Theatrograph

Animatograph in Rossio, Lisbon

We use the term Theatrograph to describe real-time hybrid performance that put together film and theatre. At the time it was advertised "as an ingenious apparatus for projecting moving figures upon a lantern screen". The Theatrograph is the first commercially produced 35mm film projector in Britain. It was first demonstrated by R.W. Paul at Finsbury Technical College on February 20, 1896. Many people wondered why it took Paul so long to produce the projector when he invented the camera used for filming in 1895, but what they do not realize is that he was also in the business of kinetoscopes. With kinetoscopes and camera filming he did not think he needed to go into something else. On March 21, Paul and Augustus Harris started hosting daily screenings, with tickets priced at sixpence.They agreed to split the profit fifty fifty. The use of Paul's Theatrograph in music halls up and down the country popularized early cinema in Britain. It was first revealed to the public at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London. Paul's first machine imperfect as it may have been, was the prototype of the modern projector and was the first projector designed solely for the projection of the 35 mm film to appear on the open market. The first Theatrograph was not patented by Paul, There were no examples of it to prove that it existed and to show people in real time, Sometimes they would print description and in-detailed photographs to show what they looked like and how they worked. And those are the only prof we have of their existence today. Paul recalled some of the theatrographs defects, on February 3, 1936 in the British Kinematograph Society which was a society used to help the growing film industry.

Carl Hertz sailed from England on 28 March 1896 aboard the Royal Mail Ship RMS Norman and during the voyage exhibited Paul's Theatrograph to the passengers. He also exhibited films in South Africa and Australia. The screenings in South Africa were the first public screenings of moving pictures in that country. After Australia, Hertz took the Theatrograph to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, China, Japan, the Fiji Islands, and Hawaii.

Georges Méliès purchased one of Paul's theatrographs in 1896.

Theatrograph's Today

Bradford, UK in the nation science and media center of the science museum- This museum has a 1896, 35mm, Theatrograph projector, No 2, mark 1 and pedestal. this was manufactured by Robert Paul. This projector was the second one invented causing it to be patented on March, 2nd 1896. It is created from cast iron and wood, This is one of the 5 models Paul created in his time in the Theatrograph business before quitting in 1910.

Link to the page from the museum about the theatrograph they have- Bradford, Uk science muesum

Directions to the museum- https://maps.apple/p/6DfE7vR-MMxN_L

Notes

  1. ↑ Barnes, John (1 May 2015). The Beginnings Of The Cinema In England,1894-1901: Volume 1. University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0-85989-966-6.
  2. ↑ Christie, Ian (9 December 2019), Christie, Ian (ed.), ""Adding Interest to Wonder": The First Year in Film", Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema, University of Chicago Press, p. 0, doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226610115.003.0003, ISBN 978-0-226-10562-8, retrieved 20 October 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  3. ↑ Christie, Ian (9 December 2019), Christie, Ian (ed.), ""Adding Interest to Wonder": The First Year in Film", Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema, University of Chicago Press, p. 0, doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226610115.003.0003, ISBN 978-0-226-10562-8, retrieved 20 October 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  4. ↑ Barnes, John (1 May 2015). The Beginnings Of The Cinema In England,1894-1901: Volume 1. University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0-85989-966-6.
  5. ↑ Wakeman, John. World Film Directors, Volume 1. The H. W. Wilson Company. 1987. pp. 747–765.

References