EARLY+CINEMA

 ** The Invention of Cinema **

Optical toys, shadow shows, magic lanterns, and visual tricks have existed for thousands of years. However the Nineteenth century was start of the visual era.

__The Inventions leading up to cinema__

 * 1832 - the invention of the **Fantascope** by Belgian inventor Joseph Plateau, a device that simulated motion. A series or sequence of separate pictures depicting stages of an activity, such as juggling or dancing, were arranged around the perimeter or edges of a slotted disk.
 * 1834 - the invention and patenting of another //stroboscopic// device adaptation, the **Daedalum** by British inventor William George Horner. It was a hollow, rotating drum/cylinder with a crank, with a strip of sequential photographs, drawings, paintings or illustrations on the interior surface and regularly spaced narrow slits through which a spectator observed the 'moving' drawings.
 * 1861 - the invention of the **Kinematoscope** by Philadelphian Coleman Sellers, an improved rotating paddle machine to view (by hand-cranking) a series of //stereoscopic// still pictures on glass plates that were sequentially mounted in a cabinet-box
 * 1869 - the development of //celluloid// by John Wesley Hyatt, trademarked in 1873. It was later used as the base for photographic film.
 * 1870 - the first demonstration of the **Phasmotrope** by Henry Heyl in Philadelphia, that showed a rapid succession of still or posed photographs of dancers, giving the illusion of motion.
 * 1877 - the invention of the **Praxinoscope** by French inventor Charles Reynaud. It was a 'projector' device with a mirrored drum that created the illusion of movement with picture strips, a refined version of the Zoetrope with mirrors at the center of the drum instead of slots.
 * 1879 - Thomas Edison's first public exhibition of an efficient incandescent light bulb, later used for film projectors

Pioneering Britisher Eadweard Muybridge, an early photographer and inventor, was famous for his photographic loco-motion studies at the end of the 19th century. Muybridge's pictures,were often cut into strips and used in a Praxinoscope, invented by Charles Emile Reynaud in 1877. The Praxinoscope was the //first// 'movie machine' that could project a series of images onto a screen.

-In 1882, Etienne-Jules Marey, constructed a camera or photographic gun that could take multiple 12 photograph( per second of moving animals or humans. The camera was called a chronophotography or serial photography. He later achieve a frame rate of 30 images.

-In the late 1880s, famed American inventor Thomas Edison and his young British assistant William Kennedy Dickson took a huge step forwards for film. Although Edison is often credited with the development of early motion picture cameras and projectors, it was Dickson, in November 1890, who devised a crude, motor-powered camera that could photograph motion pictures called a Kinetograph.

-The first public demonstration of motion pictures using the Kinetoscope occurred at the Edison Laboratories to the Federation of Women’s Clubs on May 20, 1891, with the showing of //Dickson Greeting//. The very short film’s subject in the test footage was William Dickson himself, bowing, smiling and ceremoniously taking off his hat.

The world's //first// film production studio, the Black Maria, or the Kinetographic Theater was built on the grounds of Edison's laboratories at West Orange, New Jersey, on February 1, 1893. It was constructed for the purpose of making film strips for the Kinetoscope. It was a black, tar-paper covered building/studio and built with a turntable to orient itself throughout the day to follow the natural sunlight.

Most of the first films shot at the Black Maria included segments of magic shows, plays, dancers and strongmen. Most of the earliest moving images, however, were non-fictional, unedited, "home movie" views of ordinary slices of life : street scenes, the activities of police or firemen, or shots of a passing train

In the early 1890s, Edison and Dickson also devised a prototype sound-film system called the Kinetophonograph or Kinetophone. In mid-April 1894, the Holland Brothers opened the first Kinetoscope Parlor at 1155 Broadway in New York City and for the //first// time, they commercially exhibited movies, as we know them today. People paid 25 cents as the admission charge to view films in five kinetoscope machines placed in two rows.

The innovative Lumiere brothers in France, Louis and Auguste, who worked in a Lyons factory that manufactured photographic equipment and supplies, were inspired by Edison's work. They created their own combo movie camera and projector. A more portable, hand-held and lightweight device that could be cranked by hand and could project movie images to several spectators.The Cinematographe was created in February, 1895. The multi-purpose device (combining camera, printer and projecting capabilities in the same housing) was more profitable because more than a single spectator could watch the film on a large screen.

As generally acknowledged, //cinema// (a word derived from //Cinematographe//) was born on December 28, 1895, in Paris. The Lumieres presented the first //commercial// exhibition of a projected motion picture to a paying public in the world's first movie theatre. The //Salon Indien//, held the showing at the Grand Cafe on Paris' Boulevard des Capucines. The 20-minute program included ten short films with twenty showings a day.


 * 1) //La Sortie des Ouviers de L'Usine Lumière à Lyon (1895)// (//Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory//) (46 seconds)
 * 2) //La Voltige (1895)// (//Horse Trick Riders//) (46 seconds)
 * 3) //La Pêche aux Poissons Rouges (1895)// (//Fishing for Goldfish//) (42 seconds)
 * 4) //Le Débarquement du Congrès de Photographie à Lyon (1895) (The Disembarkment of the Congress of Photographers in Lyon)// (48 seconds)
 * 5) //Les Forgerons (1895)// (//Blacksmiths//) (49 seconds)
 * 6) //Le Jardinier (l'Arroseur Arrosé) (The Gardener// or //The Sprinkler Sprinkled) (1895)// (49 seconds)
 * 7) //Le Repas (de Bébé) (1895)// (//Baby's Meal//) (41 seconds)
 * 8) //Le Saut à la Couverture (1895)// (//Jumping onto the Blanket//) (41 seconds)
 * 9) //La Place des Cordeliers à Lyon (1895)// (//Cordeliers Square in Lyon//) (44 seconds)
 * 10) //La Mer (Baignade en Mer) (1895)// (//Bathing in the Sea//) (38 seconds)