Few businesses have had a more spectacular rise than the motion-picture industry. It may be true that there are other industries of recent growth that are more highly capitalized than the motion-picture business. I shall not make any comparisons nor look up statistics, but will present some facts about an enterprise that, scientifically, industrially and commercially, is one of the great wonders of the world.

It is fair to estimate that more than $375,000,000 is invested in this business in the United States. It looks like an exaggeration or as if the typesetter had slipped in several extra ciphers by mistake, does it not? Nevertheless, the estimate is said to be extremely conservative. In the first place, it concerns every branch of the business, of which there are five. Taken in their natural order there are: 1. The manufacture of motion-picture cameras. 2. The manufacture of films. 3. The taking of the pictures. 4. The manufacture of the projecting machines. 5. The exhibition of the pictures.

The projecting machine is the subject of this story. One sees very little about it in the newspapers and popular magazines, in spite of the fact that it is the keystone, so to speak, of the motion-picture industry. Of the entire business, in all its ramifications, this machine is the most important not only from a technical standpoint, but as regards both the pleasure and safety of the public. Here, again, a great deal of money is invested. Its manufacture involves costly and highly specialized machinery, the most intelligent of mechanics and the constant thought and endeavor of the men at the head of the business.

The advancement in the manufacture of motion-picture projecting machines from the start has been along two avenues - to secure better projection, a sharper, clearer and steadier picture, and to eliminate the danger of fire resultant from the ignition of combustible film. Experts have watched and studied the picture machine through all its stages of development. For seventeen years they have slowly improved the machine and brought it to its present high state of mechanical perfection. The development of the fireproof magazine, the automatic fire-shutter, the loop-setter, flame shields and the famous intermittent movement have all been vital factors in the elimination of fire and also in securing perfect projection. The oldest invention was patented by W. E. Lincoln on April 23, 1867. The contrivance was a mere toy, employing no light and being merely a little machine which, when revolved, gave figures, printed in different positions, the semblance of motion. The second oldest was of an "optical instrument" patented by O. B. Brown on August 10, 1869. This was really the first American motion-picture projection machine. There was a sort of disk or moving-shutter movement which, on revolving, gave projected objects the appearance of animation. Of course, there were no films in those days and the inventor had used translucent glass to obtain the results. Yet here was the germ of our native modern machine.

A well-known moving-picture projecting machine manufacturer tells the following story: "A bet was made in 1871 by the late Senator Leland Stanford, of California, that a running horse at no time had all four feet off the ground. Edward Muybridge, an Englishman, by way of experiment, placed numerous cameras at regular intervals about the track, which, by electrical contact, were snapped by the horse in passing.

* Illustrations by courtesy of the Nicholas Power Co.

The Latest Motion-Picture Projecting Machine.

It proved that the horse always had, when running, one foot on the ground. Although this was not the first record of motion pictures, it served to demonstrate their practicability.

"Development had dragged until the

Muybridge experiment. In 1880 Muybridge produced, in San Francisco, the 'Zoopraxiscope,' which projected pictures (on glass positives) on a screen. Later Muybridge conferred with Edison regarding a combination of his machine with the phonograph, then in its infancy; about 1883 he went abroad and held frequent conferences with M. Marey of the Institute of France

"Marey first utilized' the continuous film, though it was George Eastman who brought it to its present state of high perfection. A great deal of the tremendous present popularity of motion pictures is due to the invention of the translucent film. The early kodak film became the great factor in the cinematograph manufacture.

"In 1893 Lumiere produced the 'Cinematograph,' the first machine to project from a film. Edison in 1896 produced his

' Vitascope.' These machines became the models of the greatly improved article of today.

"The first real machine was brought to America in 1894. At least, that is as near as I can recollect the date. It was a Lumiere cinematograph and was exhibited at the Union Square Theater, New York City. The French manufacturing firm instructed J. B. Cole & Co. to furnish an operator. The Cole Company was interested in the sale of lanterns and slides and the foreign firm naturally turned to them for assistance.

"They furnished an operator, Edward Hadley. Although he had never seen a motion-picture machine, Hadley was a man who had been in their employ and was naturally familiar with lanterns and electricity. To the best of my belief, Hadley was the first motion-picture operator in America. • He afterwards became the operator for Lyman H. Howe, the well-known pioneer traveling motion-picture exhibitor, and later became an exhibitor himself.

"The films then had one perforation on either side of each picture. That was the French method. The American method of four perforations on either side of each picture, formulated by the standard in America and finally throughout the world. We find no more single-holed films."