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The 'magic lanterns' were used back in the 17th century. The earliest used, had a candle and images inside to allow you to see them 'move'. By 1850, they were still around and being used as projectors with glass slides and transparent images inside.
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The first photograph was taken in either 1826 or 1827 by Joseph Niepce. He titled it "Le Gras" and it depicted the view from an upstairs window in his family's estate. He got the photo by using lithographic printing which later evolved into his invention of heliography.
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Eadweard Muybridge was asked back in 1783 by the ex-governor of California if horses' hooves left the ground when they galloped. This brought on the idea to set up 12 trip wires connected to cameras that took a picture everytime the hooves landed on it. This showed the movement of the horse and caused Muybridge to adapt the Zoetrope to create the Zoopraxinoscope.
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George Eastman invented a still camera which developed photos on special sensitive paper. This allowed for the common man to take pictures of their own and print them. Kodak was also the first major camera company.
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Edison, despite previous attempts, developed a film projector called the kinetograph and a viewing box called the kinetoscope. He later patented them both.
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Emile Renaud started showing motion pictures to the public with his idevice called the Praxinoscope. This device was invented back in 1877 but wasn't used for anything other than private viewings until this point.
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Edison built a film studio near his labratory in New Jersey. This was used to produce films to show on their kinetoscope.
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The Lumière family developed the Cinématographe which was both a recording and projecting device. They did it because they were asked to make a device that would have cheaper film than Edison's device. The camera shot at 16 frames per second which became the film standard for the following 25 years.
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The first movie in color, while many believe it to be the Wizard of Oz from 1939, is actually much older than that. 'A Trip to the Moon' used a technique in which the producers went in and hand colored the film strips.
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The first silent film, 'The Great Train Robbbery' was created and produced by Edison. This film was 12 minutes long and led to the opening of movie theaters around the world.
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The first movie theater opened in January of 1905 in Pittsburg Pennsylvania. The Nickelodeon was the firsst to be exclusively devoted to showing motion pictures.
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The first film with sound called the Jazz Singer came out in 1927. This began the era of films which had talking instead of slides inbetween scenes which show what the actors are supposed to be saying.
