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Motion Picture Project
Thomas Edison's assistant, W.K.L. Dickson, begins devoting himself to the "motion picture project". He and his staff develop a horizontal-feed motion picture camera. -
Kinetograph
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. He prepares to patent both devices, but forgets to apply for overseas patents. -
Film Gauge
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. -
The Black Maria
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. -
The Holland Brothers
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. Senator Bradley forbids the projection of one of Edison 's films that shows the dancer Carmencita's undergarments as she dances. This is the first case of censorship in the moving picture industry. 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. -
Edison's Kinetoscope
From April 1894 through February 1895, 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. Working with Eugene Lauste and W.K.L. Dickson, the Lathams build a film projector that they call an Eidoloscope (or Pantoptikon). Because their projector uses a loop of film to ab -
Edison's Vitascope Theatre
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. By selling exclusive Vitascope exhibition rights for specific territories, they make a windfall profit. Charles and Emile Pathè found a company called "Pathé-Frères" in Paris. By the next decade they will become the largest producer of films in the world. A French magician, Georges Méliès, becomes -
The American Mutoscope 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. In Paris a catastrophic fire breaks out at the Bazar de la Charité's temporary cinema killing 121 people. Charles Méliès constructs the first movie studio that uses artificial illumination. Because of customs irregularities with the importation o -
USS Maine
The sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor gives rise to a multitude of Spanish-American War films. 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. Germany produces its first film. -
National Export Exposition
Vaudeville theatres establish permanent relations with motion picture exhibition services. Biograph 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. At the National Export Exposition in Philadelphia, Sigmund (or "Siegmund") Lubin constructs the first purpose-built movie theater. In Paris, Ms. Alice Guy is named head
