1833 –
Joseph Plateau (Belgium) introduces a scientific demonstration device that creates an
optical illusion of movement by mounting drawings on the face of a slotted, spinning disk, later published as the Fantascope (and now better known as the
Phenakistoscope).
Simon von Stampfer (
Vienna) publishes the very similar
stroboscopic discs a few months later.
1866 – The
Zoetrope is introduced. The device was a hollow drum with a strip of pictures around its inner surface. When the drum was spun and the pictures viewed through slots on the side of the drum, the pictures appeared to move.
1870s – French inventor
Charles-Émile Reynaud improved on the
Zoetrope idea by placing mirrors at the center of the drum. He called his invention the
Praxinoscope. Reynaud developed other versions of the Praxinoscope too, including a Praxinoscope Theatre, where the device was enclosed in a viewing box, and the Projecting Praxinoscope. Eventually he created the "
Théâtre Optique", a large machine based on the Praxinoscope, but able to project longer animated strips.
1878 – Railroad tycoon
Leland Stanford hires British photographer
Eadweard Muybridge to settle arguments about the strides of horses that were difficult to discern with the naked eye. Muybridge
successfully photographed successive positions of horses in fast motion, using a battery of 12 cameras controlled by trip wires and an electrical shutter system. Stanford's experiments were partly inspired by French scientist's
Étienne-Jules Marey studies with equipment that graphically recorded data to analyze animal and human movement.
1880 –
Eadweard Muybridge holds a public demonstration of his
Zoopraxiscope, a
magic lantern provided with a rotating disc with artist's renderings of Muybridge's chronophotographic sequences. It was used as a demonstration device by Muybridge in his illustrated lecture (the original preserved in the Museum of
Kingston upon Thames in England).
1882 – French physiologist
Étienne-Jules Marey develops his own version of Janssen's camera: a
chronophotographic gun that could photograph twelve successive images per second.
1887 – German chronophotographer
Ottomar Anschutz very successfully presents his photographs in motion with his
Electrotachyscope that uses transparent pictures in a wheel.
1891 – Designed around the work of Anschutz, Muybridge, Marey, and Eastman,
Thomas Edison's employee
William K. L. Dickson finishes work on a motion-picture camera, called the
Kinetograph, and a viewing machine, called the
Kinetoscope.
1892 –
Charles-Émile Reynaud begins public screenings in
Paris at the
Théâtre Optique, with hundreds of drawings on a reel that he wound through his Praxinoscope projector to construct moving image stories that continued for about 15 minutes each.
March 14, 1893 –
Thomas Edison is granted Patent #493,426 for "An Apparatus for Exhibiting Photographs of Moving Objects" (the
Kinetoscope).
April 14, 1894 – The first commercial presentation of the
Kinetoscope takes place at the Holland Brothers' Kinetoscope Parlor at 1155 Broadway, New York City.
1894 –
Kinetoscope viewing parlors begin to open in major cities. Each parlor contains several machines.
November 1895 – In Germany,
Emil and
Max Skladanowsky start publicly screening their films with their Bioskop.
1895 – In France,
Gaumont, the world's oldest extant film studio, is founded as a producer of photographic equipment (the company would start production of films in 1897).
December 1895 – In France,
Auguste and
Louis Lumière hold their first commercial screenings of films shot with their
Cinématographe, a lightweight, hand-held motion picture camera.
January 1896 – In the United States, a projector called the
Vitascope is designed by
Charles Francis Jenkins and
Thomas Armat. Armat began working with
Thomas Edison to manufacture the Vitascope, which projected motion pictures.
September 28, 1896 –
Pathé-Frères is founded in Paris.
1896 – French magician and filmmaker
Georges Méliès begins experimenting with the new motion picture technology, developing many early special effects techniques.
May 4, 1897 – 125 people die during a film screening at the
Bazar de la Charité in Paris after a curtain catches on fire from the ether used to fuel the projector lamp.
September 1899 – The British Mutoscope and Biograph Company makes King John (a very
shortsilent film) in London, the first known film based on a
Shakespeare play.
September 1899 –
Georges Méliès releases The Dreyfus Affair film series in France, with the last episode featuring events of the current month.
October 1899 – Georges Méliès releases Cendrillon in France, the first screen adaptation of the traditional fairy tale "
Cinderella".
1833 –
Joseph Plateau (Belgium) introduces a scientific demonstration device that creates an
optical illusion of movement by mounting drawings on the face of a slotted, spinning disk, later published as the Fantascope (and now better known as the
Phenakistoscope).
Simon von Stampfer (
Vienna) publishes the very similar
stroboscopic discs a few months later.
1866 – The
Zoetrope is introduced. The device was a hollow drum with a strip of pictures around its inner surface. When the drum was spun and the pictures viewed through slots on the side of the drum, the pictures appeared to move.
1870s – French inventor
Charles-Émile Reynaud improved on the
Zoetrope idea by placing mirrors at the center of the drum. He called his invention the
Praxinoscope. Reynaud developed other versions of the Praxinoscope too, including a Praxinoscope Theatre, where the device was enclosed in a viewing box, and the Projecting Praxinoscope. Eventually he created the "
Théâtre Optique", a large machine based on the Praxinoscope, but able to project longer animated strips.
1878 – Railroad tycoon
Leland Stanford hires British photographer
Eadweard Muybridge to settle arguments about the strides of horses that were difficult to discern with the naked eye. Muybridge
successfully photographed successive positions of horses in fast motion, using a battery of 12 cameras controlled by trip wires and an electrical shutter system. Stanford's experiments were partly inspired by French scientist's
Étienne-Jules Marey studies with equipment that graphically recorded data to analyze animal and human movement.
1880 –
Eadweard Muybridge holds a public demonstration of his
Zoopraxiscope, a
magic lantern provided with a rotating disc with artist's renderings of Muybridge's chronophotographic sequences. It was used as a demonstration device by Muybridge in his illustrated lecture (the original preserved in the Museum of
Kingston upon Thames in England).
1882 – French physiologist
Étienne-Jules Marey develops his own version of Janssen's camera: a
chronophotographic gun that could photograph twelve successive images per second.
1887 – German chronophotographer
Ottomar Anschutz very successfully presents his photographs in motion with his
Electrotachyscope that uses transparent pictures in a wheel.
1891 – Designed around the work of Anschutz, Muybridge, Marey, and Eastman,
Thomas Edison's employee
William K. L. Dickson finishes work on a motion-picture camera, called the
Kinetograph, and a viewing machine, called the
Kinetoscope.
1892 –
Charles-Émile Reynaud begins public screenings in
Paris at the
Théâtre Optique, with hundreds of drawings on a reel that he wound through his Praxinoscope projector to construct moving image stories that continued for about 15 minutes each.
March 14, 1893 –
Thomas Edison is granted Patent #493,426 for "An Apparatus for Exhibiting Photographs of Moving Objects" (the
Kinetoscope).
April 14, 1894 – The first commercial presentation of the
Kinetoscope takes place at the Holland Brothers' Kinetoscope Parlor at 1155 Broadway, New York City.
1894 –
Kinetoscope viewing parlors begin to open in major cities. Each parlor contains several machines.
November 1895 – In Germany,
Emil and
Max Skladanowsky start publicly screening their films with their Bioskop.
1895 – In France,
Gaumont, the world's oldest extant film studio, is founded as a producer of photographic equipment (the company would start production of films in 1897).
December 1895 – In France,
Auguste and
Louis Lumière hold their first commercial screenings of films shot with their
Cinématographe, a lightweight, hand-held motion picture camera.
January 1896 – In the United States, a projector called the
Vitascope is designed by
Charles Francis Jenkins and
Thomas Armat. Armat began working with
Thomas Edison to manufacture the Vitascope, which projected motion pictures.
September 28, 1896 –
Pathé-Frères is founded in Paris.
1896 – French magician and filmmaker
Georges Méliès begins experimenting with the new motion picture technology, developing many early special effects techniques.
May 4, 1897 – 125 people die during a film screening at the
Bazar de la Charité in Paris after a curtain catches on fire from the ether used to fuel the projector lamp.
September 1899 – The British Mutoscope and Biograph Company makes King John (a very
shortsilent film) in London, the first known film based on a
Shakespeare play.
September 1899 –
Georges Méliès releases The Dreyfus Affair film series in France, with the last episode featuring events of the current month.
October 1899 – Georges Méliès releases Cendrillon in France, the first screen adaptation of the traditional fairy tale "
Cinderella".