Le Prince Research Paper

It is believed by most, and taught in most American schools, that the inventor of moving pictures is the great American inventor, Thomas Edison. Although Thomas Edison played a part in the creation of the entertainment that we now know as “movies”, there is said to be a man who played a part in the invention a few years before Edison would. A French inventor officially acknowledged as the first person to capture moving pictures on film, thus paving the way for the future of cinema as we know it today. A man whose name would not be plastered in history book and who would be forgotten just as fast as he disappeared.

Born in Metz, France in 1841, Le Prince was a student of chemistry, art, and physics. He would eventually pack up and move to

In 1888, after almost two years of this process, Le Prince decided to pack up again to move back to Leeds. It is said he made the move to keep away from those who wanted to steal his work, he wanted to hide himself and his accomplishments. In the same year, Le Prince would invent what would pave the way for modern cinema, a fully functional single lense motion picture camera that was made of 40 pounds of mahogany. Le prince would create watchable films that same year, there are only three that remain today. Aside from his footage of horse-drawn traffic passing over Leeds Bridge, the most notable of the three would have to be a short scene showing Le Prince’s family and friend walking around outside on October 14th, 1888, three years before Edison’s first motion picture. The date of Le Prince’s clip can be verified by the death of one of the women in the video, which was 10 days later on the 24th of October. In 1889, after experimenting to find a better material for repeated projections, he decided on celluloid, a flammable transparent plastic. By using celluloid, he was able to rid himself of many of the previous issues he faced with his projector. Le Prince would go onto show his motion pictures in Paris at the National Opera on March 30th, 1890, three and a half years before Edison would unveil his own moving pictures. Le Prince’s intention was to

He and his his only choice of luggage, a black suitcase, would never be seen again. Although he and his paperwork that was in the black case were never retrieved, it was discovered that Le Prince’s machines were still in his workshop untouched. By law, his patent could not be touched for the next seven years, not even his spouse could show the world how much he had accomplished. By the time the seven years were up, Edison would project his moving pictures three years before the seven year mark, taking credit for being the first person to successfully create moving images, discrediting Le Prince in the process. (Howells