Interior view of Kinetoscope with peephole viewer at top of cabinet
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it created the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. Dickson and his team at the Edison lab in New Jersey also devised the Kinetograph, an innovative motion picture camera with rapid intermittent, or stop-and-go, film movement, to photograph movies for in-house experiments and, eventually, commercial Kinetoscope presentations.
A Kinetoscope prototype was first semipublicly demonstrated to members of the National Federation of Women's Clubs invited to the Edison laboratory on May 20, 1891. The completed version was publicly unveiled in Brooklyn two years later, and on April 14, 1894, the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures in history took place in New York City, using ten Kinetoscopes. Instrumental to the birth of American movie culture, the Kinetoscope also had a major impact in Europe; its influence abroad was magnified by Edison's decision not to seek international patents on the device, facilitating numerous imitations of and improvements on the technology. In 1895, Edison introduced the Kinetophone, which joined the Kinetoscope with a cylinder phonograph. Film projection, which Edison initially disdained as financially nonviable, soon superseded the Kinetoscope's individual exhibition model. Numerous motion picture systems developed by Edison's firm in later years were marketed with the name Projecting Kinetoscope.
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window...
Trademark Office; outlining his plans for the device, subsequently named the Kinetoscope. Dickson, then the Edison company's official photographer, was assigned...
presentation of the Kinetoscope takes place at the Holland Brothers' Kinetoscope Parlor at 1155 Broadway, New York City. 1894 – Kinetoscope viewing parlors...
placed from October 17, 1894, the first kinetoscopes in London. At the same time, the French company Kinétoscope Edison Michel et Alexis Werner bought these...
endeavored to correct the flaws they perceived in the kinetograph and the kinetoscope, to develop a machine with both sharper images and better illumination...
independently sold the Phantoscope to The Kinetoscope Company. The company realized that their Kinetoscope would soon be a thing of the past with the...
Edison's Kinetoscope, it did not project on a screen and provided viewing to only one person at a time. Cheaper and simpler than the Kinetoscope, the system...
at a time through "peep show" devices such as the Electrotachyscope, Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope. Not much later, exhibitors managed to project films...
presented in 1894 and it was through Thomas Edison's device called a kinetoscope. It was made for individual viewing only. Comedy short films were produced...
viewing machine called the Kinetoscope. May 20, 1891 – Thomas Edison holds the first public presentation of his Kinetoscope for the National Federation...
Woodville Latham was the father of Grey Latham and Otway Latham, owners of a kinetoscope parlor in New York City. In December 1894 Latham and his two sons formed...
prototype of the Kinetoscope which moves horizontally. May 20 – First public display of Thomas Edison's prototype horizontal kinetoscope: Dickson Greeting...
would be synchronised with his phonograph, he eventually introduced the kinetoscope as a silent motion picture viewer in 1893 and later "kinetophone" versions...
the musical soundtrack. Introduced in 1912, the Edison Home Projecting Kinetoscope was one of the first successful home theater devices. Although it used...
self-defense. Her stage acts were filmed for one of Thomas Edison's earliest Kinetoscopes in 1894. Since her death, her story has been adapted for stage musicals...
director of 2005's critically acclaimed short film Kinetoscope, a twisted horror fantasy. Kinetoscope was an Official Selection at: Santa Barbara International...
motion picture cameras. It is historically significant as the first Kinetoscope film shown in public exhibition on May 9, 1893, and is the earliest known...
14 – The first commercial presentation of the Kinetoscope took place in the Holland Brothers' Kinetoscope Parlor at 1155 Broadway, New York City. June...
first exploit became the kinetoscope. A few public demonstrations occurred since 9 May 1893, before a first public Kinetoscope parlor was opened on 14...
possibly inspired by Reynaud's Théâtre Optique. A prototype of the Kinetoscope was demonstrated to a convention of the National Federation of Women's...
film and project images. The first public kinetoscope demonstration took place in 1893. By 1894, the Kinetoscope had become a commercial success, with public...
short silent films made to test the original cylinder format of the Kinetoscope, and are believed to be the first films shot in the United States. Monkeyshines...
Crude Set Drama (AKA: Untitled Kinetoscope Comedy) is an 1895 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, produced and directed by Birt Acres for...
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