Mutoscope

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Earliest known version of mutoscope, from the Scientific American, April 17, 1897 (Keim 10).

Technology

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A later version of the mutoscope was encased in steel so that it could not be carried away, c. 1900 (Keim 11).

The design of the mutoscope was motivated by both appropriation and avoidance. ____ Cassler and the American Mutoscope company aimed to enter the market of the peep-show style, moving-image viewing devices dominated by Edison's Kinetoscope, while simultaneously avoiding mechanical overlap with Edison's patents. "The Mutoscope was intended to compete with the Kinetoscope and the motion-picture camera to give the company independence from Edison’s control of the market...The use of 70mm unperforated film and an associated “Mutoscope” “flip-card” device was intended to be as different as possible in principle from Edison’s system of 35mm film with a double row of sprocket holes" (Brown and Anthony 9). Thus, the main features of the apparatus are best understood as a contrast with its competitor and predecessor.

Circularity vs Linearity

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The Mutoscope
1. Internal view, without the image cylinder 2. Internal view with the cylinder in place 3. Details of the mechanism seen from the front 4. Details of the mechanism seen from behind
The Biograph Mutoscope (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive) (Kardish 21) .

Spectatorship

Arcades: Viewing Alone, Together

“Early cinema audiences were often an unruly bunch, drawn to nickelodeons and Kinetoscope parlors through the lure of sensation alone. “(Dixon & Foster 11)

References

Adair, Gilbert. Flickers : An Illustrated Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1995. Print.

Brown, Richard. A Victorian Film Enterprise : The History of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1897-1915.Print.

Casler, Herman. Mutoscope. Patent 683,910. 8 Oct 1901. Web. 27 Mar 2010.

Dixon, Wheeler W. and Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. A Short History of Film. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2008. Print.

Gunning, Tom. "Machines That Give Birth to Images: Douglas Crockwell." Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde 1919-1945. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Print.

Herbert, Stephen. A History of Early Film Volume 1. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.

The Illustrated History of the Cinema. Ed. Lloyd, Ann and Robinson, David. Orbis Book Publishing Corporation Ltd. and Macmillan Publishing Company., 1986. Print.

Kardish, Laurence. Real Plastic Magic: A History of Films and Filmmaking in America. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972. Print.

Keim, Norman O. with Marc, David. Our Movie Houses: A History of Film & Cinematic Innovation in Central New York. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008. Print.