Customer Reviews

History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kinetophonograph (Museum of Modern Art Books)

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This little volume of unwieldy title is a faithful replica of a book first published in 1895. At the time, the technology of moving pictures was in its infancy and the author, W.K.L. Dickson, was working with Thomas Edison to create and perfect what would later come to be known as cinematography. Inspired by the Zoetrope in 1887, Thomas Edison set out to create a means of recording images that would allow continuous playback, as the phonograph had done for sound. The first part of this book recounts the trials, successes, and failures that the inventors faced in their attempts to create such a machine. The fruits of their efforts were the kinetograph, which photographed moving pictures, the kinetoscope, which provided a method of viewing them, and the kineto-phonograph, which is analogous to our modern movie projectors. Once these devices have been invented, the book goes on to explain the particulars of filming a motion picture and impresses upon the reader the endless scientific, journalistic, and recreational uses that this new technology promises. The authors give detailed descriptions of many early films, which ranged from animal studies to capturing a sneeze to humorous skits. It's fun to read about the dreams these early cineastes had for their new invention and how they envisioned it would improve our understanding of the world and preserve virtually everything for posterity. Cinema might not have shaped the world exactly the way these visionaries predicted, but shape it it did. The book includes a selection of images from those very early films. Recommended to anyone interested in the history of cinema or in Thomas Edison's many inventions.

A fascinating glimpse at the marketing methods of the Edison company in the late 19th century, this book describes the (then) recent developments of the motion picture camera and projector as "history" in an effort to nudge the credit for development into the 1880s, not the 1890s. The discussion of Fred Ott's "sneeze" is delightfully elaborate, and the 1894 film can probably have a dozen runs in the time it takes to read it.
Of especial amusement is the description of sound motion pictures as "perfected," when reality has shown that Edison's labs toyed with the project until 1913, when it was abandoned as too difficult to perfect.
Other touches are also interesting--the "author's biography" shows notes to the printer, suggestions on cropping Dickson's photo, and a deletion of a phrase discussing the beauty of the author's mother.
Altogether, a nice curio to a film collector's collection, especially with the Kino DVD release of early Edison films to offer comparison.