| The Movie Camera | |
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The eye momentarily retains the preceding image while seeing the next. Movement in cinema is an optical illusion that is achieved by connecting a sequence of images that are chronologically displaced. To achieve this notion of movement some devices such as the taumatrope, the phenakistoscope, the zoetrope, the praxiscope, etc. were invented, which despite their complicated names, worked according to very straightforward principles. |
 Plateau's phenakistocope |
 Horner's zoetrope |
Cinema started to take shape with Le Prince, a Frenchman living in London who, using a roll of film made by Eastman Kodak and a camera with various lenses, managed to shoot twenty images per second. However these images could not be projected, as a suitable mechanism for this purpose was still lacking. |
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However, it has a novel appeal, given that the aforementioned images run accompanied by phonograph music. |
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| In order to give an accurate idea of continuous movement, there must be a short pause between each image. That is to say, the image has to be delayed for a fraction of a second, enough time for the eye to retain it. Without this feature neither the cinematographic camera nor the projector could work. |
 Edison´s kinetoscope |
The first ones to work on a projection system that would make an accurate viewing of images possible were Demeny and Friese-Greene in 1892-1893. In Paris on February 13, 1895, the brothers Augusto and Luis Lumi¸re patented an extraordinary machine which fulfilled the quests and hopes of many men. The Lumi¸re brothers' machine has the attribute of being at the same time a cinematographic camera and a projector, thus synthesizing, in one sole object, the camera obscura and father Kircher's "magic lantern". Since the first photographic image was attained until the arrival of cinema, more than the skill of a few individuals had been at work. It was all made possible through the participation of many people–the majority anonymous–including the effort of those who paid for their experimental concerns with their life. We will never know for sure where the first camera obscura originated or what we will gain with it in the future. |
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The story that made it possible is tinged with the fumes that emanated from extremely old test tubes, the solitude of dungeons, and the fire of the pyres where restless sorcerers were burnt alive. Let's hope that these lines add something to the knowledge we have of them, and that those who decide to build a camera obscura, following the advice of Adojuhr, find the Unicorn once again. |
 Lumière´s Camera |
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