A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DWilliam Kennedy Laurie (W.K.L.) Dickson : 1860 - 1935
William Kennedy Laurie (W.K.L.) Dickson, French born, son of English parents and developer of the Kinetograph camera and Kinetoscope viewer whilst employed as an engineer at Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratories.
William Kennedy Laurie (W.K.L.) Dickson, (b.1860, in Minihic-sur-Ranse, France, d. 1935, Twickenham, Middlesex, England) Had the future of motion pictures been left in the hands of Thomas Edison, there would be no Hollywood, no buttered popcorn, and no STAR WARS. Edison didn't like motion pictures, and thought their only real audience, children, would tire of them quickly. To turn Edison around, it took the courageous and persistent personality of William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, an English engineer with a rare devotion. Dickson searched the entire world for devices that claimed to make photographs move. Once he felt the concept was possible, he urged his mentor to approve experiments. But Edison simply wasn't interested in the motion picture ideas of Laurie Dickson. In fact, Edison wasn't even interested in working with Dickson initially. As a fatherless teenager of 19, Dickson had read about Edison from London newspapers in 1879. He sent a telegram to the inventor two years later, asking for work in the famous Menlo Park laboratory. Edison curtly said no. But in 1883, Dickson gathered the fare for an oceanliner and came to the States anyway. With experience in amateur photography, Dickson found a quiet place under Edison's roof and waited for an opportunity. In 1888, he was assigned to examine the progress of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, and other various rival inventors who were recording motion. Dickson took to the task with zeal and explored every facet of the new technique. He tinkered with the idea of building a camera and viewing instrument. He studied the early transparent celluloid of John Carbutt. He created an alliance with the George Eastman company. Dickson then sought Hannibal Goodwin, an Episcopalian minister who had applied photographic emulsion to roll film, and coerced him into giving the idea to Eastman for manufacturing. The tenacious Dickson then devised a crude camera in November 1890 and filmed his first trial, MONKEYSHINES, featuring the movement of fellow assistant Fred Ott. Calling the machine Kinetograph, he presented it to Edison, who put a team on the Kinetoscope, the peep-hole viewer for watching the five second wonders. Dickson's invention was simple. A filmstrip of several images was passed in front of an illuminated lens and behind a spinning wheel. The momentary view gave customers a brief glance at each of 46 pictures in the course of one second. An optical effect gave the illusion of lifelike motion. The introduction of the Kinetograph in October of 1892, set a standard convention still used today -- the film was a 35mm stock from Eastman, advanced by sprockets, and illuminated by an electric bulb. Despite the hype and sensational business the Kinetoscope viewers were doing, Dickson knew that the shortcomings were already being perfected by inventors abroad. He urged Edison to consider a projection device, but the Wizard was skeptical about the long term success of the curious machine. He saw no need in exhibiting to large groups of people and asked Dickson to cancel all further experiments. But while vacationing in Europe in 1895, Edison had learned that Dickson was still at work on the new system. Racing against the clever Lumiere Bros., Dickson once again convinced an inventor to give up his patents. Thomas Armat had employed an intermittent movement with an rotating arm on his projector. Dickson pressed him to allow the design to become an Edison product, thus gaining international promise. Armat relented. Dickson then constructed the first motion-picture stage inside an enclosed studio called the "Black Maria." Starring in many of the first films himself, he recorded short acts, about one minute long, including early attempts at sound movies. The final system was displayed in 1895 as the Vitascope, a bulky but effective camera and projector system that sparked a revolution. Unfortunately, it also sparked Edison's temper. He and Dickson disagreed on the future direction of the new enterprise. They parted ways. Dickson immediately founded the American Biograph Company and recreated his own invention, dubbing it the Mutograph, which competed heartily with Edison's equipment for the first years of the industry. Dickson's Biograph released its first film, EMPIRE STATE EXPRESS (1896) and eventually became a major studio, launching the careers of Edwin S. Porter, D.W. Griffith, Billy Bitzer, Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Mack Sennett. Dickson also attempted to manufacture a camera and projector system called the Biograph which was superior to the Vitascope, but lacked the proper sales force to compete with Edison. Dickson sold a portion of his interest in Biograph and returned to his mother in England in 1897. Years later, while still alive, he was recognized by historians as the true father of film, who was overshadowed in his accomplishments by the American icon of inventors. He died in 1935 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England.
1886-89 The first cinema camera is developed at Edison's Menlo Park laboratory. The work is mainly done by a young assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson. In 1889, the Lab receives the first strips of a new thin, flexible film from George Eastman. Dickson utilises this and invents the sprocket system to move the film through the camera. The film strips are perforated with four holes per frame, which keeps them equidistant and moving smoothly. These perforations set the standard size for film. (Dickson also creates the first sound film, by synchronising it with the phonograph.) The Edison Kinetoscope - a coin-in-the-slot peep-show machine - is completed by the end of the year. The Lab team then begins producing brief story film strips, later to be extended to 600 individual frames. In April 1891, Edison applied for US patents on the Kinetograph (camera) and the Kinetoscope (viewer). He neglects to acquire foreign patents, considering the cost of $150 would be more than they were worth. 1894 The first Kinetoscope parlour, containing 10 of the peep-hole viewers, each holding 15m (50ft) of film, is opened at 1155 Broadway, New York City by the Holland brothers - taken by many as the official start of the motion picture industry. Within six months, Kinetoscope parlours are in business throughout the US and Europe.
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