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For those who wish to chase wild geese, a short list of assertions made by people who have seen this film follow:
The History of Photography is a Moving Picture Several people invested many hours to bring you this reverse translation. Despite this, uncertainity and flaws remain. The flaws may have come from our own work, the Dutch translation, or even the original film. It is felt that at least some of the uncertainty could be eliminated by finding a copy of the original. It should be remembered however, that what is shown here is illustrative and not documentary. While many curious points might catch one's attention, I have tried to avoid criticizing the film with guesses and hearsay. Nevertheless two points deserve specific mention: 1. At one point in the film it is stated, "Here, a solution of potassium bromide is being mixed with a stirrer." While we cannot comment on what else is in the kettle, it is safe to say that the chemical being measured and poured into the mixing vessel, and that we see being stirred, is definitely not KBr. 2. The narration mentions that the margins of the backing paper are "beveled" to insure a good light tight seal is formed between the flanges of the spool. This did not sound familiar to me, so I inquired publicly for other minds to comment on this. At first, I suspected that the tongue leader, which is narrower than the rest of the film, was being described. However, it was noted that the animation points specifically to the margin along the length of the paper backing. After some discussion, John Shriver pointed out that old Kodak roll film boxes carried a US Patent number on them and in that patent, a ‘streching’ of the backing paper margins was described. In related work of the inventor’s, the term "beveling" appears. As a result, while I still see no evidence of ‘margin beveling ’ in the few rolls I have examined, this was sufficient ‘proof’ to suspend any hesitation about using the term in this reverse translation. Subsequent research turned up more information but nothing that shows the invention in use. John Shriver recalls, "The long edges of the backing paper look strained, and are black on both sides. The paper is a tiny bit wider than the spool, and you get this flap pushing at the spool on each side." This agrees with comments by others. John adds however, " Now that I look at modern Kodak backing paper, it looks like Kodak doesn't do it anymore." It would be interesting to know the complete history of this. It appears that several methods and terms for this practice has been used by the inventor, the goal always being simply to insure a good light seal. The following quote is thought to summarise the main design concept:
I think I can safely say for everyone involved, despite any inherent flaws in the original or in this reverse translation, we are all grateful for the film’s existence and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Enjoy!
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