Vitascope

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Vitascope is an early film projector first demonstrated in 1895 by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat. The pair publicly demonstrated an image projection device at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia which they called the "Phantoscope." This prototype of modern film projectors cast images onto a wall or screen for a moderately large audience. The inventors, heady with the scent of success, became at odds with one another and began fighting over credit for the invention.

Armat, armed with legal authority, independently sold the Phantoscope to The Kinetoscope Company. The company realized that their Kinetoscope would soon be a thing of the past with the rapidly advancing proliferation of early cinematic engineering. They were very interested in this newest magic lantern and approached Thomas Edison to finance the manufacture of the instrument.

Edison agreed to the deal on one condition: in classic Edison style, he would henceforth be credited with the invention of the machine that he renamed the "Vitascope". [1]

Edison's involvement soon extended to film production for the projector in the new Edison movie studio, Edison's Black Maria.