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Birt's First...
Having split from his partner Robert Paul, Birt Acres, upon his return to Britain from Europe, formed The Northern Photographic Works at 45 Salisbury Road in Barnet, one of the first companies to specialise in coating, perforating and processing 35mm film stock. He also set to work developing a projector to go with his kinetic camera. He was evidently successful in achieving a workable prototype model, and claimed, throughout 1896 and 1897 to have successfully projected films as early as August 1895 in a semi-public exhibition at the assembly rooms in New Barnet. No documentary evidence exists to substantiate Acres’ claims, but it is a matter of historical fact that he did carry out the first successful projection of films in England on the 10th January 1896, when he gave a presentation to the Lyonsdown Amateur Photographic Association in Barnet Four days later, on Tuesday the 14th, he gave a further demonstration to the Royal Photographic Society (of which he was a member) at 12 Hanover Square, London. The following is a report of the occasion that appeared in the Photographic Journal Volume XX, on Jan 31, 1896:
An Ordinary Meeting of
The Royal Photographic Society was held at
12 Hanover Square, Tuesday evening, January 14, 1896.
"Mr Birt Acres gave a demonstration of an apparatus which he called the Kinetic Lantern. The object of this was to throw a number of pictures upon the screen in such rapid succession as to reproduce the motion of life. The photographs for use in the lantern were taken in a somewhat similar apparatus also devised by Mr. Acres - at the rate of about 40 a second, although he could if necessary take as many as a hundred in a second, but the effect of motion was satisfactorily reproduced by projecting them on the screen at the rate of about fifteen per second. The subjects shown included men boxing, a review of the German Emperor, Epsom Downs, and the Derby race, serpentine dancing, and the sea breaking against an embankment.
A vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Birt Acres."
Another contemporary review of the show stated:
“The most successful effect, and one which called forth rounds of applause from the usually placid members of the “Royal,” was a reproduction of a number of breaking waves, which may be seen to roll in from the sea, curl over against a jetty, and break into clouds of snowy spray that seemed to start from the screen” 1
Other films shown that evening by Acres included Three Burlesque Dancers, A Boxing Match (or Glove Contest), A Kangaroo Boxing its Master and The German Emperor Reviews His Regiment.
Acres’ projector was renamed the Kineopticon in March, and his shows generated great interest in Britain. On the 12th March 1896, he gave his first public performance at 2 Piccadilly Mansions, Piccadilly Circus, London. Admission cost 6d, and performance times were from 2pm to 6pm and 7.30pm to 10.00pm. However, the regular shows came to an abrupt end due to a fire caused by an assistant in Acres' absence.
On the 5th May 1896 another public exhibition took place in Wales at Cardiff Town Hall, and the following month, at the request of the Cardiff Photographic Society, he presented a number of his films at the Cardiff Exhibition.
While at the exhibition he covertly filmed the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales on the 27th June 1896 through a hole he tore in the exhibition walls. Although he is reported to have had permission to do so, the royal party were unaware that they were being filmed. Incredibly, some sections of the media criticised Acres for his film because one scene showed the Prince of Wales scratching his head.
However, the Royal family were evidently unconcerned by Acres’ fly-on-the-wall shenanigans for, when he approached them for permission to exhibit the film, he was invited to Marlborough House on the 21st July to present his films to 75 members of the Royal Families of Europe, who were gathered for the wedding of Princess Maud and Prince Charles of Denmark. This, then, must go down in history as the very first Royal Command Film Performance. Acres was assisted on this auspicious occasion by one Cecil Hepworth who would soon go on to become a major player in the fledgling British movie industry. Acres’ projector, the Kineopticon, was mistakenly named the Cinematoscope in the programme for the show, and its name was adopted thereafter
Acres himself seemed well positioned to become one of the most influential figures in the industry, but he disliked the role of showman, preferring instead to give lectures to scientific and photographic societies., and quickly lost the lead he briefly held over his contemporaries.
1. From The Photogram, quoted in John Barnes, The Beginnings of the Cinema in England.
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