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Cutting the stencils for a moving picture film is a long and exacting task. Three stencils have
to be prepared for each subject. In the first the spaces corresponding to the red tones in the picture
have to be cut; in the second, those for the yellow; and in the third stencil, those for the blue. By
putting one over the other the various mixtures and tones are obtained. The process may be
likened to the preparation of the three process blocks for heliochromic illustrations in letterpress
printing. Since each picture measures only 1 inch wide by 3/4ths of an inch in depth, we may
gather some idea of the labour involved for the treatment of, say, 8,000 pictures contained in a
film 500 feet long. It follows that unless a film is likely to have a large demand, colouring is not
attempted. In one case which I have in mind, the firm will not attempt colouring unless they are
certain of the sale of 200 copies of the subject. The colours—aniline dyes—are applied succes-
sively by means of rollers, the film to be coloured being passed through special machines
contrived for the purpose.

In view of the expense and time entailed, it is not surprising that many inventors have devoted
their energies to devise ways and means of taking colour pictures direct from Nature. Greene
evolved the first cinematographic process for taking and projecting moving pictures in natural
colours, and his patent constitutes the base upon which all other experimenters have worked, just
as to-day in America the Kinetoscope is regarded as the progenitor of the cinematograph. Six
months later another process working upon the same broad principle was patented by Lee and
Turner. But Greene’s process was premature; at that time it was unworkable. The Lee and Turner
system, fundamentally the same, suffered from a similar defect, as I shall explain a little later.

16 REEL DEALS September 2017