There remains no doubt whatever that the cinematograph has completely won over the great public—the many millions who are constantly seeking fresh fields of amusement and diversion. Of all the classes that patronise the moving-picture entertainment, the children form the one most open to its influence and most responsive to what it offers them; and it is this well-known impressionableness of the young mind that has set people thinking of the educational responsibility of the moving-picture show. From this it is but a step to the question, May not the cinematograph be brought into the schoolroom?

The subject has several aspects that are worth treating somewhat at length. The firm of Pathé Frères has here, as in so many other directions, been first in the field. Let us examine some of its educational films.

The peculiar properties possessed by the magnet are profoundly mysterious to the child. Text-books may be written in the simplest language and freely illustrated with diagrams, but the points still remain somewhat obscure. This French manufacturing company has prepared a film, “The Magnet,” in which the well-known subject-matter of the school book is illustrated, and the phenomena described therein are demonstrated in a simple manner by visual records of the peculiar properties possessed by the magnet.

The familiar experiments with the magnet and iron filings are treated simply and with endless variety. If the pupils see the teacher perform the manipulations with filings and magnet in the usual way, the experiment conveys no tangible idea, and interest is not greatly aroused. But when the same magnet is thrown upon the screen in movement, and is ten feet or so in height, while the iron filings are so magnified that they resemble not dust, but thorns or long pins, a more convincing and indelible impression is conveyed.

One may have seen many diagrams showing the lines of force, as they are called. But no diagram can produce the unforgettable impression gained by the sight of the phenomenon itself occurring before the eyes. The iron filings may be seen resolving themselves into the two distinct groups about the poles, as if imbued with life, and the process may be followed from beginning to end with perfect ease, owing to the size to which the filings are magnified in projection.

The operation of natural laws is indelibly impressed upon the schoolboy when he is shown some novel experiment in physics carried out upon the screen. Physiology and anatomy can be taught by producing pictures taken by X-ray photography.

History ought surely to be a successful field for the educational cinematograph. The portrayal by Pathé Frères of episodes during the Reign of Terror and the Napoleonic era; the representation of the Normans landing in England, the discovery of America by Columbus—these and similar pictures have already shown the wide possibilities of the historical film. Of course, great care must be taken to adhere to strict historical truth in fact and setting; when they will greatly serve to fix in the pupil’s mind events and historical atmosphere, and aid him in distinguishing various periods.

A film worthy of introduction into the class-room is that described in Chapter XVII., showing the birth of a flower. The fact that this film is produced in natural colours enhances its effect; a schoolboy would be hard indeed to impress if he failed to appreciate the wonderful significance of this evolution of the hyacinth from the bulb to the flowering stage. Again, he is enabled to witness upon the screen the birth of the common house-fly, and its entire span of existence. He can see how ants work and live, and how the bee manufactures its honey. As a corollary to the matter-of-fact and uninteresting text-book the cinematograph film cannot be excelled. It presents in actual movement what mere words, which have to be committed to memory, seek to convey without any durable result. Indeed, there is not the slightest doubt that a thousand pictures will impress themselves upon the schoolboy’s mind, and impart to him more definite knowledge of their subject in one minute than hours of hammering with the aid of text-book and blackboard. Even actual ocular demonstration fails to be so convincing as a projection upon a whitened sheet, where everything immediately concerned is magnified to an extreme degree.

The inventor of the Kinetoscope, Mr. Thomas Alva Edison, is of opinion that the cinematograph will displace all other methods in the schoolroom for the teaching of geography. Both teachers and pupils will be inclined to agree with this dictum. A teacher may talk for hours about the tremendous height of the peaks in the Andes, the racial characteristics of the natives of Abyssinia, or the manner in which rivers are born on the flanks of mighty glaciers. But words sometimes convey very little to the immature mind. Throw upon the screen a series of pictures of an actual journey, and the youngster gleans the facts without the slightest effort. He sees the towering, snow-capped rocks with their precipitous flanks; the melting snow and ice flowing down from the mighty glacier and forming a tempestuous, rushing river; he sees in their natural surroundings the folk of a hundred strange and distant tribes. Perhaps he is transported for the time to the deck of a steamer driving its way up through the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Books and pictures have given him but a faint idea of these noble waters; but when he sees their beauty, and witnesses the enormous traffic carried upon their broad bosoms, figures and facts take on new significance, and are never forgotten. Whatever scene he sees, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the Antarctic circle, that scene becomes henceforth not a mere spot on the map, but a living reality.

One of the most remarkable series of pictures worthy of inclusion in this category is that obtained of Mount Etna in eruption. The cinematograph operator displayed wonderful daring in venturing to the verge of the crater of this vent to internal fires. The reward for his intrepidity certainly conveys a more realistic and vivid impression of a belching volcano than the most imaginative flights of description in text-books.

The success of the educational campaign of the cinematograph depends upon the suitability of the film. The cinematographer has roved through all the fields of science securing interesting pictures in metallurgy, natural history, manufacturing industries, electricity, agriculture, horticulture, and so forth. The educational value of the films now produced is beyond dispute; but it may be that they are somewhat too old for children. The film manufacturers have, up to the present, chiefly consulted the tastes of adults; and the films of a distinctly educational character which they produce appeal to the mature rather than to the child mind. On the other hand, it should not be at all difficult to produce films which, like the one already described, representing experiments with the magnet, would give regular instead of incidental instruction upon subjects actually treated in schools—animated text-books, in short. But as yet the picture producer has not received sufficient encouragement from the educational authorities to warrant him in preparing such films.

Unfortunately, the feeling against the moving picture has not been entirely eliminated, despite its tremendous popularity. Once an energetic Board of Education realises the possibilities of cinematography as a supplement to the information conveyed by text-books and manuals, the film manufacturers will hasten to supply the demand thus created. The last obstacle will have been removed; for the field presents no special mechanical difficulties, the only serious one having been removed by the discovery of the non-inflammable film. The perfecting of this film has obviated the necessity of confining the installation within an iron box—a requirement which militated very appreciably against the introduction of the cinematograph into schools.

A striking illustration of the educational value of moving pictures is revealed in the beautiful series of “Empire” pictures which are being secured by Messrs. William Butcher and Sons. They are completing what may be described best as a cinematographic encyclopædia of Greater Britain—its peoples, resources, industries, sports, and scenic beauties. Every corner of the Empire is being searched for entrancing pictorial contributions to this project.

As might have been expected, others beside educational institutions have seen in the moving-picture show a powerful instrument of propaganda. Political, charitable, municipal, and numerous other organisations have pressed the celluloid ribbon into service to aid them in their crusades. It has been of far-reaching utility in preaching the gospel of sanitation and prosecuting the war against disease, for the films convey their lessons in a terribly realistic manner. The Americans have produced a striking film for the dissemination of information as to how to combat advantageously the ravages of the great “White Plague” of consumption. The various American hygiene associations also have pressed home their campaign against the common house-fly with commendable vigour by means of the cinematograph. Other photographs of a similar character have been produced in various places for the purpose of initiating the public into the causes of certain diseases and maladies, and the best means of prevention or treatment.

Medical science has profited materially from the perfection of the art and its application to surgery. It is not always possible for students to be present at a peculiarly delicate and abnormal operation. Although the subject may be described at length in the technical papers, words fail to be so emphatic as a pictorial reproduction of the feat. Not only can the operation be followed closely when reproduced upon the screen, but, if desired, any particular phase in the achievement can be selected, and by enlargement upon photographic paper it can be subjected to closer and more minute investigation at leisure.

Even the Government has not failed to recognise the power of the cinematograph. Some years ago Mr. Robert Paul applied to the War Office for permission to film scenes in a soldier’s life. The facilities were granted, and some first-class pictures were obtained. They proved immensely popular with the public, and were far more potent as a means of inducing enlistment with the colours than the most glowing word-pictures painted by glib, persuasive recruiting sergeants. This idea has been copied by other nations, and to-day the cinematograph is regarded as an indispensable weapon for attracting recruits to the land and sea services.

Religious institutions have not been backward in realising the value of animated pictures in preaching the gospel of faith. The producer, by means of the stage and actors, can present any episode from the Creation to the Resurrection. The world before the Deluge, the toil of the Israelites in the land of the Pharaohs, the Sacrifice of Abraham, the Passage of the Red Sea, with the destruction of the Egyptian hosts, the story of Samson and Delilah, the Fall of Babylon, scenes from the Life of Christ—all these and many others help to familiarise both old and young with the Bible stories, and add wonderfully to their convincingness, as the following episode shows:—A teacher was describing the Passage of the Red Sea. The children followed his words intently; and his peroration was accompanied by a piping voice exclaiming:

“Yes, teacher, I know that is right!”

“Why?” asked the somewhat startled teacher.

“Because I saw it!”

The teacher was perhaps prepared to chide at this flight of imagination; but the child soon explained that the previous evening she had been to a picture theatre and had seen the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.

Among the American preachers the significance of the cinematograph is beginning to be recognised. Ministers see in the projector a valuable adjunct to their teaching, and are disposed to introduce it into their churches. I am at liberty to quote in this connection a letter from one of the leading luminaries in American church circles, which was received by Mr. Richard G. Hollaman. The divine wrote: “My opinion is that the moving picture is the coming great educator. This I believe to be true, not only in the education of the youth, but in the church. I believe in a very few years every well-equipped church will have a moving-picture apparatus, so that the minister will appeal to the eye more than to the ear.”