Hi everyone,
In case you missed this news item from the last few days: British Film
Institute (BFI) have just released a digital version of film footage of
a 1900 solar eclipse - the earliest known successful recording.
https://youtu.be/q4jfPfMKBgU
The footage was shot by Neville Makelyne, a British stage magician
turned cameraman (not the Astronomer Royal of the same name). BFI report
that it was Makelyne's second attempt at recording a solar eclipse. His
first try was in India in 1898, but the undeveloped film was stolen as
he travelled home to England.
Cheers,
Steve
P.S. Apparently Makelyne is also known for disrupting Guglielmo
Marconi's early public demonstrations of commercial radio telegraphy.
Makelyne was paid by a consortium of undersea telegraph cable owners to
try to undermine Marconi's fledgling business. He would set up his own
radio transmitter in buildings near to where Marconi's demonstrations
were taking place in London, and thus swamp out Marconi's faint signals
from North America.
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