Automobiling Among the Clouds (1904)

Ah, 1938 Pismo Beach and all the clams we...can...huh. Way too many hills for a beach-let's check for clogs in the tachyon filters again-hold on, is that a race? Screw maintenance, where's my binoculars?

Early in the Summer of 1904, several car owners-driving one or more early Daimlers, Mercedes, Pierce and even Stanley Steamers and a few bicyclists-decided on a friendly endurance challenge up and down the very steep( and high-altitude, literally 'above the clouds') Mt. Washington Roadway in New Hampshire. As far as we know there were no manufacturers or monied interests backing the contests, and the reward may have been only bragging rights-but enough of a stir was generated that early director W.G.'Billy' Bitzer of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. decided to set up some cameras to film the event...

Film technology was in its infancy in 1904 and both the lack of tracking and focusing shots show, as do the lack of proper lighting and weather filters-none of which were available yet. Even so, the stationary cameras capture the thrill of early driving, pitting driving skill and early engines against the narrow, washboard roads of the age, with no guide rails to catch them and only pure technique keeping the drivers from fatal falls...a few horsepower struggling against high elevations on a pitted wagon trail...and who the heck was riding those bicycles up a mountain, and what the heck do they feed those guys?

This eight-and-a-half-minute feature made the rounds in theaters for many years, and was recreated from paper prints from the Library of Congress-an analogue technique that I am utterly fascinated by. So as I re-seal my Tachyon Filters I hoist my mug of very hot chocolate to the archivists and restorers everywhere for my brief New Hampshire vacation...Silent, B&W.