Thomas Alva Edison and his contributions to science and technology (Part 03)
#The invention of kinetograph and Kinetoscope
Read about the invention of the electric bulb.
This defeat was not the end of the wizard of Menlo Park. He introduced video cameras for commercial use. It was not a new technology. Many scientists had worked on cameras before that time. It was called motion pictures due to the nature of combining images and rolling them on a light. It was a hard job because it required a lot of labour work to join the pictures manually and put them in a role. Edison’s camera was an electric one that used a cellulose role to capture pictures altogether. Edison titled this camera a kinetograph. Kinetoscope was another device used to see the video created by kinetograph [6].
Edison installed a studio in West Orange New Jersey close to his laboratory, distancing a mile from home. This studio was popular as Maria Black where people could watch the videos by placing their eyes closer to the scope. Edison wanted to make motion pictures and luxury entertainment for people. He started the chain of first-ever cinemas in America. It costs twenty-five cents to watch a video using these kinetoscopes. This invention made him popular again and accelerated to a better business model.
One of his research scientists gave him the idea of making a projector that could help many people in watching a video at the same time. At the same time, other competitors were working on improving this technology. Edison, as usual in the lust of greed, disagreed on moving to make a projector. The reason was obvious because it could plummet the revenue of his ongoing kinetograph business since many people can start watching. This was another downturn in the financial growth of Edison. The market soon saw similar devices that were good for watching videos in a projector-like way. This new idea overthrew the kinetoscope when a group of French scientists demonstrated a short movie on a fabric-based screen in 1895. American inventors came up with a similar machine known as femtoscope, this is considered the official cinema screen in cinematography. This was the second time where Edison’s invention abandoned its value.
Edison was a good learner, this time instead of being pertinacious in business he moved to adopt this technology. Edison bought the rights of femtoscope from Thomas Armat. His research team developed it further and made Vitascope which proved to be the best cinema projector in the market. In 1896, he made a projectoscope which was another developed variant of the old projector. These machines lead to the thriving film industry in America for decades. It can be assumed that Edison was the technologist behind the creation of Hollywood and silent movies.
Fluoroscope was also produced and designed by Edison. It was the first-ever commercial machine used to take radiographs using x-rays. He improved Wilhelm Rontgen technology which used barium platinocyanide screens. Edison found out that calcium tungstate fluoroscopy produces brighter images for medical diagnosis. Edison almost lost his eyesight during this development and later forsaken it. The basic design of his work is still used in modern radiology. Once he commented that “Don`t talk to me about X-rays” [8]. Additionally, he worked on a device that can measure infrared radiation emitted from the solar corona. He aimed to measure the heat from the Solar eclipse of July 29, 1878. This device was not a mass-market success so did not bother to go for patenting it.
Collection of Photos from Edison`s Kinetograph and Kinetoscope at Black Maria Studio. Pictures showing his business model for a single person to see one movie and a snap from how the movies used to look in colourless mode. (Pictures from Wikipedia and design.wiki)
Now after this second success, Edison approached to make a camera that can record sound and video together. That means no more silent movies. In twenty years, his studio Black Maria recorded around twelve hundred movies. Later in 1915, Edison abandoned this project of working more on improving cameras. This was not the end to the invention as Edison believed that “The sky’s the limit”. Thomas Alva Edison stepped into many other businesses such as medical apparatus, fans, electronics items, and plastic packs as well. This was possible since Edison was a brand and standard for quality. His factory was at its peak during the world war which employed around 10,000 people.
The success of phonograph and motion pictures helped him offset his previous failures in the electric industry. Through years of work, he was a shareholder of millions of dollar general electric stocks which he sold to take up a new challenge. He initiated to work on mining iron ore to feed the insatiable demand of Steel Mills in Pennsylvania. He targeted to mine low-grade ore on the east coast of the United States since it was scarce. He structured a process of rollers and crushers that pulverize and separate dust from ore. He was not able to make this practical and lost all investment. Leftover equipment from Edison Ore Milling Company was developed to cement production. At the same time, he was financially secure in the new century with his earnings from the motion picture and sound recorder.
Edison commenced working on an electric storage battery that can be used for electric vehicles. He primarily enjoyed different kinds of automobiles powered by gasoline, electricity, and steam. He condoned that conventional lead-acid batteries were not a good choice for high charge density and electrifying vehicles could provide better propulsion. He intended for an efficient rechargeable battery (called it “accumulator”). He experimented with many materials and ultimately found that the nickel-iron combination was relatively well settling. Later, he gained the US and European patient for this battery and opened the Edison Storage Battery Company in 1904.
In 1899, he built alkaline batteries. It was one of the longest yield-bearing projects of Edison which took him almost 10 years. Edison` work in battery storage became a framework for modern cell technologies. His batteries were longer used in miner lamps and maritime buoys. In the same year, he formed Edison Portland Cement Corporation and started promoting the use of concrete in low-cost housing. He pictured the use of cement in other things such as furniture, refrigerator walls and pianos but this was not plausible due to its high cost.
American chemical industry was unsustainable and resulted in a huge shortage during World War I. Europe was the major exporter of raw materials to the US. Edison was more concerned about phenolic resins since it was used in making phonograph records. Phenol was produced as a by-product of coal and was used to form ammonium picrate, an explosive fit for artillery shells. With the help of his chemists, Edison built two plants at the silver lake facility which came up with mass production of tons of phenol per day. Phenol was a critical material because many other derivates such as Aspirin and thermoset plastic were sold as products.
Read about his last days.
References:
1. The Near-Death Experience That Set Thomas Edison on the Road to Fame, Barbara Maranzani, March 5, 2020
2. “GE emerges the world’s largest company: Forbes”. The Indian Express. April 9, 2009. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
3. “The Wizard of Menlo Park”. The Franklin Institute. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
4. “The Life of Thomas A. Edison”. The Library of Congress. Retrieved February 24, 2013
