Magic Shadows: The Story of the Origin of Motion PicturesQuigley, Martin
History
Magic Shadows: The Story of the Origin of Motion Pictures
Quigley, Martin
Lantern projection; Motion pictures -- History
A re-examination of the Latin text of Lucretius leaves no doubt
whatsoever that Plateau was correct and Lucretius was writing about
dreams and not the first movie device. The lines of Lucretius talk
about images, the imagination and dreams. Dr. Sinsteden and others
in the 19th century who believed that Lucretius was describing an
instrument were confused by failing to understand his words and
confusing his theory of vision with an actual piece of apparatus and
its effects. It was a simple mistake and accounts for Lucretius’
recorded connection with the origin of the motion picture which has
been repeated in many books.
A few years before his death Plateau published a complete, annotated
bibliography of works on vision from the earliest time to his own day.
He started with Aristotle and followed the entire historical trail.
About 100 years before his own experiments, the first efforts to
measure the persistence of vision were made. All the many years he was
blind he was most interested in light, color, vision, the illusion of
motion and related phenomena. Plateau regularly attended scientific
meetings and his fame was well known throughout the scientific world.
He was well known for his religious devotion and piety.
Plateau, honored by his scientific colleagues and the Belgian
Government, died at Ghent on September 15, 1883, a few years before the
motion picture was presented to the public and acclaimed throughout
the world. The art science of magic shadows had made great progress
under this Belgian who was endowed with rare talent and an indomitable
spirit.
_XII_
THE BARON’S PROJECTOR
_First impact of war on magic
shadows--General Uchatius invents a
projector combining Kircher’s magic
lantern and the Plateau-Stampfer picture
disks--Motion pictures reach the screen._
The first man to combine Kircher’s magic lantern and the
Plateau-Stampfer disk and thereby achieve moving images on a screen
visible to an audience was Baron General Franz von Uchatius. A type of
bronze was named for this Austrian ballistic expert but, though his
machine was the pattern for motion picture projectors until the advent
of film at the end of the century, his name was not linked with the
device. With Uchatius also came the first impact of projected pictures
on the science of war. From these small beginnings, in less than a
century, the motion picture--in our day--became a great weapon of
psychological warfare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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