What inspired the French Lumiere brothers to invent the kinetoscope?

The French Lumière brothers were inspired by their sewing machines and invented the Kinetoscope.

In 1895, the French Lumiere brothers were inspired by their sewing machines and invented the kinetoscope. The Lumiere brothers learned photography techniques in the photo studio run by their father, Lumiere Sr., and developed the "Kinet Cinema" while running the photographic equipment factory for their father.

As photographers, the Lumiere brothers showed a completely different mindset from Edison in their approach to film. This difference is not only reflected in the invention of "projection" and the improvement of film machinery and equipment, but more prominently in the fundamental differences in concepts of time and space and fundamental aesthetic differences in their film works.

Usage of the kinetoscope

The key part of the kinetoscope is a capture system that allows the film to project images on the screen at a speed of 16 frames per second. On December 28, 1895, they screened 10 short films they shot at the Grand Café de la Capucine in Paris, including "The Factory Gate" and "The Watering Gardener." This date is recognized as the birth date of cinema.

After that, they continued to shoot short films of 1-2 minutes (more than 40 were shot in 1896 alone), among which the famous ones include "Train Arrives at the Station", "Baby Drinking Soup", etc. They also sent a group of trained photographers and projectionists to travel around the world to promote the movie machine and shoot new films, making the movie machine quickly popular all over the world.