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British photographer Eadweard Muybridge takes the first successful photographs of motion
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Etienne Marey in France develops a camera, shaped like a gun, that can take twelve pictures per second.
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Thomas Edison and W.K. Dickson develop the Kinetoscope, a peep-show device in which film is moved past a light.
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Thomas Edison displays his Kinetoscope at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and receives patents for his movie camera, the Kinetograph, and his peepshow device.
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Coin-operated Kinetoscopes appear in a New York City amusement arcade.
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Two French brothers, Louis and August Lumiere patent a combination movie camera and projector, capable of projecting an image that can be seen by many people. In Paris, they present the first commercial exhibition of projected motion pictures.
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Thomas Edison's company, using a projector built by Thomas Armat and C. Francis Jenkins, projects hand-tinted motion pictures in New York City.
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Edison files the first of many patent infringement suits, claiming that others are using equipment based on his Kinetograph camera.