About the Mutoscope
The Mutoscope is a type of early Amusement Machine. The user turns a handle and looks through an eyepiece to see moving pictures. This was one of the earliest ways of viewing "Motion Pictures".
The Mutoscope presents the viewer with a sequence of images mounted on a rotating drum, each image being slightly different from the preceding image. As the images pass before the eye in rapid succession, the illusion of movement is achieved.
"Enjoying the stars, Harold?"
Despite the basic innocence of the contents, Mutoscope operators often came into conflict with the authorities.
An example is this letter written to a national newspaper. Notice the poor reputation attributed to Parisian people!
3 August 1899
Sir
Will you allow me to call the attention of the public, through your columns, to a new source of evil which has recently sprung up at our popular watering places? I refer to vicious demoralising picture shows in the penny-in-the-slot machines... I understand it is difficult to obtain a conviction unless the outrage is of the grossest kind, but surely the local authorities can, at least, prohibit such exhibitions on the foreshores of the seaside places which are under their control.
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the corruption of the young that comes from exhibiting under a strong light, nude female figures represented as living and moving, going into and out of baths, sitting as artists' models etc.
Similar exhibitions took place at Rhyl in the men's lavatory, but, owing to public denunciation, they have been stopped. Is it not possible to do this in other localities?... If nothing is done to stop this, we shall see a rapid decay of English morals to the level of Paris, with the same deadly results on the life of the nation.
I remain yours faithfully
Samuel Smith
BBC Documentary
The Modern Mutoscope works using the authentic picture card method for creating the illusion of movement.
Hence it's no surprise that the Mutoscope has been featured on the BBC's "What The Victorians Did For Us" [www.bbc.co.uk], a documentary series that looks at turn of the century inventions which have shaped our modern lives.
The show's presenter, Adam Hart-Davis, is seen here starring as the "Strong Man" for a short comical movie, which we made into a picture reel and played on the Mutoscope.
Such films were typical of the type of amusement that used to be shown in early cinema.
Adam Hart-Davis as "Sandow", the Strong Man
