Demeny, Georges (1850-1917), French physiologist, physical educationalist, chronophotographer, and film pioneer. He was the long-time collaborator of Étienne-Jules Marey from 1882 in Paris, devising many of their experiments in movement and often serving as their photographic subject. Relations between them began to decline in the early 1890s as Demeny pressed for the wider commercialization of Marey's photographic apparatus, first through the sale of Marey cameras and then through his Phonoscope of 1892, a disc-based stroboscopic viewer inspired by the success of Anschütz's ‘Schnellseher’, and intended to make animated home portraits and to teach the deaf to speak. Working independently from 1894, he devised the important ‘beater’ movement for precisely advancing celluloid film through a Marey-style camera, an intermittent device commonly used in early film apparatus. He also began making short films of dancers, street scenes, and the passage of a train. An 1896 system for 58 mm film was infrequently used, although a 35 mm version was marketed successfully for a while by Léon Gaumont. From early 1898 Demeny returned to physical education, organizing an international conference in 1900 and advocating new types of exercises for improving public health.
— Deac Rossell
Bibliography
- Mannoni, L., Georges Demeny, pionnier du cinéma (1997)
