INTRODUCTION    
  This website is a retrospective history of the dawn of film, and a pre-history of cinema. The body of this text deals with the origin of motion pictures and the ancestors of cinema, culminating with the birth of motion pictures in the nineteenth century. Introduces; A Brief History of Pre-Cinema; Pinhole Images; Camera Obscura Effect; Magic Lantern; Phantasmagorie; Persistence of vision; Photography; Motion Study Analysis; Commercialization of Film.  
 
 
  PREFACE    
  This project has been a labour of love from it’s inception in 1990. The most celebrated art form ever discovered, this project includes those responsible for the numerous inventions designed and built, which pointed us in a cinematic direction. As I have stated from the beginning, the facts must be presented to allow the reader the opportunity to decipher and place into context those devices and developments that fit into history, and discard the rest. Our purpose here is not to induce controversy around the parentage of commercial cinema, or the year it finally came of age. It is to provide factual data on the grounds of well documented material. We will allow the reader to decide on the importance of genealogy.  
 
 
  CHAPTER ONE (Antiquity To AD 1399)    
  Lenses, Optics, Pinhole Images in China and Greece, The "Collecting Place", ShadowPlays, Shades, Archimedes Burning Glass Warfare, Camera Obscura and Eclipses, Early Photographic Chemistry, Villeneuve's Earliest Cinema Shows and more ... GO TO CHAPTER ONE  
       
  CHAPTER TWO (The Years 1400 To 1599)    
  Show boxes, Alberti's Intersector, Camera Obscura in Art, Da Vinci’s Lantern, Durer’s Drawing Aids, The Eclipses of Reinhold and Gemma, Cardano's Cinema Shows, Cellini’s Phantasms, Porta's Dark Chambers, The Lanterna Magica and more ... GO TO CHAPTER TWO  
       
  CHAPTER THREE (The Years 1600 To 1649)    
  Study of the Heavens, Photo Chemistry, Portable Cameras, Stereoscopic Projection, Persistence of Vision, Scheiner's Pantograph, Cameras and Astronomy, Kircher’s Ars Magna, The Lantern Phenomenon, Herigone's Goblet and more ... GO TO CHAPTER THREE  
       
  CHAPTER FOUR (The Years 1650 To 1699)    
  Lantern Improvements, Inverting the Image, Delft Artists and the Camera, Camera Lucida of Hooke, Lantern Slide Motion, The Work of Zahn, Optical Illusions, Drawing with the Camera, The Camera Disguised, Telescopy, Fenelon's Ineffaceable Image and more ... GO TO CHAPTER FOUR  
       
  CHAPTER FIVE (The Years 1700 To 1749)    
  The Camera and Science, Cheselden’s Medicine, Schulze’s Text on Paper, Caneletto, Nature’s Paintings, Musschenbroek’s Motion Slides, Photo-copies, Aids in Art, Pretty Landskip's, Smoky Ghosts, Birth of the Phantasmagoria, 3 Dimensional Slides and more ... GO TO CHAPTER FIVE  
       
  CHAPTER SIX (The Years 1750 To 1799)    
  Collapsible Portable Cameras, Megascope Projection, Nollet’s Dazzling-Whirling Top, Brander’s Desk Camera, Robertson's Phantasmagoria, Itinerant Traveling Showmen, De La Roche's 'Giphantie', Panorama and Diorama, Ombres Chinoises, Scheele's Chemistry and more ... GO TO CHAPTER SIX  
       
  CHAPTER SEVEN (The Years 1800 To 1829)    
  Wedgewood’s Experiments, Dissolving Views, Silver Salts, Camera Obscura Rooms, Brewster’s Kaleidoscope, Hershel’s Hypo, The Thaumatrope, The Niepce Heliograph, Great Illumination, Wollaston's Lucida, Herschel's Hypo, Daguerre's Diorama, Plateau's Early Work and more ... GO TO CHAPTER SEVEN  
       
  CHAPTER EIGHT (The Years 1830 To 1849)    
  Studies in After-Images, Primitive Motion, Plateau’s Phenakistiscope, Stampfer’s Stroboscope, Houdin's Automaton, Horner's Zoetrope, Horner’s Zoetrope, Works of Talbot, The Daguerreotype, Child's Dissolving Views, Elaborate Lantern Shows and more ... GO TO CHAPTER EIGHT  
       
  CHAPTER NINE (The Years 1850 To 1859)    
  Langenheim's Hyalotype, Wheatstone’s Stereoscope, Archer's Wet Collodion Process, The Uchatius Wheel of Light, Optical Lantern Entertainment, Disderi’s Carte-de-Viste, Sensitized Paper and Roll Holders, Collotypes, Fenton's Photo-Journalism, Stereoscopic Cameras, Chevalier's Diaphragm Aperture and more ... GO TO CHAPTER NINE  
       
  CHAPTER TEN (The Years 1860 To 1869)    
  Pepper's Ghost, Holmes' Street Scenes, Ponti's Megalethoscope, Parkensine, Molteni's Intermittent Movement, Beale's Chorentoscope, The Maddox Gelatin Dry-Plate Process, Early Celluloid, The Kinematoscope, Muybridge's’s Flying Camera, Hyatt’s Celluloid Studies and more ... GO TO CHAPTER TEN  
       
  CHAPTER ELEVEN (The Years 1870 To 1879)    
  The Men of Motion Study Analysis, Stop Action Series Photography, Muybridge and Occident, Janssen and Marey Gun Cameras, Reynaud’s Praxinoscope, The Stanford Wager, Edison's Phonograph Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope, Rudge's Fluid Images, Donisthorpe's Paper Strips and more ... GO TO CHAPTER ELEVEN  
       
  CHAPTER TWELVE (The Years 1880 To 1884)    
  The Lumiere Cinematographe, Marey’s Rifle, Chronophotography, Eastman Films, Animals In Motion, Reynaud's Lamposcope, Photo finishes, Flash Bulbs, Animal Locomotion & Human Figures and more ... GO TO CHAPTER TWELVE  
       
  CHAPTER THIRTEEN (The Years 1885 To 1889)    
  Friese-Greene's Oiled Paper, Le Prince and Leeds Bridge, The Dickson-Edison Kinetoscope, Peep Shows, Celluloid, Donisthorpe and Trafalgar Square, Eastman’s Celluloid Roll Film, Goodwin's Cellulose, Anschutz Electro Tachyscope, Hyatt's Celluloid, Carbutt Sheet Film, The Kinetograph, First Films and more ... GO TO CHAPTER THIRTEEN  
       
  CHAPTER FOURTEEN (The Years 1890 To 1894)    
  Casler’s Mutoscope, Kinetoscope Parlours, Edison’s Black Maria, Muybridge’s Zoopraxigraphicall Hall, The Acres-Paul Kineopticon, The Jenkins Phantascope, Theatre Optique of Reynaud, Lenox Lyceum, Black Maria, Descriptive Zoopraxography, Kinetoscope Parlours, Jenkins Phantascope and more ... GO TO CHAPTER FOURTEEN  
       
  CHAPTER FIFTEEN (The Years 1895 To 1900)    
  Skladanowsky’s Bioscop, The Latham Eidolscope, The Grand Café Event, Edison’s Vitascope, Short's Filoscope, Blache’s Solax Studios, Birth of the Motion Picture Theatre, American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, Eastman's Panoramic Camera, Armat's Maltese Cross, Moving Picture Popularity and more ... GO TO CHAPTER FIFTEEN  
     
 
 
  BIBLIOGRAPHY / WEBOGRAPHY    
  The resources, both print and electronic, which have helped shape this project.  
 
 
  RELATED WEBSITES    
  This page attempts to provide the reader a comprehensive list of website's presented by other authors, commentators and professionals in the field of photography, cinematography, the magic lantern, the camera and camera obscura, vintage cameras and projectors, pinhole images, optical toys, early cinema, illusionists, magicians and pre-cinema. It also contains a general section of directories and other resources.  
 
 
  CRITIQUES    
  A page devoted to listing comments and critiques from viewers, both positive and negative.  
 
 
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR    
  Some information about the author of this work.  
 
 
  COPYRIGHT    
  The Literature compiled in these web pages is the property of the author and is protected under copyright. The author retains the sole right to produce or reproduce this work or to authorize such activity. Readers may download the information contained herein for personal and reference use only, with permission of the author, and with credit.  
       
       
       
Main Page Contents Preface Introduction Bibliography Related Sites Critiques About The Author Copyright Information 900bc-1399 1440-1599 1600-1649 1650-1699 1700-1749 1750-1799 1800-1829 1830-1849 1850-1859 1860-1869 1870-1879 1880-1884 1885-1899 1890-1894 1895 - 1900 Planetel Communications Top of Page
 
Home Page Table of Contents Preface Introduction Years 900BC - 1399 Years 1400 - 1599 Years 1600 - 1649 Years 1650 - 1699 Years 1700 - 1749 Years 1750 - 1799 Years 1800 - 1829 Years 1830 - 1849 Years 1850 - 1859 Years 1860 - 1869 Years 1870 - 1879 Years 1880 - 1884 Years 1885 - 1889 Years 1890 - 1894 Years 1895 - 1900 Bibliography Related Sites Critiques About The Author Copyright Information Magic Lantern Castle Museum