History of Film Technology

[1]   The Magic Lantern

There is much debate about who actually first came up with the idea of motion picture machinery.   It was a combination of several people and their visions and ideas.  These people included Leonardo da Vinci and his camera obscura.   In 1655 Christian Huygens, a Dutch scientist invented the first recognized magic lantern.    A London glass maker named Mr. Reeves in 1966 made, "a lanthorn with pictures in glasse, to make strange things appear on a wall, very pretty."  The Phenakistoscope ("deceitful view") was made by Joseph Plateau, a Belgian physicist.[2] Magic Lantern Castle Museum Early Projection The Magic Lantern

Kinetoscope
In 1894 the Kinetoscope appeared.  It was a motion picture viewing device.  It was four feet tall and stood on the floor.  The user inserted a coin and watched a short film loop that lasted less than a minute.
The Peephole Kinetoscope

Links
History of Film, Video, and Television
Motion Picture Collections: Library of Congress

[1] Stringer, Gary.  "The Bill Douglas Centre or the History of Cinema and Popular Culture."  Online.  Pallas
                    (Computing in the Arts). 13 July 1995.  Available: http://www.ex.ac.uk/bill.douglas/lanterns.html.

[2] Balio, Tino., ed. The American Film industry. Madison, Wisconsin: The U. of Wisconsin Press, 1985. (29)

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Created: February 12, 1999
Last Updated: February 17, 1999
Created by: Jessa Hale-Dorrell