P3D Mr. Green Redux

[Ray Zone <r3dzone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Bradley wrote:

>I've just read Ray Zone's fascinating article in Stereo World
>"The Problematic Mr Greene". In this Ray examines the merits of
>the claim that William Friese-Greene was the first to make a stereo
>moving picture.  I don't have Ray's e-mail adress, so what follows is a
>public  >response
>which I would otherwise have sent to him directly.
>One of the important pieces of evidence Ray refers to is an account written
>in 1933 of a paper Friese Green presented to the Photographic Convention
>of the United Kingdom (PCUK) in 1890.
>I have been doing research on the PCUK, as part of work on the
>largely overlooked stereographer Alfred Seaman.The PCUK had a strong
>stereoscopic tradition, and in addition to Seaman, the well known
>stereographers William England and Richard Keene, were founding members..
>My question to Ray is - has anyone looked up the contemporary report of.
>Friese-Greene's paper to the PCUK? The British Journal of Photography
>reprinted the more important papers from the  PCUK in the week after the
>convention.An original of the paper may be helpful in evaluating Friese-
>Greene's
>contribution to the development of stereo motion pictures.
>If this has not been done yet I'll try to do this next time I'm in the
>library.

Thanks John,

	Glad you liked "The Problematic Mr. Green."  I haven't been able
yet to locate  any  papers Friese-Greene presented to the British
Photographic Society.  If you can  obtain any please let me know.  Here is
updated information I have gathered since researching Friese-Greene for the
article in "Stereo World."

Best,

Ray '3-D' Zone

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The Return of Mr. Green

	The most thorough inquiry into the claims of priority by
Friese-Greene for stereoscopic cinema has been done by Brian Coe, author of
"The History of Movie Photography (Eastview Editions: 1981), with an
article titled "William Friese-Greene and the Origins of Cinematography"
published in three installments in "Screen: Journal of the Society for
Education in Film and Television" with the March-April 1969, May-June 1969
and July-October 1969 issues and reprinted from the "Photographic Journal."
	In both the book "The History of Movie Photography" and this
separate and extensive article on Friese-Greene, Coe delve's deeply into
the inventor's claims of priority for stereoscopic cinematography. Coe
sought records for any documented public showings of Friese-Greene's
successful projection of motion pictures.
	With his article in "Screen" Coe also gives a detailed rundown of
the many errors of fact that are present in the Ray Allister biography
"Friese Greene--Close-up of an Inventor" (London: Marsland Publications,
1948).
	The Allister book (p. 56-57) states that "On 25 February 1890, 'the
first public show of motion pictures taken on celluloid was given' to Bath
Photographic Society." Upon examination of the reports of the meeting, Coe
found that only the camera mechanism was shown and that Friese-Greene read
a paper titled "Photography in an Age of Movement."
	In C.H. Bothamley's article "Early Stages of Kinematography,"
(SMPE, March 1933) Bothamley states that Friese-Greene read a paper June
26, 1890 at the Chester Photographic Convention on "A Magazine Camera and
Lantern."  Coe states, with his final installment on Friese-Greene in
"Screen," (July-October 1969, p. 139) "The Chester paper was entitled
'Suggestions' and was taken as read.  A projection demonstration using a
Rudge type lantern failed.  The camera exhibited at Chester by Friese
Greene was that patented by Varley."
	The Rudge lantern was built by John Arthur Rudge in 1884.  It was
called the "Phantascope" lantern and used seven lantern slides which could
be rotated and projected in quick succession by means of a Maltese Cross
mechanism.  When Friese-Greene demonstrated the Rudge "Phantascope" in 1887
to the Photographic Society he claimed it was an invention "he had
designed" with no mention of Rudge.
	On January 27, 1889, Friese-Greene demonstrated a new version of
the "Phantascope" to the Photographic Society that used a pair of lanterns
projecting slides alternately.  A description of the presentation in the
Journal of the British Photographic Society reported that "In order to get
a perfect representation of motion, Mr. Greene considered that it would be
necessary to take the photographs at the rate of five in one second."  Five
frames per second is well under a sufficient rate to convey motion on
screen.
	In his "History of Movie Photography" book Coe states (p. 57) that
"Rudge was provoked by reports of this demonstration to draw attention to
the fact that he had invented the apparatus, which he had sold to Friese
Greene."
	On page 72 of Allister's biography it is stated of Friese-Greene
that "In 1893 he patented a stereoscopic projector--the first of its kind.
It was also capable of colour photography by the use of a three colour
revolving disc,"
	Three years after showing the Varley stereoscopic film camera at
the Chester Photographic Convention in 1890, Friese-Greene filed his own
patent for a  camera which was virtually identical to Varley's.  This
camera could operate at only two or three frames per second and, according
to Coe (p. 140) " There is no mention whatever in the patent of a colour
process of the kind described."
	 Allister (p. 45) also states that "In late 1889, with Mortimer
Evans, he (Friese-Greene) designed a two-lens camera taking stereoscopic
pictures."  Coe  (p. 138) refutes this:  "The only two-lens camera with
which Friese Greene worked was that patented by Varley in 1890: Evans does
not appear to have had anything to do with it."
	Where did Allister get his information?  "Most of these claims,"
Coe states (p. 140) "seem to be derived from Friese Greene's own affidavit
made in America in 1910.  It was made for use as part of a legal action
between the Motion Picture Patents Company and the Independent Motion
Picture Company, but was never called in evidence.  It is full of the most
surprising inaccuracies..."
	So where does Friese-Greene fit into the history of the 3-D film?
"There is no evidence," answers Coe, that Friese-Greene "solved
successfully the problem of projecting these sequences, even with a Rudge
lantern.  It is certain, too, that his work had no appreciable effect upon
the introduction of cinematography..."
	It is not my intention here to denigrate Friese-Greene.  By his
enthusiasm and dedication to stereoscopic cinema, he undoubtedly did much
to promote it.  Brian Coe closes his "Screen" article on Friese-Greene with
a compassionate yet discerning note.  "The picture of the man that emerges
from the papers and demonstrations at the Photographic Society," Coe
observes (p. 142), "is of one lacking in method, dabbling in all kinds of
fruitless experiments without plan or control....He was unable to express
himself clearly--at least on paper; it is frequently difficult to
understand from his writings what he is trying to say...His ideas and
suggestions were always far ahead of his ability to carry them out."
	I'll close, as Coe closed (p. 144) with an observation by a
contemporary of Friese-Greene's who wrote under the pseudonym of 'Talbot
Archer.'  Remarking on the work of the problematic Mr. Green in "Anthony's
Photographic Bulletin" (April 1891, p.21), Archer observed "It is to be
hoped that the affair will turn out better than Messrs. Varley and Greene's
previous 'inventions,' which have been equally wonderful (upon paper)
consisting of marvellous cameras, lanterns, etc. which have always been
going to do something wonderful, but of which we have never seen the
results."

--Ray Zone

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