frame
The
Mutoscope was an early
motion pictureFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
device, patented by
Herman CaslerHerman Casler — American inventor , was co-founder of the partnership called the K.M.C.D. Syndicate, along with W.K-L...
on November 21, 1894. Like
Thomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb...
's
KinetoscopeThe Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...
it did not project on a screen, and provided viewing to only one person at a time. Cheaper and simpler than the
KinetoscopeThe Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...
, the system—marketed by the American Mutoscope Company (later the
American Mutoscope and Biograph CompanyThe American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short...
)—quickly dominated the coin-in-the-slot "
peep-showA peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. This may or may not be a sex show, although the latter kind has eventually become the most common usage of the term since the advent of cinema and television, which largely...
" business.
The Mutoscope worked on the same principle as the "
flip bookA flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change...
." The individual image frames were conventional black-and-white, silver-based photographic prints on tough, flexible opaque cards.
frame
The
Mutoscope was an early
motion pictureFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
device, patented by
Herman CaslerHerman Casler — American inventor , was co-founder of the partnership called the K.M.C.D. Syndicate, along with W.K-L...
on November 21, 1894. Like
Thomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb...
's
KinetoscopeThe Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...
it did not project on a screen, and provided viewing to only one person at a time. Cheaper and simpler than the
KinetoscopeThe Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...
, the system—marketed by the American Mutoscope Company (later the
American Mutoscope and Biograph CompanyThe American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short...
)—quickly dominated the coin-in-the-slot "
peep-showA peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. This may or may not be a sex show, although the latter kind has eventually become the most common usage of the term since the advent of cinema and television, which largely...
" business.
The Mutoscope worked on the same principle as the "
flip bookA flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change...
." The individual image frames were conventional black-and-white, silver-based photographic prints on tough, flexible opaque cards. Rather than being bound into a booklet, the cards were attached to a circular core, rather like a huge
RolodexA Rolodex is a rotating file device used to store business contact information currently manufactured by Newell Rubbermaid. The Rolodex holds specially shaped index cards; the user writes the contact information for one person or company on each card...
. A reel typically held about 850 cards, giving a viewing time of about a minute. The reel with cards attached had a total diameter of about ten inches (25 cm); the individual cards had dimensions of about 2-3/4" x 1-7/8" (7 cm x 4.75 cm).
Mutoscopes were coin-operated. The patron viewed the cards through a single lens enclosed by a hood, similar to the viewing hood of a stereoscope. The cards were generally lit electrically, but the reel was driven by means of a geared-down hand crank. Each machine held only a single reel and was dedicated to the presentation of a single short subject, described by a poster affixed to the machine.
The patron could control the presentation speed only to a limited degree. The crank can be turned in both directions, but this does not reverse the playing of the reel. Nor could the patron extend viewing time by stopping the crank because the flexible images were bent into the proper viewing position by tension applied from forward cranking. Stopping the crank reduced the forward tension on the reels causing the reel to go backwards and the picture to move from the viewing position; a spring in the mechanism turned off the light and in some models brought down a shutter which completely blocked out the picture.
Mutoscopes were originally manufactured from 1895 to 1909 by the
American Mutoscope and Biograph CompanyThe American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short...
, or its
licenseeThe verb license or grant license means to give permission. The noun license refers to that permission as well as to the document memorializing that permission. License may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement between those parties...
Marvin & Casler Co., formed by two of American Mutoscope's founders. In the 1920s the Mutoscope was licensed to William Rabkin who started his own company, the
International Mutoscope Reel CompanyThe International Mutoscope Reel Company was formed in the early 1920's to produce Mutoscope machines and the motion picture reels that the machines played, and continued to manufacture arcade machines, including the claw machine, until 1949.-History:...
, which manufactured new reels and also machines from 1926 until 1949. The term "Mutoscope" is no longer a registered trademark in the United States.
Mutoscopes were a popular feature of
amusement arcadesA penny arcade can be any type of venue for coin-operated devices, usually for entertainment. This included early forms of pinball and fortune-telling machinery of the 1930s and Slot machines. Vending machines may also be considered in this category...
and pleasure piers in the UK until the introduction of
decimal coinageIn the management of currencies, decimalisation is the process of converting from traditional denominations to a "decimal" system, usually with two units differing by a factor of one hundred....
in 1971 made the mechanisms obsolete. The typical arcade installation included multiple machines offering a mixture of fare. Both in the early days and during the revival, that mixture usually included "girlie" reels which ran the gamut from risqué to outright soft-core pornography. It was, however, common for these reels to have suggestive titles that implied more than the reel actually delivered. The title of one such reel,
What the Butler Saw, became a by-word, and Mutoscopes are commonly known in England as "What-the-Butler-Saw machines." (What the butler saw, presumably through a keyhole, was a woman partially disrobing.)
In 1899
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
printed a letter inveighing against "vicious demoralising picture shows in the penny-in-the-slot machines. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the corruption of the young that comes from exhibiting under a strong light, nude female figures represented as living and moving, going into and out of baths, sitting as artists' models etc. Similar exhibitions took place at Rhyl in the men's lavatory, but, owing to public denunciation, they have been stopped."
A collector's site describes the contents of one such reel, "Birth of the Pearl" which "pictures a nude woman rising from a seashell and standing." The site notes "this reel has some damage to a whole chunk of photos. They are all in a section where there was full frontal nudity and the cards are quite worn off."
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