User Reviews

The master himself. I may be wrong, but I always thought it's surprising we get to see so much of Méliès and so little of Edison in these early short film productions.

In any case, the title says it all. It's the famous inventor and movie pioneer Thomas Alva Edison being extremely busy in his chemistry lab, long white lab coat and I believe he even gives us a little smile right before the film ends. I wonder what he's working on and why he chose exactly that day, that scene and that experiment to put on film. I have no idea. But I do know that it's really nice to see him on the other side of the camera for once.

. . . it is likely that an equally important moment in history is captured--at least in part--by this 21.96-second long film. It is clear that old Tom is not aware of the spy cam recording his activities, as he bops around from one side of his lab table to the other and back, with no time outs to mug for the camera. (Probably there were no actors in 1897 who could have ignored a motion picture camera with the degree of obliviousness Tom exhibits here, which just goes to prove my spy cam theory; the only question is how this surreptitious camera was hidden, since Teddy Bears were not in vogue yet.) As this flick begins, Tom tears up a sheet of parchment after looking at it aghast--no doubt this was the formula for New Coke! He then does something on the right side of the picture, putters around on the left side--before realizing his chemicals on the right side of the screen are on fire! A lesser genius probably would have lost his whole lab a minute later (never to invent TV or the atomic bomb), but the sharp-witted Edison immediately grabs a pitcher of lemonade and douses the problem: well done, Tom!