The Beginnings Of The Cinema In England,1894-1901: Volume 1: 1894-1896

By John Barnes

Describing in detail one of the most inventive periods in the history of English cinema, the volumes in this celebrated series are already established as classics in their field. Each volume details the highlights of a single cinematic year, including details of production, manufacturers of equipment, dealers and exhibitors. This is augmented by numerous carefully chosen illustrations and a comprehensive filmography of English films, fiction and non-fiction, for the year.

Taking the Kinetoscope as its point of departure, Volume 1 explores in depth the progress made in the field of cinematography up until the end of 1896, by which time the film had become the main attraction of almost every major music hall in Great Britain. The contribution made by inventors such as R.W. Paul and Birt Acres is discussed in detail, as is also the work of hitherto forgotten pioneers of the British film.

This volume is edited by Richard Maltby and has a foreword by David Robinson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Exeter Press
• Release date: Mar 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9780859899772

John Barnes

John Barnes (b. 1957) is the author of more than thirty novels and numerous short stories. His most popular novels include the national bestseller Encounter with Tiber (co-written with Buzz Aldrin), Mother of Storms (finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula awards), Tales of the Madman Underground (winner of the Michael L. Printz Award), and One for the Morning Glory, among others. His most recent novel is The Last President (2013).

Book preview

The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901

———

Volume One: 1894–1896

(revised and enlarged edition)

Frontispiece William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson (1860–1935): inventor of the Kinetograph and Kinetoscope, the first practical method of cinematography (Barnes Collection)

The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901

———

Volume One: 1894–1896

(revised and enlarged edition)

John Barnes

edited by Richard Maltby

with a foreword by David Robinson

UNIVERSITY

of

EXETER

PRESS

First published as ‘The Beginnings of

the Cinema in England’ by

David and Charles in 1976

Revised and enlarged edition published in 1998 by

University of Exeter Press

Reed Hall, Streatham Drive

Exeter, Devon EX4 4QR, UK

www.exeterpress.co.uk

© John Barnes 1976, 1998

First paperback edition published 2014

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 85989 954 3

Typeset in 10/12 pt Times New Roman

by Exe Valley Dataset Ltd, Exeter

Printed in the UK by 4edge Limited

Contents

Illustrations

Foreword by David Robinson

Preface to the First Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

Acknowledgements

1    The Kinetoscope

2    The Paul–Acres Camera

3    Paul’s Time Machine

4    The Theatrograph

5    The Kinetic Camera and Kineopticon of Birt Acres

6    The Cinématographe-Lumière

7    Exploitation of the Theatrograph

8    Independent Exhibitors of the Theatrograph

9    Other Inventors and Exhibitors

10    Apparatus from Abroad

11    Royal Film Performances

12    Film Production

13    Conclusion

Appendices

1   British Films of 1895–1896

2   Lumière Films Photographed in the United Kingdom 1896–1897

3   Chronology

Notes

Illustrations

Frontispiece: William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson

1R.W. Paul’s Kinetoscope

2Edison Kinetoscope

3Advertisement for A. Lomax’s Phonograph and Kinetoscope Office

4Pickaninnies (Edison, 1894)

5Film cans for Kinetoscope loops

6Kinetoscope Parlours

7Dicksons’ booklet, History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kineto-Phonograph

8The Horse Shoe Hotel, Tottenham Court Road, London and menu card

9Frame illustrations from five Kinetoscope films

10 Edison’s Kinetoscope Parlour in the Strand

11a Descriptive pamphlet issued by the Continental Commerce Co.

11b Descriptive pamphlet issued by the International Kinetoscope Co.

11c Descriptive pamphlet issued by Edison’s Kinetoscope and Phonograph

12 Robert William Paul

13 Advertisement for Edison Kinetoscopes

14 The sample strip of Kinetoscope film sent by Paul to Edison

15 Letter from Paul to Edison

16 ‘The first Kinetoscope film made in England’

17 Birt Acres

18 Paul’s rotary film perforator

19 Paul’s film printer

20 Birt Acres filming the Derby of 1895

21 Paul’s Cinematograph Camera No. 1

22 Souvenir card issued by Hale’s Tours, London

23 Paul’s first film projector, the Theatrograph

24 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1

25 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1 adapted for touring

26 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1

27 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1

28 The intermittent mechanism of Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1

29 Paul’s intermittent film perforator

30 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 2

31 Paul’s Cinematograph Camera No. 2

32 Souvenir postcard of the Kiel Canal

33 Rough Sea at Dover (Birt Acres, 1895)

34 The Kiel Canal (Birt Acres, 1895)

35 The Kiel Canal , enlargements of two sections

36 The Kinetic Camera of Birt Acres

37 Working drawing for the Kinetic Camera

38 The Birt Acres Experimental Camera

39 The Birtac, patented by Birt Acres in 1898

40 Press notice of the first film projection demonstration in the UK

41 Handbill advertising the Kineoptikon

42 Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II (Paul–Acres, 1895)

43 Advertisement for the Kineopticon

44 The Queen’s Hall, People’s Palace, London

45 Programme of the Queen’s Hall

46 Handbill for programme of films by Birt Acres

47 Letter from R.W. Paul to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office

48 Auguste and Louis Lumiere

49 The Cinématographe-Lumière

50 Felicien Trewey

51 Frame enlargement from Partie d’écarté (Lumière, 1896, cat. 73)

52 Felicien Trewey’s booklet on shadowgraphy

53 The Polytechnic, Regent St, London

54 (a) Programme for the Cinématographe-Lumière; (b) Francis Pochet

55 Handbill for the Cinematographe-Lumiere

56 The Empire Theatre, Leicester Square

57 Theatre programmes and Trewey’s booklet on shadowgraphy

58 Handbill for the Cinematographe-Lumiere

59 Advertisement for the Cinematographe-Lumiere

60 Matt Raymond

61 Letter from Trewey to Mr De Vere

62 City and Guilds Technical College, Finsbury

63 The Royal Institution, Albemarle St, London

64 (a) Olympia, Addison Rd, Kensington; (b) official programme

65 Front cover of programme from Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Sq., London

66 Alhambra Theatre

67 Handbill advertising Paul’s Theatrograph

68 Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London

69 Programme of the Royal Canterbury Theatre of Varieties, Westminster Bridge Rd, London

70 The Filoscope, invented by H.W. Short

71 The Soldier’s Courtship (R.W. Paul, 1896)

72 Mary and Flora Hengler

73 The Derby (R.W. Paul, 1896)

74 A Sea Cave Near Lisbon (R.W. Paul, 1896)

75 (a) David Devant; (b) The Egyptian Hall

76 (a) Carl Hertz; (b) SS Norman

77 Programme of the Royal Command Film Performance at Windsor Castle

78 (a) Hercat; (b) Skegness Pier

79 Playbill announcing Cole’s ventriloquist and film entertainment

80 (a) Advertisement for the Victoria Hall, Brighton; (b) The Victoria Hall

81 Posters advertising Paul’s Theatrograph

82 The Royal Aquarium, Westminster

83 Advertisement for Rigg’s Kinematograph

84 Rigg’s Kinematograph and Camera

85 Rigg’s Kinematograph including detail of intermittent mechanism

86 The intermittent mechanism of Rigg’s Kinematograph

87 Alternative mechanism for Rigg’s Kinematograph

88 The intermittent mechanism of Rosenberg’s Cinematograph

89 Rosenberg’s Cinematograph

90 Advertisement for Wrench’s Cinematograph

91 The Wrench Cinematograph

92 The Motorgraph camera and projector

93 Wray’s Kineoptoscope

94 Appleton’s Cieroscope

95 Appleton’s Cieroscope No. 1

96 The Animatoscope

97 The Ottway Animatoscope projector

98 Queen Victoria and royal visitors at Balmoral

99 The Velograph

100 The intermittent mechanism of the Grand Kinematograph

101 The Newman Cinematograph

102 Naish’s Cinematograph

103 John Nevil Maskelyne

104 Poster advertising the Mutagraph

105 The Greene-Prestwich Projector

106 Cabinet photograph by A. Esmé Collings

107 Cabinet photograph taken in studio controlled by Friese-Greene and Collings

108 Dean’s Yard, 25 Ditchling Rise, Brighton

109 Auguste Van Biene

110 Programme of the Anarithmoscope at the People’s Palace

111 Handbill issued by Randall Williams in 1897

112 The Agricultural Hall, Islington

113 The Vitagraphe made by Clement & Gilmer

114 The Kinetographe de Bedts

115 The Kinetographe de Bedts

116 Anderton’s Hotel in Fleet St, London

117 The Chronophotographe of Georges Demeny

118 Cabinet photographs of the Prince and Princess of Wales

119 Marlborough House, London

120 The Ross-Hepworth arc-lamp

121 70 mm film depicting Queen Victoria and Tzar Nicholas II

122 Advertisement issued by the European Blair Co. Ltd

123 George Eastman

124 35 mm film measurer

125 Paul’s developing and drying outfit

126 (a) List of films for the Theatrograph; (b) Incident Outside Clovelly Cottage, Barnet

127 Frame illustrations from two films by Birt Acres

128 Films by Esmé Collings and Birt Acres offered for sale by Romain Talbot

129 Train: Arrival of the Paris Express (Paul, 1896)

130 A Comic Costume Race at the Music Hall Sports

131 Westminster: Street Traffic near the Houses of Parliament

132 Children at Play

133 David Devant: The Egg Laying Man

134 Chirgwin (Hat)

135 Chirgwin (Pipes)

136 Mr Maskelyne Spinning Plates and Basins

137 Blackfriars’ Bridge with passing traffic and pedestrians

138 The Gordon Highlanders

139 The Twins’ Tea Party

140 List of films showing at the Alhambra Theatre

141 Donkey Riding (Esmé Collings, 1896)

Foreword by David Robinson

John and William Barnes are modest men, yet—whether or not the British film community appreciates the fact—they are a national treasure. Perhaps, rather, an international treasure, for they are the undisputed pioneers of scientific film history, in the sense of the uncompromising rigour with which, for some sixty years, they have collected and researched the primary sources.

The twins’ first discovery of cinema, in 1932, when they were twelve, was traumatic. On the day of their father’s funeral, they were given a Pathé-Baby projector, to console them. It did more than that: it launched an obsession, which very soon led them to make films and to collect apparatus, stills and dcuments—all the detritus of film history. The miracle is that so many years after that first discovery, the initial enthusiasm for collecting and recording has never faded, as this revised edition of John Barnes’ account of the first years of the British film proves.

John Barnes has found it necessary to revise very little of the text of the original edition of the book, published twenty-two years ago, even though the sharp-eyed will spot a lot of new information embedded in the story—including the revelations that we have been mistaken for more than a century about the date of the earliest projection of motion pictures in this country.

Taken together, the five volumes that constitute The Beginnings of the Cinema in England represent a monumental achievement. No era of a national cinema has been examined in such depth or with such precision—and at the same time with such vitality. The scholarship is enlivened throughout by personal enthusiasm and affection, by fascination with the words that were written at the time and the look of the original artefacts. That is why these volumes are able to bring to life so vividly that busy, heterogeneous collection of scholars and showmen, instrument makers and conjurors, adventurers and impresarios, charlatans and visionaries who together shaped the beginnings of a revolutionary art and industry and a new era of communications.

Preface to the First Edition

The cinema, as we know it today, began with the invention of the Kinetograph and Kinetoscope. These two instruments represent the first practical method of cinematography.

The Kinetograph (or camera) recorded the action on a strip of photo-sensitised celluloid or cellulose-nitrate film, which was accurately perforated down each side so that the picture frames were equally spaced throughout its length, thus ensuring exact registration of one frame with the next when subsequently reproduced. This negative strip of film was then developed, and a positive print was taken from it on a similar strip of film of the same width and with identical perforations. In fact, both the negative and positive film strips were almost identical to the standard 35 mm film in use today, the only significant difference being the rate at which the individual pictures were taken. The positive film strip was then viewed in the Kinetoscope and the spectator witnessed a lifelike representation of the original action. The whole procedure thus involved a strip of photographic film, a perforator, a motion-picture camera, printer, and reproducer—all the essential requirements of the modern cinema. The only modern feature which had not been accomplished at this stage was the projection of the pictures upon a screen.

No previous attempts at cinematography had achieved all these requirements. Professor E.J. Marey, who perhaps came closest to the result, failed to achieve the ultimate goal. He managed to film a series of consecutive phases of motion, but he did not realise the exact registration of one picture with the next, and could only achieve a chrono-photographic record of the action which could not be faithfully reproduced except by an imperfect stroboscopic method like the picture strip in a Zoetrope, or Phenakisticope disc.

Although the films taken with the Kinetograph were quite capable of being projected on a screen, the method first adopted for viewing them was by transmitted light in the instrument called the Kinetoscope. The film projector had not then been invented, but the problem of projection, once tackled, was relatively simple of solution. A projectable film was already available, and the principle of intermittent picture projection had also been formulated and demonstrated by such devices as the Choreutoscope (British patent no. 13372, 9 October 1884, W.C. Hughes) and an apparatus invented by A.B. Brown (US patent no. 93504, 10 August 1869). The subsequent replacement of the Kinetoscope viewer with the film projector was thus the next logical step in the perfection of the process. This was soon accomplished, and the cinema as we know it today was born. The Kinetograph and the Kinetoscope can therefore be regarded as the true beginnings of modern cinematography.

The Kinetograph and Kinetoscope were the invention of W.K.-L. Dickson, who had gone to America and taken employment with the Edison laboratories at West Orange. Thomas A. Edison had been intrigued with the idea of recording movement ever since his invention of the phonograph, and he desired to do for the eye what the phonograph did for the ear. The problem was given to Dickson, who after a period of experimentation arrived at a practical solution; but since his work was done as an employee of the Edison establishment, it was Edison’s name which became associated with the invention.

This volume of the beginnings of the cinema in England commences with the English début of the Kinetoscope on 17 October 1894, and covers the period up to the end of 1896, when film performances had become an established form of entertainment throughout the country.

The dominant figure in the early history of the cinema in England was undoubtedly Robert W. Paul, or ‘Daddy Paul’ as he was later affectionately referred to in the trade, because above everyone else, he can be truly regarded as the father of the British film industry. Soon after the Kinetoscope had been introduced into England, Paul was commissioned to construct replicas of the machine which was at that time available only from Edison agents and was in short supply. Since the apparatus had not been patented in England, Paul was at liberty to make as many copies as he desired. The new venture had prospects of becoming a lucrative business, but the drawback was a lack of films for use in the instrument. Those films that were available were restricted to bona fide users of original Edison machines and were also subject to international copyright. Paul was left with no alternative but to make his own. He thus set himself the task of inventing a camera which would provide his Kinetoscope customers and others with a supply of films. By the end of March 1895, with the help of a professional photographer named Birt Acres, he succeeded and was able to make films comparable in quality to those of Edison. This camera, the first to be made and invented in England, I have named the Paul–Acres camera.

Elsewhere, the Kinetoscope had also stimulated interest in the new cinematography, particularly in France where the brothers A. and L. Lumière were early in pursuing the subject. Their objective, however, was not to make films for the Kinetoscope, but to present them as projected pictures on a screen. The result was the Cinématographe-Lumière, the first successful film projector to appear, and one which also served as camera and printer combined. Their first public screen performance was an immediate success and the days of the Kinetoscope peepshow device were already numbered.

Paul, who had also been toying with the idea of projected pictures, heard of the Lumières’ success and promptly set about inventing a projection apparatus of his own. But in the meantime, his former collaborator, Birt Acres, who was also by then producing his own films, set himself a similar task and succeeded in making an apparatus which enabled him to give the first documented screen performance in England. Within a few weeks Paul gave a successful performance with his own projector. From then on, the race to exploit the new medium began.

The Cinématographe-Lumière was brought to London, and when it began its triumphant run at the famous Empire Theatre of Varieties in Leicester Square, all London flocked to see the so-called living photographs. Not to be outdone, the other London music-halls immediately clamoured for the new invention. The Lumière machine was exclusive to the Empire Theatre and the only other apparatus available in England at that time was Paul’s, which had just been put into commercial production. For several months, Paul had almost a monopoly in London and was very soon penetrating the provinces as well as the foreign market. So successful an enterprise could not long remain the preserve of one man, and others started to enter the field. A steady trickle of new machines and films from home and abroad began to appear, so that before the year ended the cinema had established a temporary home in practically every major music-hall in the country.

This, then, in brief, is the story of the cinema’s beginnings in England. The following chapters describe in detail these tentative steps that were to lead to a major industry and a new art form, and which the English pioneers played a not unimportant part in bringing about.

John Barnes

St Ives

Cornwall

1974

Preface to the Second Edition

Ever since the first edition of this book was published almost a quarter of a century ago, my brother and I have continued to research the early history of the cinema and to collect its memorabilia and artefacts, which provide the archaeological remains from which so much of the cinema’s past is revealed.

A younger set of historians have since entered the field, and their researches and collections have supplemented our knowledge, with the consequence that the need has arisen for a revised and enlarged edition of our former volume, which has long since been out of print.

We now have pleasure in presenting to the public the results of this cumulative research carried out over the past two decades.

Barnes Brothers

St Ives and London

1998

Acknowledgements to the First Edition

I wish to thank all those who have been of assistance to me in assembling the material for this book, and in particular my gratitude is extended to the following: Carmen de Uriarte Barnes, my able assistant at the Barnes Museum; my brother William Barnes for his part in acquiring vital source material and for improvements to the text; Mr Brian W. Coe, Curator, Kodak Museum, for contributing the Foreword and for his unstinted help with illustrations and other material; Mrs Sidney Birt Acres for allowing me access to her collection of material relating to Birt Acres, and for her hospitality during my visit to her home; Mr Adriaan Briels for information on R.W. Paul’s Theatrograph in the Netherlands; Mr Harold Brown, Preservation Officer of the National Film Archive, for providing extracts from Paul’s films; Mr Roger Holman, Head of the Cataloguing Department of the National Film Archive, who kindly put at my disposal the related material filed at Berkhamsted; Mr John Ward, Senior Museum Assistant at the Science Museum, for his kind help during my examination of various apparatus in the museum; Mr G.L. Young, Information Officer, Cambridge Scientific Instruments Limited, for kindly bringing to my notice the original printing blocks used by R.W. Paul and for the use thereof; Mr Leo J. De Freitas, Librarian, the Royal Photographic Society; Mrs I.M. McCabe, Librarian and Information Officer, the Royal Institution; Miss Wendy Lloyd, Deputy Librarian, the Institution of Electrical Engineers; Mr Colin Sorensen, Assistant Keeper, the London Museum; Mr Peter Williams for information relating to his great-grandfather, Randall Williams, ‘King of Showmen’; Miss Brenda Davis, Head of the Information Department of the British Film Institute, and to Miss Betty Leese of the Stills Department of the British Film Institute; Mrs P.A. Eddy, Librarian, the Public Library, St Ives; Mr Gordon Hendricks, the premier historian of the early American cinema, whose books are indispensable to any historian writing about the beginnings of the cinema; and to Mrs B.M. Barrow. I also wish to acknowledge the following corporate bodies for services rendered: British Film Institute; British Museum; British Museum Newspaper Library, Colindale; Cambridge Scientific Instruments Limited; Cinémathèque Française, Paris; Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris; Finsbury Public Library; Greater London Council, Photograph Library; Guildhall Library; Institution of Electrical Engineers; Islington Central Library; Kodak Museum, Harrow; London Museum; National Film Archive; Patent Office; Public Library, St Ives, Cornwall; Royal Commission on Historical Monuments; Royal Institution; Royal Photographic Society; Science Museum, and Science Library, South Kensington; Science Reference Library (British Library); Shoreditch Public Library; United States Department of the Interior; Westminster Central Reference Library; and Westminster Public Library.

Items from the Barnes Museum were photographed by Ander Gunn.

Acknowledgements to the Second Edition

In addition to the acknowledgements made in the first edition of this book, I wish to thank the following for their help during the preparation of this revised edition: Barry Anthony, William Barnes, British Film Institute, Richard Brown, Denis Bushell, G. Dalling, Antonio J. Ferreira, Tony Fletcher, George Gastris (Sothebys), Frank Gray, Donald Hardie, Mrs V. Hart (Finsbury Local History Collection), David Henry, Stephen Herbert, Janet Hill (Ron Morris Collection), John Huntley (Huntley Film Archives), Robert Jeeves, Peter Jewell (Bill Douglas-Peter Jewell Collection), Chris Long, F. Manders, Laurent Mannoni (Cinémathèque Française), Luke McKernan, National Film and Television Archive, Allan Osborne, Ray Phillips, Simon Popple (National Museum of Photography, Film and TV), Michael Pritchard (Christies), David Robinson, Deac Rossell, A. Videira Santos, D.J. Scott, Dr H.M. Sealy-Lewis, Mike Simkin, Lester Smith, Ron and Tony Tester, Theatre Museum (Covent Garden), R.H. Thornton, David R. Williams.

Publishers’ Acknowledgements

University of Exeter Press gratefully acknowledges the generous financial assistance of the Kraszna-Kravsz Foundation which has made the publication of this volume possible.

1    The Kinetoscope

Cinematography was born in America in 1892. It was the culmination of numerous experiments and inventions spanning several centuries and involving many minds in almost as many different countries, for invention, like organic life, is a process of evolution. The invention was finally brought to fruition by William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson (frontispiece) in the laboratories of Thomas Alva Edison, at West Orange, New Jersey. The story of its birth has been told by the American historian of the cinema, Gordon Hendricks, in a definitive work on the subject called The Edison Motion Picture Myth.¹

Under the aegis of Edison, Dickson began experimenting with the idea of moving pictures in about 1889, and by October 1892 had achieved a practical method of photographing and reproducing consecutive phases of motion. The camera for taking the action was called the Kinetograph, and the apparatus for exhibiting it was called the Kinetoscope.

The Kinetograph need not concern us here, for it is only incidental to our story of the beginnings of the cinema in England. Those wishing to pursue the subject further are referred to Hendricks. The Kinetoscope, on the other hand, played a very important role in the subsequent development of cinematography, not only in England, but in every other country where the subject was pursued. It is from the Kinetoscope that all subsequent motion picture invention is derived, including the work of the brothers A. and L. Lumière in France,² R.W. Paul and Birt Acres in England,³ as well as other pioneers not mentioned in this history.

Plate 1 R.W. Paul’s Kinetoscope: illustration from the original wood-block used by Paul in his publications (Cambridge Scientific Instruments Ltd)Plate 2 Edison Kinetoscope: replica made by R.W. Paul; details of interior mechanism (Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris)

Briefly, the Kinetoscope consisted of a wooden cabinet, in the interior of which the mechanism was assembled (Plate 1). The film was not projected, but viewed by transmitted light through a magnifying lens contained in an adjustable eyepiece at the top of the case. It was, in fact, a peepshow device which permitted only one spectator at a time to view the pictures inside. The film passed continuously under the inspection lens at the rate of about forty or more frames per second, and ran in an endless loop carried on a spool bank. A shutter revolved between the eye and the illuminant, which was a low-voltage electric lamp (Plate 2).

A. Lomax, a one-time agent for the machine, gives the following data respecting the speed and duration of the pictures in the Kinetoscope:

The pictures move at an average speed of 30 per second (though this is sometimes very much increased), and one revolution of the shutter moves the film by the distance of one picture. The slit in the shutter is one-tenth, and the mean diameter 10 inches. The picture is only visible to the eye about the 310th part of the time it takes to move from picture to picture, and each part of the picture is only visible to the eye about the 9,300th part of a second, the whole picture being visible about the 1,240th of a second.⁴

Lomax was considered somewhat of an authority on Kinetoscopes, having had, we are told, a great deal to do with them. At one time he was the sole agent in Great Britain for the Kansas Phonograph Company, and had offices at 28 Caunce Street, Blackpool (Plate 3).⁵

Plate 3 Advertisement for A. Lomax’s Phonograph and Kinetoscope Office, Blackpool (The Era Annual 1895) THE ERA ALfANACK ADVEITISER. Edison Phonognaph AXD Kinetoscope Office, 28, CAUNCE STREET, BLACKPOOL. A. L 0 M AX, Proprietor, Authorised Agent for the Kansas (American) Phonograph Company, &c. SPECIAL BUSINESS: AnlEl-ICAXOVELTIES FOR EXIIIBITION USE. EDlSONIADE IXSTIU-IENTS ADJUSTED AND REPIRED. ALSO ILLUSIONS SUPPLIED. TELEGR.\PHIC ADDRESS-“KI-TOGRAPH, BLACKPOOL.”Plate 4 Pickaninnies (Edison, 1894), fragment of Kinetoscope film showing black performers (Barnes Collection)

The film for use in the apparatus was similar to the standard 35 mm film in use today, and an original Kinetoscope film can still be projected on a modern machine (Plate 4). Each film was about 40 ft in length before being joined at its ends to form an endless loop. It was driven by a sprocket-wheel engaging with the perforations on each side, and powered by an electric motor.

The positive films were printed on slightly opaque stock so that the images showed to better effect when viewed by transmitted light in the Kinetoscope. When subsequently used for screen projection, as so many Kinetoscope films were in the early days, the images were apt to appear rather dim. The films were stored in small round tins like those used for tobacco, 4 inches diameter and 2 inches deep, with three cyclindrical bobbins inside to hold the loop securely (Plate 5). A slightly larger size (4¾ inches diameter) was adopted to accommodate the longer loops as used in the fight films. The two tins shown in our illustration, now in the Ray Phillips Collection, were part of the Kinetoscope lot sold at Sotheby’s on 2 October 1992 (see note 13).

Plate 5 Film cans for holding the Edison Kinetoscope loops; and the wrap-around warning label (Ray Phillips Collection) IffiPORTHNT NOTICE. This film is soU on condition thatit islobeused exclusively by the purchaser on the Edison Kinetoscoj e Any person selling or disposing of films will thereafter be unable to secure rJrns from [he company CONTINENTAL COMMERCE COMPANY. 10 OXfORD STREET. lONDON. W.Plate 6 (a) Kinetoscope Parlour, 184 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, USA, opened 11 Nov. 1894; manager: Charles Urban. Urban came to England in 1897 and subsequently became one of the most influential figures in the British film industry (Urban Coll. Science Museum, London), (b) Artist’s impression of the parlour in Oxford St (Westminster Budget, 26 Oct. 1894, p. 754, courtesy of R. Brown), (c) Front Cover of leaflet issued by the American Kinetoscope Co., 95 Queen St, London, by the two Greeks Tragidis and Georgiades (Peter Jackson Collection) (a) PHONOGRAPH AND KINETOSCOPE PARLOR. (b) THE MACHINE. The American Kinefoscope Comp 95 QUEEN ST., E.C. A:w AT 28 COULEVANO RLIO:JTMANTE, PANIS.Plate 7 Front cover of the Dicksons’ booklet, History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kineto-Phonograph (New York, 1895) overprinted with the name and address of the Continental Commerce Co. (Barnes Collection)

In America, the Kinetoscope, in its commercial form, was placed on the market early in 1894, and was soon being installed in parlours throughout the United States (Plate 6). It was mostly operated by an attendant and was powered by electric current from the mains, or from accumulators. The world’s first Kinetoscope parlour was opened on 14 April 1894 at 115 Broadway, New York, by the Holland Brothers.⁶

News of the Kinetoscope had reached England before the apparatus was exhibited here. An illustrated account of the invention by W.K.-L. Dickson and his sister Antonia had appeared in the June 1894 issue of the Century Magazine, an American publication which was widely distributed in England by the London publisher, T. Fisher Unwin.⁷ This was not the only reference to the invention to appear in this country; a minor report had been published in Cassell’s Family Magazine as long ago as September 1891.⁸ Several other accounts had also appeared before the Kinetoscope’s English début, and Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art reported in April 1894: ‘It is said that Mr Edison has completed his Kinetoscope, about which various absurd reports have been current during the past year.’⁹

The Kinetoscope finally made its appearance in England on 17 October 1894, when it was exhibited at 70 Oxford Street, London.¹⁰ This parlour was owned by Frank Z. Maguire and Joseph D. Baucus of the Continental Commerce Company, whose head office was at 44 Pine Street, New York.¹¹

A small booklet by the Dicksons, based on their original article in the Century Magazine, was published in America, and reissued in England by Maguire and Baucus, with the name and address of the Continental Commerce Company overprinted on the front cover. It was entitled: History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kineto-Phonograph (Plate 7).¹²

The Oxford Street début of the Kinetoscope marks the beginning of the cinema in England. It is from this inauspicious occasion, which received mixed notices in the daily and photographic press, that all subsequent motion-picture development in this country originated. The public opening of the Oxford Street parlour had been preceded by a private demonstration which took place in the evening of Wednesday 17 October, and to which members of the press were specially invited. Mr Maguire himself was in attendance, no doubt to explain technicalities and to make sure the enterprise was launched in a fitting manner to attract the widest publicity. The guests were treated to a buffet supper resplendent with a decorative menu card (Plate 8a). The meal was served at the Horse Shoe Hotel, Tottenham Court Road, which still stands at the top of Oxford Street, just a little distance from No. 70, where the Kinetoscopes were displayed (Plate 8b). The building housing the parlour, however, has long since disappeared.

The films singled out for special mention by the press the next day were Blacksmith Shop, Cock Fight, Annabelle Serpentine Dance, The Bar Room, Carmencita, Wrestling Match, and Barber Shop (Plate 9). These were among the first films ever to be shown in England and some of them still survive to this day.

According to the correspondent of The Times, ten machines were demonstrated,¹³ and the audience was informed of Edison’s intention eventually to synchronise the Phonograph with the Kinetoscope and to project the pictures life-size on a screen, so that he would be able to give the world a startling reproduction of human life. Although The Times devoted several hundred words to the event, most of them taken up with explaining the technicalities of the invention, the correspondent did not appear over-enthusiastic, merely commenting that ‘the latest, and not the least remarkable of Mr Edison’s inventions is the kinetoscope, of which a private demonstration was given last evening at 70 Oxford Street. The instrument is to the eye what Edison’s phonograph is to the ear, in that it reproduces living movements of the most complex and rapid character.’¹⁴

Plate 8 (a) Menu card for the buffet supper provided for the press and guests attending the private view of the Oxford St Kinetoscope Parlour, 17 October 1894 (Bill Douglas-Peter Jewell Collection, University of Exeter); (b) The Horse Shoe Hotel, Tottenham Court Rd, where the reception was held (Barnes Collection)Plate 9 Frame illustrations from five Kinetoscope films; these numbered among the first films shown in England and were exhibited at 70 Oxford St, London from 17 October 1894 onwards Blacksmith Shop Cock Fight Annabelle Serpe ntine Dance Bar Room Barbershop

The correspondent of the Daily Graphic, however, was decidedly more impressed and devoted almost a full column to the occasion under the heading MR EDISON’S LIVING PICTURES. At scientific conversaziones,’ he wrote, ‘the visitor is used