Flying Platform. US Navy demonstrates its Flying Platform in 1955, a “flying skateboard” or “hover board” vehicle that uses a direct lift rotor aircraft, using contra-rotating ducted fans controlled by the pilot shifting his body weight around to tilt the platform. Although it looked like it could have been a massive development [and a great [...]
Hughes was involved in a near-fatal aircraft accident on July 7, 1946, while piloting the experimental U.S. Army Air Force reconnaissance aircraft, the XF-11, over Los Angeles. An oil leak caused one of the contra-rotating propellers to reverse pitch, causing the aircraft to yaw sharply. Hughes tried to save the craft by landing it at [...]
Cecil H. Dill, of Traverse Coty, Michigan, an aspiring radio artist demonstrating his ability to render popular melodies by pressing his hands together. Dill modestly tells how he discovered his unusual talent.
50 years ago today, at 2:47pm, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. During the anniversary festivities held over the weekend at Kennedy Space Center, retired NASA Engineer Norm Beckel Jr. reminisced over being in the blockhouse at Launch Site 14 with astronaut Scott Carpenter as he called out to Glenn just [...]
Filmed in the United States in 1932, this incredible footage shows the sheer skill of handicapped golfer Tom McAuliffe. By placing the golf club in between his neck, shoulders and face, he is able to drive the ball 150 yards down the fairway despite not having any arms. For more information on Tom McAuliffe, check out [...]
For industrial pictures, for use in hospitals, or for moving-picture shows at home, a new projecting machine has been devised which can be operated by electric dry batteries or from the regular house-lighting circuit. In lace of the usual strip of film, the pictures are made on round disks similar in appearance to phonograph records. [...]
Also known as ‘The X-Ray Fiend’, this comedy by G.A. Smith combines two very recent innovations: Wilhelm Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895, and Georges Méliès’ accidental realisation of the special-effects potential of the jump-cut in 1896. The central couple is played by the Brighton comedian Tom Green and Smith’s wife Laura Bayley, and we [...]
This witty short proffers futuristic visions of London landmarks by way of a ‘magic’ camera. But while its gleeful inventor turns out to be an escapee from the local asylum, French director Gaston Quiribet may not have been entirely barking up the wrong tree with one of his trick shots – which imagines Trafalgar Square [...]
Propped upon the tail-end of a match, a housefly performs astonishing feats, alternately juggling a series of objects – a blade of grass, a cork, a miniature dumbbell… Most extraordinary of all is the sequence in which the fly spins a ball twice its own size, while a second fly perches on top. In the [...]
Pool Films resulted from the creative collaboration of writers Kenneth Macpherson and Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman) and Imagist poet H. D. (Hilda Doolittle). Funded by Bryher’s inheritance from a vast family fortune, their projects were fueled by the principals’ interest in film and artistic experimentation. The three were invested in developing a context in which [...]
The 26th running of the Indianapolis 500 took place on Monday, May 30, 1938. The race was won by the number 23 car driven by Floyd Roberts. Roberts’ car started in the pole position, and was the first car to win from that start since 1930. Roberts led 92 laps, posted an average speed of 117.200 miles per hours, and won [...]
This shows a view looking south from Madison Square, across the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and Twenty-third Street, to the famous Fuller (or “Flatiron”) Building. The cameraman elevates his camera, going from street level to the roof. Designed by D.H. Burnham and Company, the Fuller Building is an important early skyscraper and a New [...]
The four Miles brothers, Harry, Herbert, Joseph, and Earle C., were pioneers in American cinema. In 1902, they established one of the first motion picture exchanges in the United States. Their 1906 film, A Trip Down Market Street, is an historic 13-minute journey down Market Street in San Francisco from 8th Street to the Embarcadero, [...]
Superimposition of Cathrina Bartho dancing over footage of crashing waves from the rapids of Niagara Falls. The woman wears a frilly, perhaps feather-trimmed, white dress with a low-cut bodice, a matching feathered hat, white stockings, and white ballet slippers. She holds up her skirt through the entire dance, revealing her ankles and lower legs as [...]
“Photos of Chinese opium smokers in there [sic] dens in China Town in 1889″ Opium smoking arrived in North America with the large influx of Chinese who came to participate in the California Gold Rush. The jumping-off point for the gold fields wasSan Francisco, and the city’s Chinatown became the site of numerous opium dens soon after the first Chinese [...]
An animated cartoon about Mr. Nobody Holme, who warms up his sluggish automobile with the assistance of a stick of dynamite. Story by Tom E. Powers and animated by Leon Searl. Includes a piano score composed and performed by Philip Carli. These short satires of contemporary life are based on Tom Powerss newspaper comics. The [...]
