Mutoscope

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The late 19th century saw an explosion of apparatus attempting to recreate the movement of real life, an explosion that contemporaries were conscious of. A conscientious New York Times reporter provides a list of 50 --graphs and --scopes, including "Vitascope[alternative name for the kinetoscope] and biograph are most familiar here, with cinematograph coming next at a considerable distance...Electroscope exists, and so do ...zinematograph, vitropticon, stinnetiscope, vivrescope, diaramiscope, corminograph, kineoptopscope, craboscope, vitaletiscope, cinematoscope, mutoscope, cinoscope, kinetograph, lobsterscope" (""TOPICS OF THE TIMES"). This 1898 writer asserts, "The arrangements for manipulation of the light, the band, and the lens are numerous, but they vary only in inconsequential details, and for all practical purposes the machines are identical." At least one apparatus on this extensive list contradicts that claim to sameness, and current film historians criticize that difference. "Although the Mutoscope has had a longer life than its competitor, it is the Kinetoscope that is more important in the growth of motion pictures because it used film." (Kardish 21-22)

The mutoscope shares light and lens with its scopular and graphical cousins, but lacks the "band of minute photographs" (New York Times). But this difference is not a lack; rather it is an opening for _____________________

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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.

Moving pictures vs Moving Images

Hand Crank vs Electric Motor

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)

Scopic Pleasure: Erotic Viewing

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.

"TOPICS OF THE TIMES." New York Times (1857-1922) 28 Jan. 1898,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2006), ProQuest. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.