Le Kinetoscope (66 Bull Street, [4]-15 décembre 1894)

Le Kinetoscope est installé sur Bull Street en décembre sous la houlette de MM. Harding et Martin :

FORTY-SIX A SECOND.
The Kinetoscope on Exhibition Here and What It Can Do.
The Kinetoscope, one of Thomas A. Edison's latest and most wonderful inventions is now on exhibition at No. 66 Bull street and it will pay anyone to go in and see it.
A represeatative of the Morning News dropped in yesterday to investigate its workings. The description of it which has been given in the newspapers while they may convey some idea as to what it is and what it does, cannot fully do it justice, for it is truly wonderful.
The Kinetograph which was the first of the two inventions perfected by Mr. Edison, bears the same relation to the Kinetoscope as does the recording diaphra[g]m of the phonograph to the reproducing diaphragm. As the human eye is capable of detecting and separating only about forty distinct impressions a second, if more than that number are made to pass before the retina in the same time, the result is a continuous impression. The kinetograph take forty-six pictures a second. These pictures are taken from moving objects more rapidly than those objects would seem to the eye to be in motion, and they are recorded finally on a long celluloid film for reproduction by the kinetoscope.
The klnetoscope is in the shape of a large cabinet similar to that used for the phonograph. and if anything a little larger. The long film contains over 2,000 pictures taken from some object in motion, and the apparatus within the cabinet, which is operated by electricity, makes these pictures pass before the eye at the rate of forty-six per second. The result is the same as if the actual object in motion before the spectator only very greatly reduced in size. The film passes over a series of rollers which holds it steady, while just under the point at which they are seen by the eye is an electric light. A dark wheel with a small slit in it, revolving forty-six times per second alternately cuts the light on and off, though its revolutions are so rapid that the effect on the eye is continuous.
The views on exhibition yesterday, were interesting. In the first cabinet was the picture of three blacksmiths at work. One of them could be seen to go to the fire and take out a piece of hot iron which the others would hammer and shape up after which they would pass around the bottle, and all take a drink, repeating the performance two or three times before the film had ended. In another was Sandow, the strong man. As he stood before the kinetograph pictures of him in almost every position and showing almost every muscle in his body were taken, and as seen in the kinetoscope Sandow goes through all these motions and shows the muscles in his powerful body up to the same advantage. In another was 2,000 pictures of a skirt dancer, which pass so rapidly before the eye that Annabelle seems to be doing all the motions of a skirt dance on a miniature stage. The cock fight is perhaps the most interesting of the views on exhibition yesterday. The cock pit is there and in it are two game birds, which go for each other for all they are worth, and while the feathers are flying, the changes in expression of the actual spectators of the fight ca be distinctly seen.
The instruments are owned by Messrs. Harding & Martin, who are always on hand and ready to explain their working. They have a number of other subjects which they will put on from day to day, and among them are Layman, the facial artist, the prize fight, Buffalo bill’s bucking broncho, Carmencita, the hotel scene, the boxing cats and others equally as interesting. The exhibition will be open from 10 a.m. until 11:30 p.m., and during the day ladies can visit it without escorts, and those in charge will take pleasure in explaining the workings of the wonderful machine. They will be on exhibition here about two weeks, and perhaps longer if the patronage warrants it.

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The Savannah Morning News, Savannah, mercredi 5 décembre 1894,, p. 3.

Au bout d'une dizaine de jours, la presse annonce la prochaine fermeture des kinetoscopes.

The Savannah Morning News, Savannah, vendredi 14 décembre 1894, p. 2.

La dernière journée de présentation du kinetoscope a lieu le samedi 15 décembre.