being able to jump into an old established industry as an office and start by improving the heart of the production so as to increase its capacity 400%. When I pressed him for an explanation he was unable to give any definite reasons except that he felt positive it could be done. In this connection let me say that very many times I have heard Mr. Edison make predictions as to what a certain mechanical device ought to do in the way of output and costs when his statements did not seem to be even among the possibilities. Subsequently after more or less experience these predictions have been verified and I cannot help coming to the conclusion that he has a faculty, not possessed by the average mortal of intuitively and correctly sizing up mechanical and commercial possibilities. But returning to the kiln Mr. Edison went to work immediately and very soon completed the design of a new type which was to be 150 feet long and 9 feet in diameter made up in 10 foot sections of cast iron bolted together and arranged to be revolved on 15 bearings. He had a wooden model made and studied it very carefully through a series of experiments. These resulted so satisfactorily that this form was finally decided upon and ultimately installed as part of the play. Well for a year or so the kiln problem was a nightmare to me. When we started up the plant experimentally and the long kiln was first put into operation an output of about 400 barrels in 24 hours was obtained. Mr. Edison was more than disappointed at this result. His terse comment on my report was, Rotten try it again. When we became a little more familiar with the operation of the kiln we were able to get the output up to about 550 barrels and a little later to 650 barrels per day. I would go down to orange and report with a great deal of satisfaction the increase in output but Mr. Edison would apparently be very much disappointed and often said to me that the trouble was not with the kiln but with our method of operating it and he would reiterate his first statement that it would make 1,000 barrels in 24 hours. Each time I would return to the plant with a determination to increase the output if possible and we did increase it to 750 then to 850 barrels. Each time I reported these increases Mr. Edison would still be disappointed. I said to him several times that if he was so sure the kiln would turn out 1,000 barrels in 24 hours we would be very glad to have him tell us how to do it and that we would run it in any way he directed. He replied that he did not know what it was that kept the output down but he was just as confident as ever that the kiln would make 1,000 barrels per day and that if he had time to work with and watch the kiln it would not take him long to find out the reasons why. He had made a number of suggestions throughout these various trials however and as we continued to operate we learned additional points in handling and were able to get the output up to 900 barrels then 1,000 and finally to over 1,100 barrels per day thus more than realizing the prediction made by Mr. Edison before even the plans were drawn. It is only fair to say however that prolonged experiences led us to the conclusion that the maximum economy and continuous operation of these kilns is obtained by working them at a little less than their maximum capacity. It is interesting to note in connection with the Edison type of kiln that when the older cement manufacturers first learned of it they ridiculed the idea universally and were not slow to predict our early finish as cement manufacturers. The ultimate success of the kiln however proved their criticisms to be unwarranted. Once aware of its possibility some of the cement manufacturers proceeded to avail themselves of the innovation at first without Mr. Edison's consent and today more than one half of the Portland cement produced in this country is made in kilns of the Edison type. Old plants are lengthening their kilns wherever practicable and no wide awake manufacturer building a modern plant could afford to install other than these long kilns. This invention of Mr. Edison has been recognized by the larger cement manufacturers and there is every prospect now that the entire trade will take licenses under his kiln patents. When he decided to go into the cement business Edison was thoroughly awake to the fact that he was proposing to butt into an old established industry in which the principal manufacturers were concerns of long standing. He appreciated fully its inherent difficulties not only in manufacture but also in the marketing of the product. These considerations together with his long settled principle of striving always to make the best induced him at the outset to study methods of producing the highest quality of product. Thus he was led to originate innovations and processes some of which had been preserved as trade secrets but of the others there are two deserving special notice namely the accuracy of mixing and the fineness of grinding. In cement making generally speaking cement rock and limestone in the rough are mixed together in such relative quantities as they'd be determined upon an advance by chemical analysis. In many plants this mixture is made by barrow or load units and may be more or less accurate. Rule of thumb methods are never acceptable to Edison and he advised therefore a system of weighing each part of the mixture so that it would be correct to a pound and even at that made the device foolproof for as he observed one of his associates the man at the scales might get to thinking of the other fellow's best girl so 50 or 100 pounds of rock more or less wouldn't make much difference to him. The Edison checking plan embraces two hoppers suspended above two platform scales whose beams are electrically connected with a hopper closing device by means of needles dipping into mercury cups. The scales are set according to the chemist's weighing orders and the material is fed into the scales from the hoppers. The instant the beam tips the connection is broken and the feed stops instantly thus rendering it impossible to introduce any more material until the charge has been unloaded. The fine grinding of cement clinker is distinctly Edisonian in both origin and application. As has already been intimated its author followed a thorough course of reading on the subject long before reaching the actual projection or installation of a plant and he had found all authorities to agree on one important point namely that the value of cement depends upon the finest which it has ground. He also ascertained that in the trade the standard of fineness was that of 75% of the whole mass would pass through a 200 mesh screen. Having made some improvements in his grinding and screening apparatus and believing that in the future engineers, builders and contractors would eventually require a higher degree of fineness he determined in advance of manufacturing to raise the standard 10 points so that at least 75% of his product should pass through a 200 mesh screen. This was a bold step to be taken by a newcomer but his judgment backed by a full confidence and ability to live up to the standard has been fully justified in its continued maintenance despite the early incredulity of older manufacturers as to the possibility of attaining such a high degree of fineness. Begin footnote for proper understanding and full appreciation of the importance of fine grinding it may be explained that Portland cement as manufactured in the Lehigh Valley is made from what is commonly spoken of as cement rock with the addition of sufficient limestone to give the necessary amount of line. The rock is broken down and then ground to a fineness of 80 to 90% through a 200 mesh screen. This ground material passes through kilns and comes out in clinker. This is ground and that part of that finely ground clinker that will pass a 200 mesh screen is cement. The residue is still clinker. These coarse particles or clinkers absorb water very slowly are practically inert and have very feeble cementing properties. The residue on a 200 mesh screen is useless. End footnote If Edison measured his happiness as men often do by merely commercial or pecuniary rewards of success it would seem almost redundant to state that he has continued to manifest an intense interest in the cement plant. Ordinarily, his interest as an inventor wanes in proportion to the approach to mere commercialism. In other words, the keenness of his pleasure is in overcoming difficulties rather than the mere piling up of a bank account. He is entirely sensible of the advantages arising from a good balance of the bankers but that has not been the goal of his ambition. Hence, although his cement enterprise reached the commercial stage a long time ago he has been firmly convinced of his own ability to devise still further improvements and economical processes of greater or less fundamental importance and has therefore made a constant study of the problem as a whole and in all its parts. By means of frequent reports aided by his remarkable memory he keeps in his close touch with the plant as if he were there in person every day and is thus enabled to suggest improvement in any particular detail. The engineering force has a great respect for the accuracy of his knowledge of every part of the plant for he remembers the dimensions of details of every item of machinery sometimes to the discomforture of those who are around it every day. A noteworthy instance of Edison's memory occurred in connection with this cement plant. Some years ago, as its installation was nearing completion he went up to look it over and satisfy himself as to what needed to be done. On the arrival of the train at 10.40 in the morning he went to the mill and with Mr. Mason, the general superintendent started the crusher at one end and examined every detail all the way through to the packing house at the other end. He made neither notes nor memoranda but the examination required all the day which happened to be a Saturday. He took a train for home at 5.30 in the afternoon and on arriving at his residence at Orange got out some notebooks and began to write entirely from memory each item consecutively. He continued at this task all through Saturday night and worked steadily on until Saturday afternoon when he completed a list of nearly 600 items. The nature of this feat is more appreciable from the fact that a large number of changes included all the figures of new dimensions he had decided upon from the scenery throughout the plant. As the reader may have a natural curiosity to learn whether or not the list so made was practical it may be stated that it was copied and sent up to the general superintendent with instructions to make the modifications suggested and report by numbers as they were attended to. This was faithfully done all the changes being made before the plant was put into operation subsequent experience has amply proven the value of Edison's pritions at this time. Although Edison's achievements in the way of improved processes and machinery have already made a deep impression in the cement industry it is probable that this impression will become still more profoundly stamped upon it in the near future with the exploitation of his poured cement house. The broad problem which he sets himself was to provide handsome and practically indestructible detached houses which could be taken by wage earners at very moderate monthly rentals. He turned this question over his mind for several years and arrived at the conclusion that a house cast in one piece would be the answer. To produce such a house involved the overcoming of many engineering and other technical difficulties. These he attacked vigorously and disposed of patiently one by one. In this connection a short anecdote may be quoted from Edison as indicative of one of the influences turning his thoughts in this direction. In the story of the ore milling work it has been noted that the plant was shut down owing to the competition of the cheap ore from the Misopa range. Edison says when I shut down the insurance companies cancelled my insurance I asked the reason why oh they said this thing is a failure the moral risk is too high. All right I am glad to hear it I will now construct buildings that won't have any moral risk. I determined to go into the Portland cement business. I organized a company and started cement works which have now been running successfully for several years. I had so perfected the machinery in trying to get my ore costs down that the making of cheap cement wasn't easy matter to me. I built these works entirely of concrete and steel so that there is not a wagon load of lumber in them and most companies would not have any possibility of having any moral risk. Since that time I have put up numerous factory buildings all of steel and concrete without any combustible whatever about them to avoid this moral risk. I am carrying further the application of this idea in building private houses for poor people in which there will be no moral risk at all nothing whatever to burn not even by lightning. This idea of building concrete necessitates a mold together with a mixture sufficiently fluid in its nature to fill all of the interstices completely. Edison devoted much attention to an extensive series of experiments for producing a free flowing combination of necessary materials. His proposition was against all precedent. All expert testimony pointed to the fact that a mixture of concrete cement, sand, crushed material freely to the smallest parts of an intricate set of molds that the heavy parts of the mixture could not be held in suspension but would separate out by gravity and make an unevenly balanced structure that the surface would be full of imperfections etc. Undeterred by the unanimity of adverse opinions however he pursued his investigations with a thorough minuteness that characterizes all his laboratory work and in due time produced a mixture which on elaborate test overcame all objections and answered the complex requirements perfectly including the making of a surface smooth, even and entirely waterproof. All the other engineering problems have received study in like manner and have been overcome until at the present writing the whole question is practically solved and has been reduced to actual practice. The Edison poured or cast cement house may be reckoned as a reality. The general scheme briefly outlined is to prepare a model in plans of the house to be cast and then to design a set of molds in sections of convenient size. When all is ready these molds which are of cast iron with smooth interior surfaces are taken to the place for the houses to be erected. Here there has been provided a solid concrete cellar floor technically called footing. The mold are then locked together so that they rest on this footing. Hundreds of pieces are necessary for the complete set. When they have been completely assembled there will be a hollow space in the interior representing the shape of the house. Reinforcing rods are also placed in the molds to be left behind in the finished house. Next comes the pouring of the concrete mixture into this form. Large mechanical mixers are used and as it is made the mixture is dumped into tanks from which it is conveyed to a distributing tank on the top or roof of the form. From this tank a large number of open troughs or pipes lead the mixture to various openings in the roof once it flows down and fills all parts of the mold from the footing in the basement until it overflows at the tip of the roof. The pouring of the entire house is accomplished in about six hours and then the molds are left served for six days in order that the concrete may set and harden. After that time the work of taking away the molds has begun. This requires three or four days. When the molds are taken away an entire house is disclosed cast in one piece from cellar to tip of roof complete with floors, interior walls stairways, bath and laundry tubs, electric wire conduits, gas, water and heating pipes. No plaster is used anywhere but the exterior and interior walls are smooth and may be painted or tinted if desired. All that is now necessary is to put in the windows, doors heater and lighting fixtures and to connect up the plumbing and heating arrangements thus making the house ready for occupancy. As these wooden molds are not ephemeral like the wooden framing now used in cement construction but of practically illimitable life it is obvious that they can be used a great number of times. A complete set of molds will cost approximately $25,000 while the necessary plant will cost about $15,000 more. It is proposed to work as a unit plant for successful operation at least six sets of molds to keep the men busy and the machinery going. Anyone with a sheet of paper can ascertain the yearly interest on the investment as a fixed charge to be assessed against each house on the basis that 144 houses can be built in a year with the battery of six sets of molds. Putting the sum at $175,000 and the interest at 6% on the cost of the molds and 4% for breakage together with 6% interest and 15% depreciation on machinery the plant charge is approximately $140 for house. It does not require a particularly acute prophetic vision to see flower towns of poured houses going up in whole suburbs outside all our chief centers of population. Edison's conception of the working man's ideal house has been a broad one from the very start. He was not content merely to provide a roomy, moderately priced house that should be fireproof, waterproof and vermin-proof and practically indestructible, but has been solicitous to get away from the idea of a plain packing box type. He has also provided for ornamentation of a high class in designing the details of the structure. As he expressed it we will give the working man and his family ornamentation in their house. They deserve it and besides it costs no more after the pattern is made to give decorative effects than it would be to make everything plain. The plants have provided for a type of house that would cost not far from $30,000 if built from cut stone. He gave to Messers, Mann and McNally, architects New York his idea of the type of house he wanted. On receiving these plans he changed them considerably and built a model. After making many more changes in this while in the pattern shop, he produced a house satisfactory to himself. This one family house has a floor plan 25 by 30 feet and is three stories high. The first floor is divided off into two large rooms parlor and living room and the upper floors contain four large bedrooms, a roomy bathroom and wide halls. The front porch extends 8 feet and the back porch 3 feet. A cellar 7.5 feet high extends under the whole house and will contain the boiler, wash tubs and coal bunker. It is intended that the house shall be built 40 by 60 feet giving a lawn and a small garden. It is contemplated that these houses shall be built in industrial communities where they can be put up in groups of several hundred. If erected in this manner and by an operator buying his materials in large quantities, Edison believes that these houses can be erected complete, including heating apparatus and plumbing for $1200 each. This figure would also rest on the basis of using in the mixture the gravel excavated on the site. Comments has been made by persons of artistic taste on the monotony of a cluster of houses exactly alike in appearance, but this criticism has been anticipated and the molds are so made as to be capable of permutations of arrangement. Thus it will be possible to introduce almost endless changes in the style of house by variation of the same set of molds. For more than 40 years, Edison was avowedly an inventor for purely commercial purposes. But within the last two years he decided to retire from that field so far as new inventions were concerned and to vote himself to scientific research and experiment in the leisure hours that might remain after continuing to improve his existing devices. But although the poor cement house was planned during the commercial period the spirit in which it was conceived was out of an earnest desire to place within the reach of the wage earner an opportunity to better his physical pecuniary and mental conditions insofar as that could be done through the medium of hygienic and beautiful homes at moderate rentals. From the first Edison had declared that it was not his intention to benefit pecuniarily through the exploitation of this project. Having actually demonstrated the practicability and feasibility of his plans he will allow reasonable concerns to carry themselves into practice under such limitations as may be necessary to sustain the basic object but without any payment to him except for the actual expense incurred. The hyper-critical may cavill and say that as a manufacturer of cement Edison will be benefited. True, but as any good Portland cement can be used and no restrictions as to source of supply are enforced he or rather his company will be merely one of the possible purveyors. This invention is practically a gift to the working men of the world and their families. The net result will be that those who care to avail themselves of the privilege may, sooner or later, forsake the crowded apartment or tenement and be comfortably housed in sanitary, substantial and roomy homes fitted with modern conveniences and beautified baritistic decorations with no outlay for insurance or repairs no dread of fire and all at a rental which Edison believes will be not more but probably less than ten dollars per month in any city of the United States. While his achievement in its present status will bring about substantial and immediate benefits to wage earners his thoughts have already traveled some years ahead in the formation of a still further beneficial project looking toward the individual ownership of these houses on a basis startling in its practical possibilities. End of Chapter 20 Recording by Melissa Chapter 21 of Edison His Life and Inventions This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org Recording by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California Edison His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Comerford Martin Chapter 21 Motion Pictures The preceding chapters have treated of Edison in various aspects as an inventor some of which are familiar to the public others of which are believed to be in the nature of a novel revelation simply because no one had taken the trouble before to put the facts together. To those who have perhaps grown weary of seeing Edison's name in articles of a sensational character it may sound strange to say that after all justice has not been done to his versatile and many-sided nature and that the mere prosaic facts of his actual achievement outrun the wildest flights of irrelevant journalistic imagination. Edison hates nothing more than to be dubbed a genius or played up as a wizard. But this fate has dogged him until he has come at last to resign himself to it with a resentful indignation only to be appreciated when watching him read the latest full-page Sunday spread that develops a casual conversation into oracular verbosity and gives to his shrewd surmise the cast of inspired prophecy. In other words, Edison's real work has seldom been seriously discussed. Rather, has it been taken as a point of departure into a realm of fancy and romance where, as a relief from drudgery, he is sometimes quite willing to play the pipe if someone will dance to it. Indeed, the stories woven around his casual conversations are tame and vapid alongside his own essays in fiction, probably never to be published, but which show what a real inventor can do when he cuts loose to create a new heaven and a new earth unrestrained by any formal respect for existing conditions of servitude to three dimensions and standard elements. The present chapter, essentially technical in its subject matter, is perhaps as significant as any in this biography because it presents Edison as the master impresario of his age and maybe of many following ages also. His phonographs and his motion pictures more audiences in a week than all the theaters in America in a year. The Nickelodeon is the central fact in modern amusement and Edison founded it, all that millions know of music and drama he furnishes and the whole study of the theatrical managers thus reaching the masses is not to ascertain the limitations of the new art but to discover its boundless possibilities. None of the exuberant versions of things Edison has not done could endure for a moment with the simple narrative of what he has really done as the world's new purveyor of pleasure and yet it all depends on the toilful conquest of subtle and intricate art. The story of the invention of the phonograph has been told that of the evolution of motion pictures follows. It is all one piece of sober, careful analysis and stubborn, successful attack on the problem. The possibility of making a record of animate movement and subsequently was predicted long before the actual accomplishment. This, as we have seen was also the case with the phonograph, the telephone and the electric light. As to the phonograph the prediction went only so far as the result. The apparent intricacy of the problem being so great that the means for accomplishing the desired end seemingly beyond the grasp of the imagination or the mastery of invention. With the electric light and the telephone the prediction included not only the result to be accomplished but in a rough and general way the mechanism itself. That is to say long before a single sound was intelligibly transmitted it was recognized that such a thing might be done by causing a diaphragm vibrated by original sounds to communicate its movements to a distant diaphragm by a suitably controlled electric current. In the case of the electric light the heating of a conductor to incandescence in a highly rarefied atmosphere was suggested as a scheme of illumination long before actual accomplishment and in fact before the production of a suitable generator for delivering electric current in a satisfactory and economical manner. It is a curious fact that while the modern art of motion pictures depends essentially on the development of instantaneous photography the suggestion of the possibility of securing a reproduction of animate motion as well as in a general way of the mechanism for accomplishing the result was made many years before the instantaneous photograph became possible. While the first motion picture was not actually produced until the summer of 1889 its real birth was almost a century later when Plateau in France constructed an optical toy to which the impressive name of Phenakistoscope was applied for producing an illusion of motion. This toy in turn was the forerunner of the zoetrope or so called wheel of life which was introduced into this country about the year 1845. These devices were essentially toys depending for their successful operation as is the case with motion pictures upon a physiological phenomenon known as persistence of vision. If for instance a bright light is moved rapidly in front of the eye in a dark room it appears not as an illuminated spark but as a line of fire a so called shooting star or a flash of lightning produces the same effect. This result is purely physiological and is due to the fact that the retina of the eye may be considered as practically a sensitized plate of relatively slow speed and an image impressed upon it remains before being effaced for a period of from one tenth to one seventh of a second varying according to the idiosyncrasies of the individual and the intensity of the light. When therefore it is said that we should only believe things we actually see we ought to remember that in almost every instance we never see things as they are. Bearing in mind the fact that when an image is impressed on the human retina it persists for an appreciable period varying as stated with the individual and depending also upon the intensity of the illumination it will be seen that if a number of pictures or photographs are successively presented to the eye they will appear as a single continuous photograph provided the periods between them are short enough to prevent one of the photographs from being effaced before its successor is presented. If for instance a series of identical portraits were rapidly presented to the eye a single picture would apparently be viewed or if we presented to the eye the series of photographs of a moving object each one representing a minute successive phase of the movement themselves would apparently again take place. With the zoetrope and similar toys rough drawings were used for depicting a few broadly outlined successive phases of movement because in their day instantaneous photography was unknown and in addition there were certain crudities of construction that would be interfered with the illumination of the pictures rendering it necessary to make them practically as silhouettes on a very conspicuous background hence it will be obvious that these toys produced merely an illusion of theoretical motion but with the knowledge of even an illusion of motion and with the philosophy of persistence of vision fully understood it would seem that upon the development of instantaneous photography the reproduction of actual motion by means of pictures would have followed almost as a necessary consequence yet such was not the case and success was ultimately accomplished by Edison only after persistent alonglines that could not have been predicted including the construction of apparatus for the purpose which if it had not been made would undoubtedly be considered impossible in fact if it were not for Edison's peculiar mentality that refuses to recognize anything as impossible until indubitably demonstrated to be so the production of motion pictures would certainly have been delayed for years if not for all time one of the earliest suggestions of the possibility of utilizing photography for exhibiting the illusion of actual movement was made by Ducos who as early as 1864 obtained a patent in France in which he said my invention consists in substituting rapidly and without confusion to the eye not only of an individual but when so desired of a whole assemblage the enlarged images of a great number of pictures when taken instantaneously and successively at very short intervals the observer will believe that he sees only one image which changes gradually by reason of the successive changes of form and position of the objects which occur from one picture to the other even supposing that there be a slight interval of time during which the same object was not shown the persistence of the luminous impression upon the eye will fill the scalp B as it were a living representation of nature and the same scene will be reproduced upon the screen with the same degree of animation by means of my apparatus I am enabled especially to reproduce the passing of a procession a review of military maneuvers the movements of a battle a public fet a theatrical scene the evolution of the dances of one or of several persons the changing expression of countenance or if one desires the grimaces of a human face a marine view the motion of waves the passage of clouds in a stormy sky particularly in a mountainous country the eruption of a volcano end of quote etc other dreamers, contemporaries of Dukos made similar suggestions they recognized the scientific possibility of the problem but they were irretrievably handicapped by the shortcomings of photography even when substantially instantaneous photographs were evolved at a somewhat later date they were limited to the use of wet plates which have to be prepared by the photographer and used immediately and were therefore quite out of the question for any practical commercial scheme besides this the use of plates would have been impracticable because the limitations of their weight and size would have prevented the taking of a large number of pictures at a high rate of speed even if the sensitized surface had been sufficiently rapid nothing ever came of Dukos's suggestions and those of the early dreamers in this essentially practical and commercial art and their ideas have made no greater impress upon the final result than Jules Verne's Nautilus of our boyhood days has developed the modern submarine from time to time further suggestions were made some in patents and others in photographic and scientific publications all dealing with the fascinating thought of preserving and representing actual scenes and events the first serious attempt to secure an illusion of motion by photography was made in 1878 by Edward Mewbridge as a result of a wager with the late Senator Leland Stanford the California pioneer and horse lover who had asserted contrary to the usual belief that a trotting horse at one point in its gate left the ground entirely at this time wet plates of very great rapidity were known and by arranging a series of cameras along the line of a track in causing the horse in trotting past them by striking wires or strings attached to the shutters to activate the cameras at the right instant a series of very clear instantaneous photographs were obtained from these negatives when developed positive prints were made which were later mounted on a modified form of zoetrope and projected upon a screen one of these early exhibitions is described in the Scientific American of June 5th 1880 quote while the separate photographs had shown the successive positions of a trotting or running horse in making a single stride the zoe gyroscope threw upon the screen apparently the living animal nothing was wanting but the clatter of hooves upon the turf and an occasional breath of steam from the nostrils to make the spectator believe that he had before him genuine flesh and blood steeds in the views of hurdle leaping the simulation was still more admirable even to the motion of the tail as the animal gathered for the jump the raising of his head all were there the views of an ox trotting a wild bull on the charge greyhounds and deer running and birds flying in mid-air were shown also athletes in various positions close quote it must not be assumed from this statement that even as late as the work of mu-bridge anything like a true illusion of movement had been obtained because such was not the case mu-bridge secured only one cycle of movement because a separate camera had to be used for each photograph and consequently each cycle was reproduced over and over again to have made photographs of a trotting horse for one minute at the moderate rate of 12 per second would have required a mu-bridge scheme 720 separate cameras whereas with the modern art only a single camera is used a further defect with the mu-bridge pictures was that since each photograph was secured when the moving object was in the center of the plate the reproduction showed the object always centrally on the screen with arms or legs in violent movement but not making any progress and with the scenery rushing wildly across the field of view in the early 80s the dry plate was first introduced into general use and from that time onward its rapidity and quality were gradually improved so much so that after 1882 professor E. J. Mary French Academy who in 1874 had published a well-known treatise on animal movement was able by the use of dry plates to carry forward the experiments of mu-bridge on a greatly refined scale Mary was however handicapped by reason of the fact that glass plates were still used although he was able with a single camera he himself photographs on successive plates in the space of one second Mary, like mu-bridge photographed only one cycle of the movements of a single object which was subsequently reproduced over and over again and the camera was in the form of a gun which could follow the object so that the successive pictures would be always located at the center of the plates the review above given as briefly as possible comprises substantially the sum of the world's knowledge at the time the problem of recording and reproducing animate movement was first undertaken by Edison the most that could be said of the condition of the art when Edison entered the field was that it had been recognized that if a series of objects could be secured at an enormously high rate many times per second they might be passed before the eye either directly or by projection upon a screen and thereby result in a reproduction of the movements to very serious difficulties lay in the way of actual accomplishment however first the production of a sensitive surface in such form and weight as to be capable of being successively brought into position and exposed at the necessarily high rate and second the production of a camera capable of so taking the pictures there were numerous other workers in the field but they added nothing to what had already been proposed Edison himself knew nothing of Ducault or that the suggestions had advanced beyond the single centrally located photographs of Moley Bridge and Mary as a matter of public policy the law presumes that an inventor must be familiar with all that has gone before in the field within which he is working and if a suggestion is limited to a patent granted in New South Wales or is described in a single publication in Brazil an inventor in America engaged in the same field of thought is by legal fiction presumed to have knowledge not only of the existence of that patent or publication but of its contents we say this not in the way of an apology for the extent of Edison's contribution to the motion picture art there can be no question that he was as much the creator of that art as he was of the phonographic art but to show that in a practical sense the suggestion of the art itself was original with him he himself says in the year 1887 the idea occurred to me that it was possible to devise an instrument which should do for the eye and the ear and that by a combination of the two all motion and sound could be recorded and reproduced simultaneously this idea the germ of which came from the little toy called the zoetrope and the work of Mewbridge Mary and others has now been accomplished so that every change of facial expression and reproduced life size the kinetoscope is only a small model illustrating the present stage of the progress but with each succeeding month new possibilities are brought into view I believe that in coming years by my own work and that of Dixon Mewbridge Mary and others who will doubtless enter the field grand opera can be given at the Metropolitan Opera House at New York without any material change from the original and with artists and musicians long since dead end of quote in the earliest experiments attempts were made to secure the photographs reduced microscopically arranged spirally on a cylinder about the size of a phonograph record a highly sensitive surface the cylinder being given an intermittent movement so as to be at rest during each exposure reproductions were obtained in the same way positive prints being observed through a magnifying glass various forms of apparatus following this general type were made but they were all open to the serious objection the rapid emulsions employed were relatively coarse-grained and prevented the securing of sharp pictures of microscopic size on the other hand the enlarging of the apparatus to permit larger pictures to be obtained would present too much weight to be stopped and started with the requisite rapidity in these early experiments however it was recognized to secure proper results a single camera should be used so that the objects might move across its field just as they move across the field of the human eye and the important fact was also observed that the rate at which persistence of vision took place represented the minimum speed at which the pictures should be obtained if for instance 5 pictures per second were taken with time being occupied in exposure and the other half in moving the exposed portion of the film out of the field of the lens and bringing a new portion into its place and the same ratio is observed in exhibiting the pictures the interval of time between successive pictures would be one tenth of a second and for a normal eye such an exhibition would present a substantially continuous photograph if the angular movement of the object across the field is very slow as for instance a distant vessel the successive positions of the object are so nearly coincident that when reproduced before the eye an impression of smooth continuous movement is secured if however the object is moving rapidly across the field of view one picture will be separated from its successor to a marked extent and the resulting impression will be jerky and unnatural recognizing this fact Edison always sought for a very high speed so as to give smooth and natural reproductions and even with his experimental apparatus obtained upward of 48 pictures per second whereas in practice at the present time the accepted rate varies between 20 and 30 per second in the efforts of the present day to economize space by using a minimum length of film pictures are frequently taken at too slow a rate and the reproductions are therefore often objectionable by reason of more or less jerkiness during the experimental period and up to the early part of 1889 the Kodak film was being slowly developed by the Eastman Kodak Company Edison perceived in this product the solution of the problem on which he had been working because the film presented a very light body of tough material on which relatively large photographs could be taken at rapid intervals the surface however was not at first sufficiently sensitive to admit of sharply defined pictures being secured at the necessarily high rates it seemed apparent therefore that in order to obtain the desired speed there would have to be sacrificed that fineness of emulsion necessary for the securing of sharp pictures but as was subsequently seen this sacrifice was in time rendered unnecessary much credit is due the Eastman experts stimulated and encouraged by Edison but independently of him for the production at last of a highly sensitive fine grained emulsion presenting the highly sensitized surface that Edison sought having at last obtained apparently the proper material upon which to secure the photographs the problem then remained to devise an apparatus by means of which from 20 to 40 pictures per second could be taken the film being stationary during the exposure and upon the closing of the shutter being moved to present a fresh surface in connection with this problem it is interesting to note that this question of high speed was apparently regarded by all Edison's predecessors as the crucial point Ducos for example expended a great deal of useless ingenuity in devising a camera by means of which a tape line film could receive the photographs while being in continuous movement necessitating the use of a series of moving lenses another experimenter Dumont made use of a single large plate in a great number of lenses which were successively exposed Mewbridge as we have seen used a series of cameras one for each plate Mary was limited to very few photographs because the entire surface had to be stopped and started in connection with each exposure after the accomplishment of the fact it would seem to be the obvious thing to use a single lens and move the sensitized film with respect to it intermittently bringing the surface to rest then exposing it then cutting off the light and moving the surface to a fresh position but who other than Edison would assume that such a device could be made to repeat these movements over and over again at the rate of 20 to 40 per second users of Kodaks and other forms of film cameras will appreciate, perhaps better than others the difficulties of the problem because in their work after an exposure they have to advance the film forward painfully to the extent of the next picture before another exposure can take place these operations permitting of speeds of but a few pictures per minute at best Edison's solution of the problem involved the production of a Kodak in which from 20 to 40 pictures should be taken in each second and with such fineness of adjustment that each should exactly coincide with its predecessors even when subjected to the test of enlargement by projection this however was finally accomplished and in the summer of 1889 the first modern motion picture camera was made more than this the mechanism for operating the film was so constructed that the movement of the film took place in one tenth of the time required for the exposure giving the film an opportunity to come to rest prior to the opening of the shutter from that day to this the Edison camera has been the accepted standard for securing pictures of objects in motion and such changes as have been made in it have been purely in the nature of detailed mechanical refinements the earliest form of exhibiting apparatus known as the kinetoscope was a machine in which a positive print from the negative obtained in the camera was exhibited directly to the eye through a peephole but in 1895 the films were applied to modified forms of magic lanterns by which the images are projected upon a screen since that date the industry has developed very rapidly and at the present time 1910 all of the principal American manufacturers of motion pictures are paying a royalty to Edison under his basic patents from the early days of pictures representing simple movements such as a man sneezing or a skirt dance there has been a gradual evolution until now the pictures represent not only actual events in all their palpitating instantaneity but highly developed dramas and scenarios enacted in large well equipped glass studios and the result of infinite pains and expense of production these pictures are exhibited in upward of 8,000 places of amusement in the United States and are witnessed by millions of people each year they constitute a cheap, clean form of amusement for many persons who cannot spare the money to go to the ordinary theaters or they may be exhibited in towns that are too small to support a theater more than this they offer to the poor man an effective substitute for the saloon probably no invention ever made has afforded more pleasure and entertainment than the motion picture aside from the development of the motion picture as a spectacle there has gone on an evolution in its use for educational purposes of wide range which must not be overlooked in fact this form of utilization has been carried further in Europe and in this country as a means of demonstration in the arts and sciences one may study animal life watch a surgical operation follow the movement of machinery take lessons in facial expression or in calisthenics it seems a pity that in motion pictures should at last have been found the only competition that the ancient marionettes withstand but aside from the disappearance of those entertaining puppets all else is gained in the creation of this new art the work at the Edison laboratory in the development of the motion picture was as usual intense and concentrated and as might be expected many of the early experiments were quite primitive in their character until command had been secured relatively perfect apparatus the subjects registered jerkily by the films were crude and amusing such as of Fred Ott's sneeze Carmen Sita dancing Italians and their performing bears fencing, trapeze stunts horsemanship blacksmithing just simple movements of any attempt to portray the silent drama one curious incident of this early study occurred when Jim Corbett was asked to box a few rounds in front of the camera with a darken to be selected locally this was agreed to and a celebrated bruiser was brought over from Newark when this sparring partner came to face Corbett in the imitation ring he was so paralyzed with terror he could hardly move it was just after Corbett had won one of his biggest battles as a prize fighter and the dismay of his opponent was excusable the boys at the laboratory still laugh consumedly when they tell about it the first motion picture studio was dubbed by the staff the black Maria it was an unpretentious oblong wooden structure erected in the laboratory yard and had a movable roof in the central part this roof could be raised or lowered at will the building was covered with black roofing paper and was also painted black inside there was no scenery to render gay this legubrious environment but the black interior served as the common background for the performers throwing all their actions into high relief the whole structure was set on a pivot so that it could be swung around the sun and the movable roof was opened so that the accentuating sunlight could stream in upon the actor whose gesticulations were being caught by the camera these beginnings and crudities are very remote from the elaborate and expensive paraphernalia and machinery with which the art is furnished today at the present time the studios in which motion pictures are taken are expensive and pretentious affairs an immense building of glass with all the properties and stage settings of a regular theater is required the studio of the Edison Company cost at least $100,000 while the well-known house of Pate Freire in France one of Edison's licensees makes use of no fewer than seven of these glass theaters all of the larger producers of pictures in this country and abroad employ regular stock companies of actors selected especially for their skill in pantomime although as most observers have perhaps suspected in the actual taking of the pictures the performers are required to carry on and animate it and prepare dialogue with the same spirit and animation as on the regular stage before setting out on the preparation of a picture the book is first written known in the business as a scenario giving a complete statement as to the scenery, drops and background, and the sequence of events divided into scenes as in an ordinary play these are placed in the hands of a producer corresponding to a stage director generally an actor or a theatrical man of experience with a highly developed dramatic instinct the various actors are selected parts are assigned and the scene painters are set to work on the production of the desired scenery before the photographing of a scene a long series of rehearsals takes place the incidents being gone over and over again until the actors are letter perfect so persistent are the producers in the matter of rehearsals and the refining and elaboration of details that frequently a picture that may be actually photographed and reproduced in 15 minutes may require 2 or 3 weeks for its production after the rehearsal of a scene has advanced sufficiently to suit the critical requirements of the producer the cameraman is in requisition and he is consulted as to the lighting so as to produce the required photographic effect preferably of course sunlight is used whenever possible hence the glass studios but on dark days and when night work is necessary artificial light of enormous candle power is used either mercury arcs or ordinary arc lights of great size and number under all conditions light is properly screened and diffused to suit the critical eye of the cameraman all being in readiness the actual picture is taken the actors going through their rehearsed parts the producer standing out of the range of the camera and with a megaphone to his lips yelling out his instructions implications and approval and the cameraman grinding at the crank of the camera delivering the pictures at the rate of 20 or more per second making a faithful and permanent record of every movement and every change of facial expression at the end of the scene the negative is developed in the ordinary way and is then ready for use in the printing of the positives for sale when a further scene in the play takes place in the same setting and without regard to its position in the plot it is taken up rehearsed and photographed in the same way and afterward all the scenes are cemented together in the proper sequence and form the complete negative frequently therefore in the production of a motion picture play the first and the last scene may be taken successively the only thing necessary being of course that after all is done the various scenes should be arranged in their proper order the frames having served their purpose now go back to the scene painter for further use all pictures are not taken in studios because when light and weather permit and proper surroundings can be secured outside scenes can best be obtained with natural scenery city streets woods and fields the great drawback to the taking of pictures out of doors however is the inevitable crowd attracted by the novelty of the proceedings which make the cameraman's life a torment by getting into the field of his instrument the crowds are patient however and in one innocent picture involving the blowing up of a bridge by the villain of the piece and the substitution of a long bridge by a company of engineers just in time to allow the heroine to pass over in her automobile more than a thousand people stood around for almost an entire day waiting for the tedious rehearsals to end and the actual performance to begin frequently large bodies of men are used in pictures such as troops of soldiers and it is an open secret that for weeks the Boer war regularly equipped British and Boer armies confronted each other on the peaceful hills of Orange New Jersey ready to enact before the camera the stirring events told by the cable from the seat of hostilities these conflicts were essentially harmless except in one case during the battle of Spion Kopche when General Cronje in his efforts to fire a wooden cannon inadvertently dropped his fuse into a large glass bottle containing gunpowder the effect was certainly most dramatic and created great enthusiasm among the many audiences which viewed the completed production the unfortunate general who is still an employee was taken to the hospital and even now 12 years afterward he says with a grin that whenever he has a moment of leisure he takes the time to pick a few pieces of glass from his person Edison's great contribution to the regular stage was the incandescent electric lamp which enabled the production of scenic effects never before even dreamed of but which we accept now with so much complacency yet with the motion picture effects are secured that could not be reproduced to the slightest extent on the real stage the villain overcome by a remorseful conscience sees on the wall of the room the very crime which he committed with himself as the principal actor one of the easy effects of double exposure the substantial and off-times corpulent ghost or spirit of the real stage has been succeeded by an intangible wraith as transparent and unsubstantial as may be demanded in the best book of fairy tales more double exposure a man emerges from the water with a splash ascends feet foremost ten yards or more makes a graceful curve and lands on a springboard runs down it to the bank and his clothes fly gently up from the ground and enclose his person all unthinkable in real life but readily possible by running the motion picture film backward the fairy prince commands the princess to appear consigns the bad brothers to instant annihilation turns the witch into a cat confers life on inanimate things and many more startling and apparently incomprehensible effects are carried out with actual reality by stock work photography in one case when the command for the heroine to come forth is given the camera is stopped the young woman walks to the desired spot and the camera is again started the effect to the eye not knowing of this little byplay is as if she had instantly appeared from space the other effects are perhaps obvious and the field and opportunities are absolutely unlimited other curious effects are secured by taking the pictures at a different speed from that at which they are exhibited if for example a scene occupying 30 seconds is reproduced in 10 seconds the movements will be three times as fast and vice versa many scenes familiar to the reader showing automobiles tearing along the road and rounding corners at an apparently reckless speed really pictures of slow and dignified movements reproduced at a high speed brief reference has been made to motion pictures of educational subjects and in this field there are very great opportunities for development the study of geography scenes and incidents in foreign countries showing the lives and customs and surroundings of other peoples is obviously more entertaining to the child when actively depicted on the screen than when merely described in words the lives of great men the enacting of important historical events the reproduction of great works of literature if visually presented to the child must necessarily impress his mind with greater force than if shown by mere words we predict that the time is not far distant when in many of our public schools two or three hours a week will be devoted to this rational and effective form of education by applying micro photography to motion pictures an additional field is opened up one phase of which may be a study of germ life and bacteria so that our future medical students may become as familiar with the habits and customs of the anthrax bacillus for example as of the domestic cat from whatever point of view the subject is approached the fact remains that in the motion picture perhaps more than with any other invention Edison has created an art that must always make a special appeal to the mind and emotions of men and although so far it has not advanced much beyond the field of amusement it contains enormous possibilities for serious development in the future let us not think too lightly of the humble five cent theater with its gaping crowd following with breathless interest the vicissitudes of the beautiful heroine before us lies an undeveloped land of opportunity which is destined to play an important part in the growth and welfare of the human race end of chapter 21 read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California for LibriVox 2008