The first machine patented in the United States that showed
animated pictures or movies was a device called the "wheel of life"
or "zoopraxiscope". Patented in 1867 by William Lincoln, moving
drawings or photographs were watched through a slit in the
zoopraxiscope. However, this was a far cry from motion pictures as
we know them today. Modern motion picture making began with the
invention of the motion picture camera.
The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the
first motion picture camera in 1895. But in truth, several others
had made similar inventions around the same time as Lumiere. What
Lumiere invented was a portable motion-picture camera, film
processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe, three
functions covered in one invention.
The Cinematographe made motion pictures very popular, and it
could be better be said that Lumiere's invention began the motion
picture era. In 1895, Lumiere and his brother were the first to
present projected, moving, photographic, pictures to a paying
audience of more that one person.
The Lumiere brothers were not the first to project film. In
1891, the Edison company successfully demonstrated the Kinetoscope,
which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. Later
in 1896, Edison showed his improved Vitascope projector and it was
the first commercially, successful, projector in the U.S.. -
Eman