Cinema, the world's most popular art, is also the youngest. Originating at the end of the 19th century, cinema quickly grew from black and white silent minute demonstrations into vibrant colorful paintings with a lively presence effect. But for contemporaries of the first movie shows, moving pictures were the same magic as a 3D movie or shot at a speed of 48 frames per second.
A long way to the movie screen
After the invention of photography, the main idea of which was to fix a still image on special paper, the question arose of how to fix a moving image. Progress at the end of the 19th century raced at the speed of a recently launched steam express train, so that the overdue need was decided by the inventors of different countries at the same time and completely independently of each other.
It was necessary to invent a flexible photosensitive film, a chronophotographic apparatus to fix the image on the film, and a projector to display the fixed images. Scientists and inventors worked on these interrelated tasks during the last two decades of the 19th century.
And in 1895-1896, various devices were invented that combined all the basic elements of cinema: the “cinematography” of the Lumiere brothers in France, the film projector of O. Mester in Germany, the “animatograph” of R. Paul in England; and in Russia - the "chronophotographer" A. Samarsky and the "strobe" I. Akimov.
