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Motion Picture Project
Thomas Edison's assistant, W.K.L. Dickson, begins devoting himself to the "motion picture project". -
Period: to
motion pictures
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Edison
A peephole-viewing machine is unveiled by Edison during a convention of the Federation of Women's Clubs.The motion picture in the viewing machine shows a man bowing, smiling and taking off his hat.
Edison calls his motion picture camera a kinetograph, and his peephole-viewing device a kinetoscope. -
Inch Film
Edison 's use of 1 1 / 2 - inch film in his vertical-feed motion picture camera establishes the basis for today's standard 35mm commercial film gauge. -
Film Studio
Edison builds a film studio on the grounds of his laboratories in New Jersey to produce films for his kinetoscope machines. The studio is called "The Black Maria", a slang term for a police patrol wagon that the studio is said to resemble. -
First Kinetoscope Parlor
The Holland brothers open the first kinetoscope parlor in New York City on April 14. In one year they have gross receipts of over $16,000. -
First Person To Project A Filmed
On June 6, in Richmond, Indiana, the inventor Charles Francis Jenkins becomes the first person to project a filmed motion picture onto a screen for an audience. -
Film Sales Exceed
Edison 's kinetoscope and film sales exceed $177,000.
In April, W.K.L. Dickson leaves Edison 's laboratories after a difference of opinion with Edison. He goes on to become one of the founders of the American Mutoscope Company, which would eventually become the Biograph Company. -
Eidoloscopes
the Lathams build a film projector that they call an Eidoloscope (or Pantoptikon). Because their projector uses a loop of film to absorb the shock of the film's intermittent movement, the length of film shot or projected is no longer limited to a couple of minutes. -
Charles Raff & Frank Gammon
Charles Raff and Frank Gammon buy the Jenkins-Armat phantoscope from Thomas Armat on behalf of Edison. They rename the projector " Edison's Vitascope", and it is hailed as Edison's latest invention. -
"Biograph Company"
The American Mutoscope Company (later renamed the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and frequently called the "Biograph Company"), marketing their own films and their new biograph projector, becomes the foremost motion picture company in the U.S. -
customs irregularities
Because of customs irregularities with the importation of their cameras, and because their films use a single-hole sprocket system that is incompatible with other English and American projectors, the Lumière Agency liquidates its holdings of equipment and films in both the U.S. and England. -
Patent Infringement
Edison files a patent-infringement suit against the Biograph Company.
Edison 's lawyers visit two theater producers and warn them against exhibiting foreign films in America. -
Permanent Relations
Vaudeville theatres establish permanent relations with motion picture exhibition services.
Biography introduces a new tripod head that allows quick, smooth panning of the camera.
Although the vast majority of films still consist of a single shot, a few multi-shot films begin to be included in the catalogues of film companies.
