Kinetoscope.
The Kinetoscope is
an early motion picture exhibition device. The Kinetoscope was designed for
films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window
at the top of the device. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector but
introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic
projection before the advert of video, by creating the illusion of movement by
conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light
source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S.
inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee
William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. Dickson and his team at
the Edison lab also devised the Kinetograph, an innovative motion picture
camera with rapid intermitted, or stop-and-go, film movement, to photograph
movies for in-house experiments and, commercial Kinetoscope presentations.