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Ever Paniagua

Lumière Brothers - Introduction

Although no one will ever come up with a definitive answer

as to who invented the cinema (probably because no one single

person was responsible),most historians credit the Lumière brothers, Auguste

and Louis, as the inventors of cinema.

History

They were born in Besançon, France. They moved to Lyon in 1870 where they both attended La

Martiniere, which is the largest technical school in Lyon. Both brothers also worked in their

father’s photographic firm.

Due to the discoveries that they did working with his father, Charles-Antoine Lùmiere, they

largely assisted the development of photography and became well-known businessmen.

Auguste was invited to a demonstration of Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope in Paris. The

Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one

person at a time through a peephole viewer window.

The brothers identified the two main problems with Edison’s Kinetoscope as its bulk and

the issue of only one viewer being able to observe the scene at a time. Solving the

problems Edison encountered, the brothers invented the cinématographe.

the cinematographe: A device combining a camera with a printer and projection as well

as the function to produce intermittent movement in order to display motion pictures for
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an audience. The original was patented by Léon Bouly, but they were the ones who

developed the device.

First film screenings

The date of the recording of their first film is in dispute, but the first film screening was on 22nd

March 1895 in Paris, in front of a small audience. They privately screened a single film, Workers

Leaving the Lumière Factory. It is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made.

The cinematographe was an immediate hit, and its influence was colossal -within just

two years, the Lumière catalogue included well over a thousand short films

The brothers stated that "the cinema is an invention without any future" and declined to sell their

camera to other filmmakers such as Georges Méliès. This made many film makers upset.

In parallel with their cinema work they experimented with colour photography. By 1907, they

produced the first practical color photography process, known as the “Autochrome

Lumiere”.

Following their photographic inventions and productions:

Louis focused his interest in stereoscopy, or 3-D imaging, and stereoscopic films

throughout the 1930s,

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while Auguste focused on medical research including studies on tuberculosis and

cancer.

Although they were not the first and only inventors to make progress towards motion

pictures, the Lumiére brothers’ understanding of the technology and skill needed

provided them with the ability to make astounding advances in the cinematography and

photography worlds.