The birth of motion pictures. Piracy, patent disputes and other anecdotes in the race for inventing cinema
- Camarero Calandria, María Emma (coord.)
- Marcos Ramos, María (coord.)
Publisher: Centro de Estudios Brasileños ; Universidad de Salamanca
ISBN: 978-84-606-8174-8
Year of publication: 2015
Volume: 1
Pages: 776-789
Congress: Congreso Internacional Historia, literatura y arte en el cine en español y portugués (3. 2015. Salamanca)
Type: Conference paper
Abstract
By the 1890s, the principle of persistence of vision was well known. Numerous inventors competed for being the father of cinema as we know it today. Nevertheless, this competition would be marked by patent disputes, piracy, strong disagreements between partners or a secret collaboration with the competition. This race would even involve the mysterious vanishing of Louis Le Prince in 1890 before presenting his first films shot in 1888; namely, some years before those of Thomas Edison (1893), the British partners Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres (1895) or the Lumière brothers (1895). This dissertation will focus on these struggles —less know by the audience— that preceded the birth of the cinema.