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Frame enlargement: Silent Era image collection.
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Blacksmith Scene
Also known as [Blacksmith Scene #1], [Blacksmiths], [Blacksmithing Scene]
(1893) United States of America
B&W : 50 feet
Directed by W.K.L. Dickson and William Heise
Cast: Charles Kayser, John Ott, [?] ? [one other Edison employee], [?] ? [man in shadowed foreground].
Edison Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Raff & Gammon. / Cinematography by William Heise. / No copyright registration. / Kinetoscope 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Early Kinetograph camera films were shot at approximately 48 frames per second. This film, one of the earliest films shot in the Edison Black Maria studio, is thought to have been shot in April 1893. The film was shown publicly (in a Kinetoscope viewer) at the Brooklyn Institute on 9 May 1893. A surviving 35mm print was found at the Henry Ford Museum: The MoMA preservation negative originates from that print.
View.
Synopsis: A blacksmith works a piece of hot metal with two assistants. // [Scientific American, 20 May 1893, page ?] The picture represented a blacksmith and two helpers forging a piece of iron. Before beginning the job a bottle was passed from one to the other, each imbibing his portion. The blacksmith then removed his white hot iron from the forge with a pair of tongs and gave directions to his helpers with the small hand hammer, when they immediately began to pound the hot iron while the sparks flew in all directions, the blacksmith at the same time making intermediate strokes with his hand hammer. At a signal from the smith, the helpers put down their sledge hammers, when the iron was returned to the forge and another piece substituted for it, and the operation was repeated.
Survival status: Print exists in the Museum of Modern Art film archive [35mm preservation positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Blacksmiths - Tools: Anvils, Hammers
Listing updated: 11 April 2015.
References: Film viewing : Altman-Sound p. 79; Geduld-Birth p. 21; Musser-Before pp. 32, 34-38, 39; Musser-Emerge pp. 72, 75, 598; Robertson-Guinness p. 3; Robinson-Palace pp. 40, 44, 46, 48.
Home video: DVD.
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