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Phenakistoscope is introduced
CitationIn 1832, Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons introduced the phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer"). It was also invented independently in the same year by Simon von Stampfer of Vienna, Austria, who called his invention a stroboscope. Plateau's inspiration had come primarily from the work of Michael Faraday and Peter Mark Roget (the compiler of Roget's Thesaurus). Faraday had invented a device he called "Michael Faraday's Wheel," that consisted of two discs that spun in opposite directio -
Zoetrope was invented
CitationThe zoetrope was invented in 1834 by William Horner, who originally called it a Daedalum ("wheel of the Devil"). It was based on Plateau's phenakistoscope, but was more convenient since it did not require a viewing mirror and allowed more than one person to use it at the same time. Horner's invention strangely became forgotten for nearly thirty years until 1867, when it became patented in England by M. Bradley, and in America by William F. Lincoln. Lincoln renamed the Daedalum, giving it the -
Invention of Celluloid Film
CitationA British inventor, William H. Fox Talbot, an English classical archaeologist, made paper sensitive to light by bathing it in a solution of salt and silver nitrate. The silver turned dark when exposed to light and created a negative, which could be used to print positives on other sheets of light sensitive paper. -
Leland Stanford's Bet
In 1872, the governor of California (Leland Stanford) bet Eadward Muybridge, a world-famous photographer, $25,000 he couldn't prove that all four of a horse's hooves left the ground simultaneously when it ran.In 1878, after many experiments during which he made further refinements to the triggering mechanism and improvements in the sensitivity of emulsion paper, he succeeded in achieving the results he needed to settle the bet and collect the $25,000. Citation:http://agilewriter.com/Biography/Mu -
Eadward Muybridge invented zoopraxiscope
CitationThe zoopraxiscope, invented by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge and first shown in 1879, was a primitive version of later motion picture devices which worked by showing a sequence of still photographs in rapid succession.The zoopraxiscope emerged out of his studies of motion as shown in sequences of still photographs. -
George Eastman introduced the first hand-held box camera
CitationThe name "Kodak" was born and the KODAK camera was placed on the market, with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest." This was the birth of snapshot photography, as millions of amateur picture-takers know it today. -
Dickson invented Kinetograph
CitationThe original concept of the Kinetograph was patented by Thomas Edison in 1888. He filed an idea that would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear." He called the idea "Kinetograph."Edison's assistant, William Dickson was given the task of inventing the Kinetograph in 1889. Charles Brown joined him and the two began to experiment and research other film devices such as the Phenakistiscope and the Zoopraxiscope. -
The Black Maria
CitationA constant flow of new film subjects was needed to keep the new invention popular, so a motion picture production studio was built at West Orange in December 1892. It was dubbed the Black Maria on account of its resemblance to a police patrol wagon. The studio had a roof that could be opened to admit sunlight for illumination, and the building itself was mounted on a revolving pivot so that the structure could be constantly repositioned to keep it aligned with the sun. -
Fred Ott's Sneeze was made in Edison's "Black Maria"
CitationFred Ott’s Sneeze” by the Edison Manufacturing Company was the first motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States. In the five-second film, one of Thomas Edison’s assistants, Fred Ott, takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. The film was recorded between January 2, 1894 and January 7, 1894. -
First kinetoscope parlor opened in New York
CitationThe first Kinetoscope parlor, owned by the Holland Brothers, opened on April 14, 1894, in New York. Five machines were placed in a row, and a customer could view the films in each for a total of 25 cents. Kinetoscope parlors soon opened around the United States. -
Thomas Edison builds Kinetoscope
On December 13, 1894, the Kinetoscope -- the latest wonder from famed inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) -- makes its Seattle debut in a storefront on the Occidental Block, at the corner of 2nd Avenue and James Street. Although viewed at the time as a mere novelty, today the Kinetoscope is recognized as the machine that first brought motion picture technology to the general public. Citations:http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7582
http://www.britishmovieclassi -
The Lumiere Brothers have the world's first public film screening
Citation In 1895, the first public screening of films at which admission was charged was held by the Lumiere brothers at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. It featured ten short films, including their first film, Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory). -
A Trip to The Moon is filmed
CitationBy 1900 the movies had already witnessed color, sound and widescreen, quickly ignored innovations that wouldn't make their mark for several more decades. By contrast, the first special effects extravaganza in 1902 quickly captivated moviegoers and proved to have a more lasting effect. This early hit film was A Trip to the Moon (1902), directed, produced, written and starring French film pioneer Georges Melies. -
The Great Train Robbery is filmed
One of the milestones in film history was the first narrative film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), directed and photographed by Edwin S. Porter - a former Thomas Edison cameraman. It was a primitive one-reeler action picture, about 10 minutes long, with 14-scenes, filmed in November 1903 - not in the western expanse of Wyoming but on the East Coast in various locales in New Jersey (at Edison's New York studio, at Essex County Park Citation -
The Emergence of the Studio System
CitationCarl Laemmle, who has set up his own Independent Motion Picture Company, introduces the star system by hiring Florence Lawrence, one of Biograph's anonymous stars, and beginning a massive publicity campaign
