In the description of the patent of the director and writer N.M. Varzin-Ryazhsky, it was stated that his invention was intended “to accompany gramophone recordings, mainly propaganda speeches, reports and technical lectures recorded on a gramophone record, with light pictures.” According to the technical description, the device used a projector with several lenses, “projecting images onto the same place on the screen with an influx of one image onto another, produced by slides placed in a common frame and each illuminated by a separate incandescent lamp.” According to the founder of the Theremin Centre, A. Smirnov, the invention resembles “modern multimedia tools, in particular, the Power-Point programme” (Smirnov A. In Search of the Lost Sound. Experimental sound culture of Russia and the USSR in the first half of the twentieth century. M.: Museum of Contemporary Art “Garage”, 2020. p. 162).
Links to Third-Party Publications:
Varzin-Ryazhsky, N. M. (1935). Device for accompanying gramophone recordings with light pictures: application. date No. 41209; application 03/25/1934; publ. 01/31/1935. USSR patent database. URL: https://patents.su/patents/varzin-ryazhskijj (date of access: 05/08/2025); Smirnov A. In search of the lost sound. Experimental sound culture of Russia and the USSR in the first half of the twentieth century. M.: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2020; Kolganova O. V. Classification of domestic light and sound instruments of the first third of the twentieth century (From chromotrope to kinemachrome) // The Art and Science of Television. 2025. No. 21.3. pp. 61–117. https://tv-science.online/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TVstudies_21_3.pdf
