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57-693: R. W. Paul presented Britain's second film projector , and the first commercially produced 35mm projector, the Theatrograph, on 20 February 1896. It was first demonstrated at Finsbury Technical College. The use of Paul's Theatrograph in music halls up and down the country popularised early cinema in Britain. It was first revealed to the public at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly , London . Carl Hertz sailed from England on 28 March 1896 aboard

114-422: A "changeover douser" or "changeover shutter"). Some projectors have a third, mechanically controlled douser that automatically closes when the projector slows down (called a "fire shutter" or "fire douser"), to protect the film if the projector stops while the first douser is still open. Dousers protect the film when the lamp is on but the film is not moving, preventing the film from melting from prolonged exposure to

171-481: A camera shooting speed – was inadvisable for projection, due to the risk of the nitrate -base prints catching fire in the projector. Nitrate film stock began to be replaced by cellulose triacetate in 1948. A nitrate film fire and its devastating effect is featured in Cinema Paradiso (1988), a fictional film which partly revolves around a projectionist and his apprentice. The birth of sound film created

228-402: A certain speed (the feed reel rotates faster as the film is exhausted), or based on the diameter of the remaining film (Premier Changeover Indicator Pat. No. 411992), although many projectors do not have such an auditory system. During the initial operation of a changeover, the two projectors use an interconnected electrical control connected to the changeover button so that as soon as the button

285-407: A combination of motion detectors, detail detectors and pattern detectors, the outputs of all of which are combined to create the visual experience. The frequency at which flicker becomes invisible is called the flicker fusion threshold , and is dependent on the level of illumination and the condition of the eyes of the viewer. Generally, the frame rate of 16 frames per second (frame/s) is regarded as

342-564: A definitive system, Le Prince eventually seemed satisfied with the result and had a demonstration screening scheduled in New York in 1890. However, he went missing after boarding a train in France and was declared dead in 1897. His widow and son managed to draw attention to Le Prince's work and eventually he came to be regarded as the true inventor of film (a claim also made for many others). After years of development, Edison eventually introduced

399-409: A flicker-rate of two times (48 Hz) or even sometimes three times (72 Hz) the frame rate of the film, so as to reduce the perception of screen flickering. (See Frame rate and Flicker fusion threshold .) Higher rate shutters are less light efficient, requiring more powerful light sources for the same light on screen. A projection objective with multiple optical elements directs the image of

456-522: A light source to help direct as much light as possible through a painted glass picture slide and a lens, out of the lantern onto a screen. Simple mechanics to have the painted images moving were probably implemented since Christiaan Huygens introduced the apparatus around 1659. Initially candles and oil lamps were used, but other light sources, such as the argand lamp and limelight were usually adopted soon after their introduction. Magic lantern presentations may often have had relatively small audiences, but

513-643: A minimum amount of 35 mm film from Kodak . The decision ensured that Kodak's 35 mm film production would continue for several years. Although usually more expensive than film projectors, high-resolution digital projectors offer many advantages over traditional film units. For example, digital projectors contain no moving parts except fans, can be operated remotely, are relatively compact and have no film to break, scratch or change reels of. They also allow for much easier, less expensive, and more reliable storage and distribution of content. All-electronic distribution eliminates all physical media shipments. There

570-440: A need for a steady playback rate to prevent dialog and music from changing pitch and distracting the audience. Virtually all film projectors in commercial movie theaters project at a constant speed of 24 frame/s. This speed was chosen for both financial and technical reasons. A higher frame rate produces a better looking picture, but costs more as film stock is consumed faster. When Warner Bros. and Western Electric were trying to find

627-600: A new camera in 1889 but never seems to have been successful in projecting his movies. Eadweard Muybridge developed his Zoopraxiscope in 1879 and gave many lectures with the machine from 1880 to 1894. It projected images from rotating glass disks. The images were initially painted onto the glass, as silhouettes. A second series of discs, made in 1892–94, used outline drawings printed onto the discs photographically, then colored by hand. Ottomar Anschütz developed his first Electrotachyscope in 1886. For each scene, 24 glass plates with chronophotographic images were attached to

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684-399: A safe voltage under 36V AC and is viewable from both sides. In a commercial theater, the screen also has millions of very small, evenly spaced holes in order to allow the passage of sound from the speakers and subwoofer which often are directly behind it. In the two-reel system the projector has two reels–one is the feed reel, which holds the part of the film that has not been shown, the other

741-422: A short subject (a newsreel, short documentary, a "2-reeler," etc.), a cartoon, and the feature. Some theaters would have movie-based commercials for local businesses, and the state of New Jersey required showing a diagram of the theater showing all of the exits. Because a single film reel does not contain enough film to show an entire feature, the film is distributed on multiple reels. To prevent having to interrupt

798-685: A tour to several large European cities for over a year. His Phantaskop had a front with separate lenses for each of the 12 pictures on a disc and two separate lenses were cranked around to direct light through the pictures. Wordsworth Donisthorpe patented ideas for a cinematographic film camera and a film presentation system in 1876. In reply to the introduction of the phonograph and a magazine's suggestion that it could be combined with projection of stereoscopic photography, Donisthorpe stated that he could do even better and announce that he would present such images in motion. His original Kinesigraph camera gave unsatisfactory results. He had better results with

855-405: Is also the ability to display live broadcasts in theaters equipped to do so. The illusion of motion in projected films is a stroboscopic effect that has been traditionally been attributed to persistence of vision and later often to (misinterpretations of) beta movement and/or the phi phenomenon known from Gestalt psychology . The exact neurological principles are not yet entirely clear, but

912-401: Is pressed, the changeover douser on the outgoing projector is closed in sync with the changeover douser on the incoming projector opening. If done properly, a changeover should be virtually unnoticeable to an audience. In older theaters, there may be manually operated, sliding covers in front of the projection booth's windows. A changeover with this system is often clearly visible as a wipe on

969-427: Is the takeup reel, which winds the film that has been shown. In a two-reel projector the feed reel has a slight drag to maintain tension on the film, while the takeup reel is constantly driven with a mechanism that has mechanical 'slip,' to allow the film to be wound under constant tension so the film is wound in a smooth manner. The film being wound on the takeup reel is being wound "head in, tails out." This means that

1026-744: The Royal Mail Ship RMS ; Norman and during the voyage exhibited Paul's Theatrograph to the passengers. He also exhibited films in South Africa and Australia . The screenings in South Africa were the first public screenings of moving pictures in that country. After Australia, Hertz took the Theatrograph to Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ), India , China , Japan , the Fiji Islands , and Hawaii . George Melies purchased one of Paul's theatrographs in 1896. The Theatrograph

1083-420: The "START" in the gate of the projector. When the first cue is seen, the motor of the starting projector is started. Seven seconds later the end of the leader and start of program material on the new reel should just reach the gate of the projector when the changeover cue is seen. On some projectors, the operator would be alerted to the time for a change by a bell that operated when the feed reel rotation exceeded

1140-418: The beginning (or "head") of the reel is in the center, where it is inaccessible. As each reel is taken off of the projector, it must be re-wound onto another empty reel. In a theater setting there is often a separate machine for rewinding reels. For the 16 mm projectors that were often used in schools and churches, the projector could be re-configured to rewind films. The size of the reels can vary based on

1197-451: The bulky, heavy film reels. (35mm reels as received by theaters came unrewound; rewinding was the task of the operator who received the reel.). The two-reel system, using two identical projectors, was used almost universally for movie theaters before the advent of the single-reel system. Projectors were built that could accommodate a much larger reel, containing an entire feature. Although one-reel long-play systems tend to be more popular with

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1254-513: The coin-operated peep-box Kinetoscope movie viewer in 1893, mostly in dedicated parlours. He believed this was a commercially much more viable system than projection in theatres. Many other film pioneers found chances to study the technology of the kinetoscope and further developed it for their own movie projection systems. The Eidoloscope , devised by Eugene Augustin Lauste for the Latham family,

1311-422: The condensing lens. A positive curvature lens concentrates the reflected and direct light toward the film gate. (Also spelled dowser.) A metal or asbestos blade which cuts off light before it can get to the film. The douser is usually part of the lamphouse, and may be manually or automatically operated. Some projectors have a second, electrically controlled douser that is used for changeovers (sometimes called

1368-423: The direct heat of the lamp. It also prevents the lens from scarring or cracking from excessive heat. If a roll of film is continuously passed between the light source and the lens of the projector, only a continuous blurred series of images sliding from one edge to the other would be visible on the screen. In order to see an apparently moving clear picture, the moving film must be stopped and held still briefly while

1425-416: The early Laurel & Hardy, 3 Stooges, and other comedies), and "features," which can take any number of reels (although most are limited to 1½ to 2 hours in length, enabling the theater to have multiple showings throughout the day and evening, each showing with a feature, commercials, and intermission to allow the audiences to change). In the "old days" (i.e., ca. 1930–1960), "going to the movies" meant seeing

1482-493: The edge of a large rotating wheel and thrown on a small opal-glass screen by very short synchronized flashes from a Geissler tube . He demonstrated his photographic motion from March 1887 until at least January 1890 to circa 4 or 5 people at a time, in Berlin, other large German cities, Brussels (at the 1888 Exposition Universelle), Florence, Saint Petersburg, New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Between 1890 and 1894 he concentrated on

1539-521: The exploitation of an automatic coin-operated version that was an inspiration for Edison Company's Kinetoscope . From 28 November 1894 to at least May 1895 he projected his recordings from two intermittently rotating discs, mostly in 300-seat halls, in several German cities. During circa 5 weeks of screenings at the old Berlin Reichstag in February and March 1895, circa 7.000 paying visitors came to see

1596-437: The film is advanced less than one full frame in order to reduce the unexposed area between frames. This method requires a special intermittent mechanism in all film handling equipment throughout the production process, from the camera to the projector. This is costly, and prohibitively so for some theaters. The anamorphic format uses special optics to squeeze a high aspect ratio image onto a standard Academy frame thus eliminating

1653-428: The film to a viewing screen. Projector lenses differ in aperture and focal length to suit different needs. Different lenses are used for different aspect ratios. One way that aspect ratios are set is with the appropriate aperture plate, a piece of metal with a precisely cut rectangular hole in the middle of equivalent aspect ratio. The aperture plate is placed just behind the gate, and masks off any light from hitting

1710-594: The ideal compromise projection speed for the new sound pictures, Western Electric went to the Warner Theater in Los Angeles, and noted the average speed at which films were projected there. They set that as the sound speed at which a satisfactory reproduction and amplification of sound could be conducted. There are some specialist formats (e.g. Showscan and Maxivision ) which project at higher rates—60 frames/sec for Showscan and 48 for Maxivision. The Hobbit

1767-415: The illusion of one full frame being replaced exactly on top of another full frame. The gate holds the film still while the shutter is open. A rotating petal or gated cylindrical shutter interrupts the emitted light during the time the film is advanced to the next frame. The viewer does not see the transition, thus tricking the brain into believing a moving image is on screen. Modern shutters are designed with

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1824-414: The image outside of the area intended to be shown. All films, even those in the standard Academy ratio, have extra image on the frame that is meant to be masked off in the projection. Using an aperture plate to accomplish a wider aspect ratio is inherently wasteful of film, as a portion of the standard frame is unused. One solution that presents itself at certain aspect ratios is the "2-perf" pulldown, where

1881-648: The images at the time had visible pixels. By 2006, the advent of much higher 4K resolution digital projection reduced pixel visibility. The systems became more compact over time. By 2009, movie theatres started replacing film projectors with digital projectors. In 2013, it was estimated that 92% of movie theaters in the United States had converted to digital, with 8% still playing film. In 2014, numerous popular filmmakers—including Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan —lobbied large studios to commit to purchase

1938-503: The late 1960s, carbon arc lamps were the source of light in almost all theaters in the world. The Xenon arc lamp was introduced in Germany in 1957 and in the US in 1963. After film platters became commonplace in the 1970s, Xenon lamps became the most common light source, as they could stay lit for extended periods of time, whereas a carbon rod used for a carbon arc could last for an hour at

1995-425: The lowest frequency at which continuous motion is perceived by humans. This threshold varies across different species; a higher proportion of rod cells in the retina will create a higher threshold level. Because the eye and brain have no fixed capture rate, this is an elastic limit, so different viewers can be more or less sensitive in perceiving frame rates. It is possible to view the black space between frames and

2052-465: The most. Most lamp houses in a professional theatrical setting produce sufficient heat to burn the film should the film remain stationary for more than a fraction of a second. Because of this, absolute care must be taken in inspecting a film so that it should not break in the gate and be damaged, particularly necessary in the era when flammable cellulose nitrate film stock was in use. A curved reflector redirects light that would otherwise be wasted toward

2109-536: The need to change the costly precision moving parts of the intermittent mechanisms. A special anamorphic lens is used on the camera to compress the image, and a corresponding lens on the projector to expand the image back to the intended aspect ratio. In most cases this is a reflective surface which may be either aluminized (for high contrast in moderate ambient light) or a white surface with small glass beads (for high brilliance under dark conditions). A switchable projection screen can be switched between opaque and clear by

2166-409: The newer multiplexes, the two-reel system is still in significant use to this day. As the reel being shown approaches its end, the projectionist looks for cue marks at the upper-right corner of the picture. Usually these are dots or circles, although they can also be slashes. Some older films occasionally used squares or triangles, and sometimes positioned the cues in the middle of the right edge of

2223-406: The next image. The intermittent mechanism advances the film within the gate to the next frame while the shutter is closed. Registration pins prevent the film from advancing while the shutter is open. In most cases the registration of the frame can be manually adjusted by the projectionist, and more sophisticated projectors can maintain registration automatically. It is the gate and shutter that gives

2280-545: The passing of the shutter by rapidly blinking ones eyes at a certain rate. If done fast enough, the viewer will be able to randomly "trap" the darkness between frames, or the motion of the shutter. This will not work with (now obsolete) cathode-ray tube displays, due to the persistence of the phosphors, nor with LCD or DLP light projectors, because they refresh the image instantly with no blackout intervals as with traditional film projectors. Silent films usually were not projected at constant speeds, but could vary throughout

2337-537: The paying public, beginning the general conversion of the medium to projection. They quickly became Europe's main producers with their actualités like Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory and comic vignettes like The Sprinkler Sprinkled (both 1895). Even Edison, joined the trend with the Vitascope , a modified Jenkins' Phantoscope, within less than six months. In the 1910s a new consumer commodity

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2394-422: The picture. The first cue appears twelve feet (3.7 metres) before the end of the program on the reel, equivalent to eight seconds at the standard speed of 24 frames per second. This cue signals the projectionist to start the motor of the projector containing the next reel. After another ten and a half feet (3.2 m) of film is shown (seven seconds at 24 frames/sec), the changeover cue should appear, which signals

2451-407: The projectionist to actually make the changeover. When this second cue appears, the projectionist has one and a half feet (460 mm), or one second, to make the changeover. If it does not occur within one second, the film will end and blank white light will be projected on the screen. Twelve feet before the "first frame of action," countdown leaders have a "START" frame. The projectionist positions

2508-812: The projectors, but generally films are divided and distributed in reels of up to 2,000 feet (610 metres), about 22 minutes at 24 frames/sec). Some projectors can even accommodate up to 6,000 feet (1,800 metres), which minimizes the number of changeovers (see below) in a showing. Certain countries also divide their film reels up differently; Russian films, for example, often come on 1,000-foot (300 m) reels, although it's likely that most projectionists working with changeovers would combine them into longer reels of at least 2,000 feet (610 metres), to minimize changeovers and also give sufficient time for threading and any possibly needed troubleshooting time. Films are identified as "short subjects," taking one reel or less of film, "two-reelers," requiring two reels of film (such as some of

2565-534: The rest of the show. When the projectionist removes a finished reel from the projector it is "tails out," and needs to be rewound before the next show. The projectionist usually uses a separate rewind machine and a spare empty reel, and rewinds the film so it is "head out," ready to project again for the next show. Electrotachyscope Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

2622-408: The retina, nerves and/or brain create the impression of apparent movement when presented with a rapid sequence of near-identical still images and interruptions that go unnoticed (or are experienced as flicker). A critical part of understanding this visual perception phenomenon is that the eye is not a camera , i.e.: there is no frame rate for the human eye or brain. Instead, the eye/brain system has

2679-421: The screen. Once the changeover has been made, the projectionist unloads the full takeup reel from projector "A," moves the now-empty reel (that used to hold the film just unloaded) from the feed spindle to the takeup spindle, and loads reel #3 of the presentation on projector "A." When reel 2 on projector "B" is finished, the changeover switches the live show from projector "B" back to projector "A," and so on for

2736-736: The second presentation of the Cinématographe Lumière in Paris on 28 December 1895, they seemed to choose not to compete. They still presented their motion pictures in several European cities until March 1897, but eventually the Bioscop had to be retired as a commercial failure. In Lyon , Louis and Auguste Lumière perfected the Cinématographe , a system that took, printed, and projected film. In late 1895 in Paris, father Antoine Lumière began exhibitions of projected films before

2793-423: The show because projectors were hand-cranked at the discretion of the projectionist, often following some notes provided by the distributor. When the electric motor supplanted hand cranking in both movie cameras and projectors, a more uniform frame rate became possible. Speeds ranged from about 18 frame/s on up – sometimes even faster than modern sound film speed (24 frame/s). 16 frame/s – though sometimes used as

2850-403: The show when one reel ends and the next is mounted, two projectors are used in what is known as a "changeover system". A human would, at the appropriate point, manually stop the first projector, shutting off its light, and start the second projector, which the projectionist had ready and waiting. Later the switching was partially automated, although the projectionist still needed to rewind and mount

2907-454: The show. In 1886 Louis Le Prince applied for a US patent for a 16-lens device that combined a motion picture camera with a projector. In 1888, he used an updated version of his camera to film the motion picture Roundhay Garden Scene and other scenes. The pictures were privately exhibited in Hunslet . After investing much time, effort and means in a slow and troublesome development of

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2964-407: The shutter opens and closes. The gate is where the film is held still prior to the opening of the shutter. This is the case for both filming and projecting movies. A single image of the series of images comprising the movie is positioned and held flat within the gate. The gate also provides a slight amount of friction so that the film does not advance or retreat except when driven to advance the film to

3021-627: The very popular phantasmagoria and dissolving views shows were usually performed in proper theatres, large tents or especially converted spaces with plenty seats. Both Joseph Plateau and Simon Stampfer thought of lantern projection when they independently introduced stroboscopic animation in 1833 with a stroboscopic disc (which became known as the phenakistiscope ), but neither of them intended to work on projection themselves. The oldest known successful screenings of stroboscopic animation were performed by Ludwig Döbler in 1847 in Vienna and taken on

3078-483: Was also known as the Animatograph. This film technology article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Movie projector Many projectors are specific to a particular film gauge and not all movie projectors are film projectors since the use of film is required. The main precursor to the movie projector was the magic lantern . In its most common setup it had a concave mirror behind

3135-546: Was demonstrated for members of the press on 21 April 1895 and opened to the paying public on May 20, in a lower Broadway store with films of the Griffo-Barnett prize boxing fight, taken from Madison Square Garden 's roof on 4 May. It was the first commercial projection. Max and Emil Skladanowsky projected motion pictures with their Bioscop , a flickerfree duplex construction, from 1 to 31 November 1895. They started to tour with their motion pictures, but after catching

3192-501: Was introduced aiming at familial activity, the silent home cinema. Hand-cranked tinplate toy movie projectors, also called vintage projectors, were used taking standard 35 mm 8 perforation silent cinema films. In 1999, digital cinema projectors were being tried out in some movie theaters. These early projectors played the movie stored on a computer, and sent to the projector electronically. Due to their relatively low resolution (usually only 2K ) compared to later digital cinema systems,

3249-413: Was shot at 48 frames/sec and projected at the higher frame rate at specially equipped theaters. Each frame of regular 24 fps movies are shown twice or more in a process called "double-shuttering" to reduce flicker. As in a slide projector there are essential optical elements: Incandescent lighting and even limelight were the first light sources used in film projection. In the early 1900s up until

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