Season 2023 - Talk 11 04- Going to the Pictures

In 'Going to the Pictures' Tim Davies tells us about the history of the projected image in the 'silent era'.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

The Magic Lantern:
The talk starts in the age of the Magic Lantern. These project pictures such as paintings, prints and photographs. The slides are usually transparent glass plates. First appearing in the 17th century they are often used for entertainment by travelling showmen, conjurers and storytellers.

In the 17th century the only artificial light is from candles and oil lamps giving very dim projected images. By the 1820s we start to see the much brighter Limelight and then in the 1860s the electric arc lamp, which removes the need for combustible gases and hazardous chemicals.

The magic lantern can project moving images with movement achieved in a number of ways such as two glass slides projected together. One has the stationary part of the picture and the other the moving part, maybe a train passing through a landscape.

What the Butler saw:

The Mutoscope is an early motion picture device appearing in 1895. It is a coin-in-the-slot peep-show which only one person at a time can view. It operates like a flip book with black-and-white prints attached to a circular core. A reel typically holds about 850 pictures, giving a viewing time of about one minute

The Birth of the Cinema in Britain:

Leeds claims the world's first moving picture shot by Louis Le Prince in 1888. In 1889 and William Friese Greene makes the first celluloid film in Hyde Park.

Listen to the podcast and hear the whole story from Tim.

Unfortunately I have not been able to remove all the external noises.
About this podcast:
This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History  Group .

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music,  Apple Podcasts,  Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.

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