Introduction - 2

Cinema Pioneers

The invention of movies was not a sudden revelation bursting from the mind of a single inventor. Their origins are shrouded in many different claims and precedents. Magic lanterns and flip books had created the illusion of movement for centuries. The Zoetrope and the Phenakistoscope are just two examples of devices that were developed in the 19th century.

The cylinder is spun. As it is spinning, the viewer looks through the small slots on the outside of the Zoetrope. With the illusion of motion, the slots become one slot, and the drawings inside become a smooth movement. It was then that it was given the name zoetrope, from the Greek zoa (living things) and trope (turning). Zoetropes were extremely popular forms of entertainment for both children and adults in the Victorian era. It is interesting that there has always been the element of amusement in the motion picture - an art that was born, so to speak, from toys.

In the early 1890s, William Dickson and Thomas Edison developed their own camera-like device which they called the kinetoscope.

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