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Edison Projecting Kinetoscope with accessories
Object No. B1887
This Projecting Kinetoscope, capable of projecting a moving film image in a small auditorium, was designed and built in 1897. Prior to this the Kinetoscope, a film carriage device without the lamphouse as a powerful light source, was mounted in a case where one person could view a 35 mm strip of celluloid film 50 feet long (at 15 frames per second, the film ran to 15 seconds). The Kinetoscope's construction incorporated a great deal of the essential mechanism of the modern movie projector. Development of the Kinetoscope followed Edison's meeting with Eadweard Muybridge in 1888 to discuss a cooperative development of a 'talking' motion picture machine, combining an improved Muybridge Zoopraxiscope with Edison's phonograph. Edison described this device as 'an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear . . .' (Edison filed a caveat with the Patents Office in October 1888). By 1891 William Dickson, an engineer at the Edison Laboratories, had finished the Edison Kinetoscope. The Kinetoscope went into production and Kinetoscope parlours appeared across the country from 1892.
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Summary
Object Statement
Projector with accessories, 'Edison Projecting Kinetoscope', wood / glass / metal / fabric, Edison Manufacturing Co, Orange, New Jersey, United States of America, 1897-1900
Physical Description
Kinetoscope projector. Film carriage mechanism and lamp house mounted onto timber frame. Hand cranked operation moves sprocketed celluloid film through the mechanism, stopping the progress of the film momentarily at the gate, where light source from lamp house illuminates stationary frame for projection.
DIMENSIONS
Height
540 mm
Width
278 mm
PRODUCTION
Notes
Although Thomas Edison took sole credit for the products coming from his laboratories, the task of inventing the moving picture device was left in the hands of his assistant William Dickson & his assistant Charles Brown. Most modern scholars agree that although Edison did conceive the idea and oversee the project, Dickson performed the bulk of the experimentation that led to the Kinetoscope. Manufactured by Edison Manufacturing Company, Orange, New Jersey., USA
SOURCE
Credit Line
Gift of Mr F H Leydecker, 1970
Acquisition Date
7 October 1970
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