William Kennedy Dickson

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William Kennedy Laurie Dickson
Born August 3, 1860
Minihic-sur-Rance, Brittany, France
Died September 28, 1935
Twickenham, Middlesex, UK
Occupation Inventor
Director
Producer
Cinematographer
Actor
Parents James Waite Dickson
Elizabeth Kennedy-Laurie Dickson

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (August 3, 1860–September 28, 1935) was an Anglo-Scottish inventor who is credited with the invention of the motion picture camera under the employ of Thomas Edison.

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[edit] Biography

Dickson was born in Minihic-sur-Rance, Brittany, France. His father, James Waite Dickson, was an artist, astronomer and linguist, claiming direct lineage from the painter William Hogarth, and from Judge John Waite, the man who sentenced King Charles I to death. His mother, Elizabeth Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, was a gifted musician, related to the Lauries of Maxwellton (immortalised in the ballad Annie Laurie) and connected with the Duke of Atholl and the Royal Stuarts.

[edit] Film innovator

Dickson’s invention, the Kinetoscope, was simple: a strip of several images was passed in front of an illuminated lens and behind a spinning wheel. In fact, Edison saw very little value in the contraption, but thought that it might be served to endorse his phonograph.

On January 7, 1894, Dickson received a patent for motion picture film. Shortly afterwards, after a great deal of debate with Edison and West Orange film colleague Jonathan Campbell, Dickson switched from the 19 mm width, single sprocket film he was using, to the more stable 35 mm double-sided sprocket film. Edison didn't see the need or benefit for redesigning the equipment to accept the larger negative, but Dickson and Campbell believed it was essential if the technology was to advance. Today's standard is still 35 mm double-sided sprocket film.

Late in 1894 or early in 1895 Dickson became an ad hoc advisor to the motion picture operation of the Latham brothers, Otway and Grey, and their father, Woodville, who ran one of the leading Kinetoscope exhibition companies. Seeking to develop a movie projector system, they hired former Edison employee Eugene Lauste, probably at Dickson's suggestion. In April 1895, Dickson left Edison's employ and joined the Latham outfit. Alongside Lauste, he helped devise what would become known as the "Latham loop," allowing the photgraphy and exhibition of much longer filmstrips than had previously been possible. The team of former Edison associates brought to fruition the Eidoloscope projector system, which would be used in the first commercial movie screening in world history on May 20, 1895. With the Lathams, Dickson was part of the group that formed the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, before he returned permanently to work in the United Kingdom in 1897.

He filmed Pope Leo XIII.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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