Biophone

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The biophone (also chronophone ) was a device used to synchronize silent films with the sound from the gramophone .

history

The term biophone was used in connection with Oskar Messter's sound images, which Messter presented for the first time on August 29, 1903 in the Apollo Theater in Berlin . At almost the same time, Léon Gaumont had developed a similar sound film system called the Chronophon . The sound images were silent films that were shown with sound or music from a gramophone, whereby Messter motorized the previously hand-operated projection apparatus in order to synchronize it with the gramophone.

Messters built Biophon cinemas in Berlin and other German cities . In 1904 Messters set up a biophone theater at the World Exhibition in St. Louis and showed there English-language films made especially for the World Exhibition.

The biophone films reached the height of their popularity around 1908, but further suppliers were pushing into the market, so that Messter drastically reduced the production of sound images as early as 1909 and stopped it completely around 1912. Today there are only a few Messter films that have preserved image and sound recordings.

See also

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