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Information about William Kennedy Laurie Dickson

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (August 3, 1860 – September 28, 1935) was a Franco-Scottish[1][2][3] inventor who is credited with the invention of the motion picture camera under the employ of Thomas Edison.

Biography

Dickson was born on 3 August, 1860 in Minihic-sur-Rance, Brittany, France, to a French mother and a Scottish father. His father died when Dickson was young.

Film innovator

Enlarge picture
Film still from Dickson Greeting, the oldest American film shown to a public audience (in 1891)
Dickson’s invention, the Kinetoscope, was simple: a strip of several images was passed in front of an illuminated lens and behind a spinning wheel. In fact, Edison saw very little value in the contraption, but thought that it might be served to endorse his phonograph.

On January 7, 1894, Dickson received a patent for motion picture film. Shortly afterwards, after a great deal of debate with Edison and West Orange film colleague Jonathan Campbell, Dickson switched from the 19 mm width, single sprocket film he was using, to the more stable 35 mm double-sided sprocket film. Edison didn't see the need or benefit for redesigning the equipment to accept the larger negative, but Dickson and Campbell believed it was essential if the technology was to advance. Today's standard is still 35 mm double-sided sprocket film.

Late in 1894 or early in 1895 Dickson became an ad hoc advisor to the motion picture operation of the Latham brothers, Otway and Grey, and their father, Woodville, who ran one of the leading Kinetoscope exhibition companies. Seeking to develop a movie projector system, they hired former Edison employee Eugene Lauste, probably at Dickson's suggestion. In April 1895, Dickson left Edison's employ and joined the Latham outfit. Alongside Lauste, he helped devise what would become known as the "Latham loop," allowing the photography and exhibition of much longer filmstrips than had previously been possible. The team of former Edison associates brought to fruition the Eidoloscope projector system, which would be used in the first commercial movie screening in world history on May 20, 1895. With the Lathams, Dickson was part of the group that formed the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, before he returned permanently to work in the United Kingdom in 1897.

Publications

  • The Biograph in Battle (Flicks Books, UK, reprinted in 1995)
  • A Brief History of the Kinetograph, the Kinetoscope and the Kinetophonograph (SMPTE Journal, Vol 21, December 1933)
  • An Authentic Life of Edison. The Life and Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison. (with Antonio Dickson, 8 volumes. New-York. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 1894) [4]

References

1. ^ "Born of a French mother and Scottish father", National Media Museum, accessed 30 April, 2007
2. ^ "it was his Scottish protégé, William Dickson, who... ", The Scotsman, 23 March 2002
3. ^ "William Dickson, Scottish inventor and photographer", Science & Society Picture Library, accessed 22 May 2007
4. ^ "An Authentic Life of Edison. The Life and Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison.", New York Times, November 11, 1894, Wednesday. Retrieved on 2007-08-21. “By W.K.L. Dickson and Antonio Dickson. Illustrated with drawings and photographs. 8 vo. New-York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. $4.50. 

Further reading

  • Gordon Hendricks, The Edison Motion Picture Myth (Arno Press, USA, 1972)
  • Ray Phillips, Edison’s Kinetoscope and its Films - a History to 1896 (Flicks Books,UK, 1997)
  • Charles Musser, The Emergence of Cinema: the American Screen to 1907 (Charles Scribner’s Sons, USA, 1990)
  • Charles Musser, Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company (University of California Press, USA, 1991)
  • Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915 (Charles Scribner’s Sons, USA, 1990)
  • John Barnes, Filming the Boer War (Bishopsgate Press, UK,1992)
  • Richard Brown and Barry Anthony, A Victorian Film Enterprise:The History of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company (Flicks Books, UK,1997)

See also

External links

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An inventor is a person who creates or discovers new methods, means, or devices for performing a task. The word "inventor" comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find.
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Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.
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movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images, each called a "frame".
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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11 1847 – October 18 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb.
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Brittany (Breton: Breizh pronounced /bʁejs/; French: Bretagne, pronounced ?· i
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Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard
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Edison cylinder phonograph ca. 1899]] The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded sound from the 1870s through the 1980s.

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Usage of these terms is not uniform across the English-speaking world (see below).
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Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.
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Dr Jonathan Campbell, BD, MPhil, DPhil (b. 1964) is a Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies & Early Judaism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol in Bristol, United Kingdom.
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35 mm film is the basic film gauge most commonly used for both still photography and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, using film stock supplied by George Eastman.
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Major Woodville Latham (1837-1911) was an ordnance officer of the Confederacy during the American Civil War and professor of chemistry at West Virginia University. He was significant in the development of early film technology.
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movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.
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Eugene Augustin Lauste (born 1857 in Montmartre, France; died June 27, 1935 in Montclair, New Jersey) The Father of Sound on Film, was an inventor instrumental in the technological development of the history of cinema.

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The Eidoloscope was an early motion picture system created by Woodville Latham and his two sons through their business, the Lambda Company, in New York City in 1894 and 1895.
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