Auguste and 
Louis Lumière

Auguste and 
Louis Lumière

Sons of a portrait painter who ran a photographic firm, Auguste and 
Louis Lumière are credited with the invention of cinematography. 
Expanding on the concept of the Edison company's Peephole Kinetoscope, 
they invented a portable device that combined a motion picture camera, 
film processor, and projector. Edison's device permitted viewing by only 
one person and the equipment was bulky. Auguste and Louis overcame these 
limitations and incorporated the principle of intermittent movement 
using a device similar to that found in sewing machines. Although their 
invention was kept secret, they organized private screenings of films 
Louis photographed of the world around him. One of his first films was 
of workers leaving the Lumière factory. Their invention, patented in 
1885 in France, followed by a patent application in England, was called 
Cinématographe. 

With their increasing catalog of films taken by the brothers as well as 
others, they opened Cinématographe theaters in London, Brussels, Belgium 
and New York, culminating with a film projected on a 99 x 79 foot screen 
at the Paris Exposition in 1900. Following the Exposition they returned 
to manufacturing and the sale of their inventions including the first 
practical color photography process, the Autochrome Plate. 

Louis Lumière once stated that, "The cinema is an invention without a 
future." His strengths were in invention, not prediction!