|
|
(Larger Image)
|
History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kinetophonograph
by W.K.L. Dickson, Antonia Dickson, Thomas Edison
Product Group: Book
Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2002-07-15)
ISBN: 0870700383
EAN: 9780870700385
Dewy Decimal #: 778
Paperback: 56 pages
Edition: Facsimile Ed
Release Date: 2002-07-02
Condition: New
Comments: Paperback, Book is in Unused Condition. Book is completely intact with inside pages in Excellent condition with no tears and with no notations (no pencil marks, no underlining, no highlighting, etc.) Fast Service. Books well packed.
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
Cinema buffs will treasure this one-of-a-kind facsimile edition of the first published history of film, reproduced from W.K.L. Dickson's own annotated copy of his groundbreaking 1895 volume. Dickson, co-author with his sister Antonia of this book and of The Life and Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison (1894), headed the team at Edison's New Jersey laboratory that was attempting to build "an instrument which does for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear." The results of their efforts were the kinetograph (the camera used for photographing motion pictures) and the kinetoscope (the means for viewing them). Acquired by The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1940, Dickson's book is a unique document that allows the reader to experience the wonder and promise of the cinema in its infancy.
|
Customer Reviews
|
A Worthwhile Piece of Cinematic History
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-11-04
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
|
|
|
|
|