Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for

movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either onto film stock or an image sensor, in order to produce a moving image to display on a screen. In c ...

s as well as

film projector A movie projector (or film projector) is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in ...

s, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the Lumière).

History

A device by this name was invented and patented as the " Léon Bouly" by French inventor Léon Bouly on February 12, 1892. Bouly coined the term "cinematograph," from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

for "writing in movement."Abel, Richard. Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2004. Due to a lack of money, Bouly could not develop his ideas properly and maintain his patent fees, so the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: Buildings * Lumière, a building used by the Bibliothèque publique d'information in Paris, France * Lumiere (skyscraper), a cancelled skyscraper development in Leeds, ...

were free to adopt the name. In 1895, they applied it to a device that was mostly their own invention. The Lumière brothers made their first film, '' Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory'' (''Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon''), that same year. The first commercial, public screening of cinematographic films happened on 20 May 1895 at 156 Broadway, New York City, when the " Eidoloscope", invented by Woodville Latham and Eugene Lauste was presented. Nonetheless, this has often been incorrectly attributed to the first Lumière show on 28 December 1895 at

Salon Indien du Grand Café Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

in Paris, which was organised by the Lumière brothers.Louis Lumière, ''The Lumière Cinematograph''. In: This presentation featured ten short films, including a new version of ''Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory''. Each of these early films was 17 meters long (approximately 56 feet), which, when hand cranked through a projector, ran approximately 50 seconds.

Invention

Louis Lumière and his brother Auguste worked together to create a motion-picture camera superior to

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

kinetograph The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that woul ...

, which did not have a projector. The Lumières endeavored to correct the flaws they perceived in the kinetograph and the kinetoscope, to develop a machine with both sharper images and better illumination. The weighed only , which allowed for ease of transportation and placement. As well, the was manually operated by a hand-crank, as opposed to Edison's electrically powered camera, which was not readily portable. Furthermore, while only one person at a time could use Edison's kinetoscope for viewing through an eyepiece-- an early model of a

viewfinder In photography, a viewfinder is a device on a camera that a photographer uses to determine exactly where the camera is pointed, and approximately how much of that view will be photographed. A viewfinder can be mechanical (indicating only direct ...

. The could project an image onto a screen so a large audience of people could view images simultaneously.Gomery, Professor Douglas, and Clara Pafort-Overduin. Movie History: A Survey. Taylor & Francis, 2011. The produced a sharper projected image than had been seen before due to its design, in which a kind of fork held frames behind the lens in place using the perforations in the sides of the film strip. In 1897, the Lumières further added to their invention by using a glass flask of water as the condenser to concentrate the light onto the film frame and to absorb heat. The flask also acted as a safety feature, as the light would no longer focus on the flammable film if the glass were to break due to overheating or accident.Cinematograph, Louis Lumière. "1936 the Lumière Cinematograph." SMPTE Journal 105, no. 10 (October 1, 1996): 608–611.

Popularity

After the success of the Lumières's initial public screening in 1895, the became a popular attraction for people all over the world. The Lumière brothers took their machine to China and India and it was enjoyed by people of all classes and social standings. The was used to show films in nickelodeons, where even the poorest classes could pay the entry fee. It was exhibited at fairs and used as entertainment in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

houses in both Europe and the United States. While vaudeville is typically associated with the working and middle classes, the machine also found its way into more sophisticated venues, where it appealed to the artistic tastes of high society.

Notes

Explanatory notes

References

Ang, Tom. 2019. Photography: History, Art, Technique, 2005–2019.

External links

Adventures in Cybersound
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cinematograph Audiovisual introductions in 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière History of film French inventions History of French cinema