Biographet Projector (head only) (American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.): Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This is a Biographet 35mm Motion Picture Projector head. It is a metal apparatus composed of a revolving shutter inside solid vertical casing in front of a film gate with a wood friction wheel. A brass crank is attached to operate the shutter via a system of gears. A stand above the gears was used to hold the film reel being run through the machine. The vertical casing bears a plaque which reads "Trade Mark Biographet / Patented May 10, 98 / Other Patents Pending / No. 6 / American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. / New York / U.S.A."

The PHC’s Early Sound Cinema Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000040] includes the unit’s holdings of apparatus, film and other media related to the history of matching recorded sound to projected motion pictures. The collection includes over 50 pieces of apparatus related to Eugene Augustin Lauste’s experiments with sound-on-film technology. Lauste, a pioneering motion picture engineer, used selenium cells to record playable soundtracks alongside images on film in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Lauste failed to find commercial success with his inventions, and Bell Laboratories bought the rights to Lauste’s work and collections for patent litigation use before donating the materials to the Smithsonian in the 1930s. The collection also includes several pieces of apparatus used to record and project motion pictures with sound before the process became an industry standard, two short lengths of film used to demonstrate early processes and a film of a lecture on the history of sound experiments from 1922.

This collection is one in a series documenting the PHC’s Early Cinema Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000018]. The cinema-related objects cover the range of technological innovation and popular appeal that defined the motion picture industry during a period in which it became the premier form of mass communication in American life, roughly 1885-1930. See also finding aids for Early Cinema Equipment [COLL.PHOTOS.000037], Early Color Cinema [COLL.PHOTOS.000039], Early Cinema Film and Ephemera [COLL.PHOTOS.000038], and the Gatewood Dunston Collection [COLL.PHOTOS.000021].

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1898-05-10
• maker: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
• Object Name: Biographet
• Object Name: motion picture projector
• Physical Description: manufactured (overall production method/technique)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 16 in x 11 in x 6 in; 40.64 cm x 27.94 cm x 15.24 cm
• place made: United States: New York, New York City
• Subject: Motion Pictures
• ID Number: PG.4046.36
• accession number: 129430
• catalog number: 4046.36
• Credit Line: Bell Telephone Laboratories
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.