STARS:Motion Pictures
From GHN
Author: Frederik L Nebeker
Citation
One of the most influential technologies of the past hundred years has been motion pictures. Not only are movies big business, but they are also a large part of popular culture. They have an enormous impact on how people perceive the world and how people behave, as they provide information, elicit empathy, and shape everyday behavior. This entertainment medium and art form began more than a hundred years ago as a relatively simple technology of motion-picture camera and projector. Since then, continual technological innovation has improved the medium, all the while expanding its expressive possibilities.
Timeline
| 1834 | Invention of the Zoetrope |
| 1888 | Patent caveat by Thomas Edison for the Kinetoscope |
| 1890 | Construction of a practical movie camera by Thomas Edison and W. Laurie Dickson |
| 1892 | Construction of the Kinetoscope, for viewing motion pictures, by Edison and Dickson |
| 1894 | Opening of a Kinetoscope parlor in New York City |
| 1895 | Demonstration of film projection by Auguste and Louis Lumière in Paris |
| 1903 | Release of "The Great Train Robbery", a movie that tells a story |
| 1923 | Demonstration by Lee De Forest of a sound-on-film process |
| 1927 | Successful showing of the sound movie "The Jazz Singer" |
| 1935 | Release of the first full-length color film shot in three-strip Technicolor, "Becky Sharp" |
| 1952 | Release of the 3-D movie "Bwana Devil" |
| 1953 | Introduction of the wide-screen technology CinemaScope with "The Robe" |
| 1970 | Introduction of IMAX films, projected on a much larger screen |
| 1982 | Use of computer animation in the movie "Tron" |
| 1992 | Release of the first movie with the Dolby digital sound system, "Batman Returns" |
| 1995 | Release of the first movie created entirely on a computer, "Toy Story" |
Essay
One of the most influential technologies of the past hundred years has been motion pictures. A photographic technique for capturing action became a new medium, a significant part of the economy, and a dominant part of popular culture. A long series of technical advances created the medium and allowed it to grow to express the visions of filmmakers and to provide entertainment for most of the world's population.
{
Bibliography
References of Historical Significance
References for Further Reading
About the Author(s)
Frederik Nebeker received a B.A. in mathematics from Pomona College, an M.A. in history of science from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in history of science and technology from Princeton University. He worked at the American Philosophical Society and at the Center for History of Physics before moving in 1990 to the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University, where he is currently Senior Research Historian. He is author, co-author, or editor of ten books, most recently Dawn of the Electronic Age: Electrical Technologies in the Shaping of the Modern World, 1914 to 1945 (Wiley & Sons, 2009).
[[Category:]]
