Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema (Cinema and Modernity)

The early years of film were dominated by competition between inventors in America and France, especially Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers . But while these have generally been considered the foremost pioneers of film, they were not the only crucial figures in its inception. Telling the story of the white-hot years of filmmaking in the 1890s, __Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema__ seeks to restore Robert Paul, Britain’s most important early innovator in film, to his rightful place. From improving upon Edison’s Kinetoscope to cocreating the first movie camera in Britain to building England’s first film studio and launching the country’s motion-picture industry, Paul played a key part in the history of cinema worldwide. It’s not only Paul’s story, however, that historian Ian Christie tells here. __Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema__ also details the race among inventors to develop lucrative technologies and the jumbled culture of patent-snatching, showmanship, and music halls that prevailed in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Both an in-depth biography and a magnificent look at early cinema and fin-de-siècle Britain, __Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema__ is a first-rate cultural history of a fascinating era of global invention, and the revelation of one of its undervalued contributors. "Time Traveler, tells the story of the white-hot years of filmmaking in the 1890s and seeks nothing less than to restore Robert Paul to his rightful place in that scene. Paul improved upon the Kinetoscope (which Edison had neglected to patent in the UK). He also created the first movie camera in the UK and went on to unveil a highly effective projector called the Theatograph in 1896. Paul patented numerous devices, including a wireless telegraphy kit and submarine navigation devices that were instrumental in WWI. This book covers Paul's life, the race among inventors (including Edison, the Lumieres, and many more) to develop lucrative technologies, the jumbled culture of patent-snatching, tinkering, showmanship, music halls and movie palaces that then prevailed"-- Provided by publisher