The birth of cinema

In the race for the invention of cinema, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière were the official creators of the process. In 1895 they patented a device, which could take pictures, print positives and project them onto a screen.

Inventors of several devices in the field of photography, the French Lumière brothers also invented the Cinematograph. The patent was registered in February 1895, but it was only in December that year that the Cinematograph became truly operational.

Marey’s chronophotographic shots were already very close to cinematographic photograms, but only very short series were possible. Edison’s invention solved that problem, using long reels of film, but it was not capable of projection. With the Cinematograph, the Lumière brothers were able to put together “long” sequences of film and project them for several spectators.

Auguste and Louis Lumière gave the cinematographic industry its true beginnings: they organized paying public projections and, as early as 1896, trained operators, who were sent all over France to shoot films.

Illustration:

Cinématographe, Auguste and Louis Lumière, J. Carpentier, Paris, France, 1895.

The Cinématographe is both a camera and a projector, and is designed for 35 mm wide film in reels of about 17 m. Tradition has it that, in order to film at the correct speed, the operators sang “Le régiment de Sambre et Meuse” by R. Planquette (1879) in their heads while turning the crank…

Manufactured by J. Carpentier in Paris, the Cinématographe was sold at a price of 1650 francs.