Credited to France. The Lumières were not the only motion-picture pioneers. Edison's Kinetoscope preceded their device, and the name cinématographe was first patented by Léon Bouly in 1892. The Lumière claim rests on combining camera and projector in one machine and on the public projected screenings of 1895.
How it began
Auguste and Louis Lumière ran a factory in Lyon that by 1894 produced some 15 million photographic plates a year. That year their father, Antoine, saw Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope in Paris, and his description set the brothers to work on combining animation with projection. Louis found the solution, which was patented in February 1895. On December 28, 1895, a showing at the Grand Café on the boulevard des Capucines in Paris brought wide public acclaim.
Before it existed
Edison's Kinetoscope was a peephole machine that one viewer watched at a time. The name cinématographe had been used for a device patented by Léon Guillaume Bouly in 1892, and film perforations had been implemented earlier by Émile Reynaud. The Lumières developed these ideas further into their own machine.
How it works
The Lumière apparatus was a single camera used for both photographing and projecting, running at 16 frames per second. It is described as a three-in-one device that could record, copy, and project motion pictures. Perforations in the film were used to advance it through the mechanism.
What changed first
A screening on March 22, 1895, for around 200 members of the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale in Paris was probably the first presentation of projected film. The brothers made more than 40 films during 1896, recording everyday French life such as the arrival of a train, a card game, and a blacksmith at work. They also presented early newsreel and documentary films. Beginning in 1896 the Lumières sent trained cameraman-projectionists to cities throughout the world to show films and shoot new material.
What lasted
The word cinema is derived from the name of the device. The film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory of 1895 is considered by Britannica to be the first motion picture, and the December 1895 screening has traditionally been regarded as the birth of cinema.
