In 1895, what inspired the French Lumil brothers to invent the kinetoscope?

In 1895, the French Lumil brothers were inspired by their sewing machines and invented the kinetoscope.

The French scientists Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere brothers are also very interested in the development of movies, hoping to overcome the development problems and produce real movies. Late one night at the end of 1894, Louis was designing a simulation of film transmission and suddenly thought: When sewing clothes with a sewing machine, doesn't the material make a "move and stop" motion?

When the sewing machine needle is inserted into the fabric, the fabric does not move; when the sewing machine needle sews a stitch and is folded upward, the fabric moves forward. This is not very similar to the method required for film transfer. .

So, he excitedly told his brother August that the movement generated by a machine similar to the presser foot of a sewing machine could be used to pull the tape. When the traction component rises again, the pointed claws exit the hole at the lower end, leaving the film stationary. After testing, Louis' idea was indeed feasible.

Later August said in an article: "My brother invented the kinetoscope in one night." In addition, the brothers also used the research results of many scientists to improve the original Several improvements were made to the film.

Invention of the movie camera

In the budding period of film, there were two different photography tendencies: one, represented by the Lumiere brothers, mainly captured life phenomena in reality , what is shown on the screen are the trivial things around people; a kind represented by Mérieux, which mainly records the fictitious life pictures that have been processed on the stage. Following these two creative methods, it developed into two types of films: documentaries and feature films.

These two tendencies were reflected in feature film photography, and gradually formed two different schools: the painterly school and the documentary school. Summarizing the experience of their predecessors and using their own inventions, the Lumière brothers invented the world's first relatively complete, flexible and lightweight portable "movable cinematograph" in 1894. This is a machine that can take pictures as well as project and develop prints.

The movie machine consists of a camera obscura, which contains a traction mechanism for intermittent movement of the 35 mm perforated film and a rotating mechanism for the shutter. It is equipped with a photographic lens and takes pictures at a frequency of 12 frames per second. When the picture is still, the shutter is open and the film is exposed. When the shutter is closed, the film moves forward, thus obtaining a negative.

Then remove the lens, load the negative film onto the machine, stick it together with another piece of unexposed film, run it under the light source, and obtain the positive film after exposure. The movie machine is also equipped with a projection lens. After loading the film, the machine is placed under the light of a light bulb. The light beam passes through the film and lens, and the camera becomes a projector.

It was in the whirring rotation of this "movie machine" that the Lumière brothers and their photographers filmed films such as "The Train Arrives at the Station" and "The Factory Gate". The first batch of documentaries, thus becoming the originator of documentary.