Edison Patents the Kinetoscope: The First Device for Viewing Moving Pictures
Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope in 1891. The device let a single viewer watch a short film by looking through a peephole. It wasn't projected — it was private. Forty-five seconds of footage, a coin slot, a dark parlor. The first Kinetoscope parlor opened in Manhattan in 1894. People paid 25 cents to watch workers smithing, a man sneezing, a bodybuilder flexing. Within two years, the Lumiere brothers projected film for an audience, and the individual viewer model was already obsolete.
August 31, 1897
129 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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