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necessity for panchromatising the film before use increases the cost of the material still more. By
the time the “stock” has been treated with the colour sensitiser its cost is increased from 1½d.,
or 3 cents, to about 3½d., or 7 cents, per foot.

When tricolour cinematography is attempted, three feet of film are required to record the
movements of the subject during the space of one second, as against one foot for black and white
work. With a view to reducing this heavy cost, inventors concentrated their attention on the
possibility of securing approximately true natural colours by the aid of two screens only—the
green and the red. In this way a third less film was required and the cost was reduced by an equal
proportion.

This development was led by W. F. Greene. Realising the disadvantages of the three screens,
he abandoned that system—although it has since been exploited—and in 1905 perfected the first
practical method of natural-colour cinematography through two screens—red and green. A
demonstration was given in the Library of the Royal Institution on January 26th, 1906. This was
not Greene’s first demonstrationin two-colour work, as in 1900 he devised a machine for achiev-
ing the same object, which was exhibited before the Royal Photographic Society in that year.

Another diligent investigator in this field was Mr. Albert Smith, who was striving towards
colour cinematography at the same time as Greene, but independently of him. The art fascinat-
ed him in the early days and although he prosecuted his experiments first in black and
white, the result of Ives’s efforts in still-life color phonography prompted him to wrestle
with the problem of producing natural colors in moving pictures. The elimination of
the third or blue screen was his special study, and years were expended in researches to this
end, involving countless experiments with the red and green screens, varying in density and
intensity from the colour point of view, and in relation to one another. For instance, one screen,
say, of emerald-green and the other of orange-red would first be used. This proving unsatisfac-
tory, the proportion of the red in the one screen was increased, the green remaining untouched.
Then the green would be varied, and then the red again, the process being continued until a
satisfactory result was obtained. The search was rendered all the more exasperating when the
screens which produced satisfaction on one day with a subject, failed altogether with another
subject the next day, owing to variation in the light. At last, in 1906, Mr. Smith's patent
known as “Kinemacolor” made its appearance some eighteen months behind that of
Greene, though it was not perfected sufficiently to be introduced to the public until 1908.
Undoubtedly Kinemacolor is at present the best-known commercial natural colour system.
The appearance of this process has stimulated the movement in colour cinematography to a
pronounced degree, and its improved appearance in 1911 created a sensation. Some of the
effects produced have been very beautiful, and although they are far from perfect, as those
identified with the process will readily admit, yet it constitutes an excellent stepping-stone for
further improvement.

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