Pre-1900

130

• Ptolemy of Alexandria discovers the phenomenon of persistence of vision.
  
  1250
  
• Leon Battista Alberti invents the forerunner of camera obscura
  
  1834
  
• Zoetrope, based on an ancient invention is patented
  
  1850
  
• Photographic magic lantern slides come into use
  
  1873
  
• Muybridge begins experiments in photography of motion. He is successful in 1877
  
  1884
  
• Eastman's roll paper photographic medium
  
  1889
  
• Development of Eastman's flexible roll film medium for photography
  
• Dickson demonstrates Kinetophone to Edison
  
  1891
  
• Develpoment of the Kinetoscope private viewer
  
  1893
  
• Thomas Edison completes the first film studio on February 1 in West Orange N.J. Called the Black Maria, it is built on a pivot so that the set could be turned to follow the sun.
  
  1895
  
• In France, Auguste and Louis Lumiere film the workers leaving the family photographic factory in Lyons. "La Sortie des Ouviriers de l'Usine" Lumiere is privately shown through a projector the brothers had patented. On December 28, they show it again to a public audience, along with "The Sprinkler Sprinkled" and newsreel type footage.
  
• Max Skladanowsky completes Bioskop projector
  
• American Mutoscope and Biograph Company founded; orginally known as the K.M.C.D. Syndicate after its founders, E.B. Koopman, Henry Marvin, Herman Casler, and W.K.L. Dickson
  
  1896
  
• April 23, Edison's first show at Koster and Bial's Music Hall, NY.
  
• American Mutoscope and Biograph company is formed as the Kinetoscope; it is Edison's only rival for the budding film industry.
  
• Georges Melies, French magician, actor and designer, discovers the magical possiblities of the camera when it jams and the image moves. He builds Europe's first studio, at Montreuil-sous-Bois.
  
  1897
  
• Edison begins patent infringement suits
  
• Edwin Porter joins Edison's company
  
  1898
  
• Robert W. Paul of England makes Come Along Do!, the first film to be shot in more than one scene.
  
• Vitagraph makes Tearing Down the Spanish Flag, considered to be the first propaganda film.
  
  

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