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Kinetoscope

Page history last edited by Air Dupaix 14 years, 5 months ago

Definition:

 

A kinetoscope is a machine which creates the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. The concept was first devised by Thomas Edison in 1888, while the machine was invented by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (an employee of Edison's) between 1889 and 1892.

 

 

The  History of the Kinetoscope:

 

The actual idea for the Kinetoscope refers back to a conference Edison attended in February 1888 called "the inventor's laboratory."  It was a conference in which Eadweard Muybridge, the inventor of the Zoopraxiscope, also attended.  It has been said that with the help of the Zoopraxiscope, Edison's idea came about to invent something that would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear." 

 

Edison's assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, was told to invent the Kinetescope in June of 1889.  This has lead to arguments about how much work Edison actually contributed to this invention, the "motion picture camera."

 

Edison's idea was that this object could record and reproduce objects in motion, later refering to it as the "Kinetoscope."  Within this, he used the Greek words "kineto" or "movement" and "scopos" which means "to watch." 

 

With the phonograph cylinder in mind, Edison's initial experiments on the Kinetoscope took place.  The cylinder was composed of small photographic images that, when reflecting light, would rotate to create the illusion of motion.  At this moment in time, it seemed completely unrealistic.

 

Edison's invention had not yet been completed.  After meeting in Europe with Étienne-Jules Marey, a French physiologist who placed one continuous roll of film into his Chronophotographe attempting to create a sequence of motionless images, his process was delayed.  It was not until John Carbutt invented emulision-coated celluloid film sheets, which Edison used for his experiment, that the Kinetoscope began to take flight.  Soon after, the Eastman Company created their own film sheets.  Dickson bought a large number of these sheets and with William Heise's assistance, they created a machine that horizontally fed strips of film. This last invention led to the final prototype of the Kinetoscope, which eventually was shown on May 20, 1981 to the National Federation of Women's Club. (History of Edison's Motion Pictures: The Kinetoscope)

 

 

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