| 1896 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
| January 1 |
Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery of X-rays. |
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| January 12 |
X-ray photograph of a hand with a bullet in it is taken by Dr Henry L Smith of
Davidson, North Carolina, allegedly the first ever X-ray photo. |
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| January 14 |
Demonstration of equipment and presentation of a programme of films are given by Birt
Acres at Royal Photographic Society, 14 Hanover Square, London—the first UK public film screening. |
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| February 20 |
Robert W Paul screens Rough Sea at Dover and other of his films to an invited
audience at Finsbury Technical College, London. |
 This film can be viewed by
educational users and researchers at
screenonline |
| February 20 |
At Regent Street Polytechnic, London—first UK commercial film screening—arranged
by French magician Felicien Trewey for three-week period at 14:00-16:00 daily. Admission charge is 1s (5p). |
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| February-August |
Lumière films are shown for the first time to paying audiences in various countries
throughout Europe and elsewhere by showmen who have bought Cinématographe projectors, rapidly expanding
awareness of the new medium.
• February at Ospedale i Carita in Turin, Italy by Vittorio Calcina.
• March 1 at 7 Galerie du Roi, Brussels, Belgium.
• March 13 at Le Lieure photographic gallery in Rome.
• March 19 at Graphic Arts Teaching and Research Centre in Vienna, Austria by E J Dupont.
• May 4 at Aquarium Theatre, St Petersburg—the first commercial Russian film show. (or May 16?)
• May 10 at Royal Hotel, Budapest; includes scenes photographed in nearby streets, including
a military procession.
• May 15 at 34 Carrera de San Jeronimo, Madrid, Spain by M Promio.
• May 27 at Salon l’Independenta Romana in Bucharest, Romania.
• June 7 in a wooden pavilion called the Panorama (aka Panopticon), constructed in Rådhuspladsen,
Copenhagen, Denmark [right]. Presented by Vilhelm Pacht, a painter, shows continue until the
building is burnt down in an arson attack on June 30. The royal family visit on June 11.
• June 7 at Kod Zlatnog Krsta Café, Belgrade, Serbia.
• June 9 at Kurhaus, Scheveningen, Netherlands.
• June 28 at Societetshuset, Helsinki, Finland. Despite high admission charges, shows continue
for eight days.
• June 28 at the Industrial Exhibition in the Malmö Summer Palace, Sweden by by Harald Limkilde,
a Danish showman. A total of 30,000 people see the shows in the following
days.
• July 7 at Watson’s Hotel, Bombay, India, moving a week later to the Novelty Theatre nearby.
•July 15 at Lázenský dom, Karoly Vary, Czechoslovakia.
• July 18 at El Salón Rouge, 25 de Mayo 285 (now 418), Montevideo, Uruguay. The admission charge
is 40 centésimos. In October a show is included in a programme of zarzuela at the Teatro San Felipe in
Montevideo and in the following month at 18 de Julio 130 for three hours a night (20:00-23:00).
• July 28 at Colón Theatre, Buenos Aires, Argentina by Francisco Pastos and Eustaquio Pellier.
• August 15 at 17 Calle de Jesus, Mexico City by Salvador Toscano Barragan, an engineering student. |
For Sweden see also July 21 below |
| March |
R W Paul shows a programme of his Animatographe films to a paying audience at Olympia,
London. |
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| March 25 |
Following his Olympia screening, R W Paul is offered a two-week season at the
Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square and stays for four years. Many of his drama films are shot on
the roof of the Alhambra. |
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| March 25 |
The first UK cinematograph screening outside London is given at the Pandora Galley,
King's Road, Brighton. |
 Brighton and film |
| l |
Edison acquires the patents to the Vitascope film
projector mechanism designed by Thomas Armat and C Francis Jenkins, for which they lack the capital
to develop commercially. |
â April 23 |
| April 6 |
First commercial film screening in Norway and first in all Scandinavia is at Circus
Variété in Christiania (later Oslo) by Max and Emil Skladanowsky
using their Bioskop equipment. Shows continue until May 5 due to popular demand. |
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| April 20 |
Star of Erin Variety Theatre in Dublin puts on the first commercial film screening in Ireland. |
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| April 23 |
First motion picture projection screenings in New York City at Koster and
Bial’s music hall; the projectionist (using what is now called the Edison
Vitascope) is Edwin S Porter. As well as five films made by the Edison company, the programme
includes R W Paul’s English production Rough Sea at Dover. The films are made into
40-foot loops for repeated showing. |
Porter: see 1902 late |
| April |
R W Paul shoots the first dramatic film in the UK, The Soldier’s Courtship,
starring Robert Storey. |
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| April |
Frenchman Auguste Blaise Baron (1855-1938) and Fréderic Bureau (d.1896) are granted a
French patent for a sound synchronisation system, inspired by seeing an Edison Kinetophone. |
à 1900 |
| May 5 |
Birt Acres gives the first commercial film screening in Wales at Cardiff Town Hall. |
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| May 9 |
R W Paul’s Theatrograph film programme is shown at the Empire Theatre of Varieties,
Johannesburg. |
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| May 27 |
Acres and Paul show their first ‘commercial’ film production for the
Kinetoscope, The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race (see 1895), at the India
Exhibition, Earl’s Court, London. |
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| June 2 |
Guglielmo Marconi applies for the first ever patent on wireless telegraphy. |
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| June 18 |
First Portuguese commercial film show given at Real Coliseu, Rua de Palma, Lisbon
by Erwin Rousby. |
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| July 21 |
First film presentation in Stockholm, Sweden is given by Charles Marcel, correspondent
of Le Soir at the Djurgårten Glace Palace using an Edison Kinetoscope. Max and Emil Skladanowsky
soon take over the franchise and include their own films of Djurgårten—the first film shot in Sweden. |
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| July 28 |
First Canadian commercial film show at West End Park, Ottawa using Edison Vitascope projector. |
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| July |
First Brazilian commercial film show uses Omniographo projector. |
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| August 11 |
Programme of French (?) films is included in a variety show at Hsu Gardens, Shanghai, China. |
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| August 22 |
Programme of R W Paul films is given at Melbourne Opera House, Australia by Carl
Hertz, a conjuror, the first projected film show in Australia. |
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| September 28 |
Pathé Frères film company is founded in Paris by Charles and Emile Pathé. Charles Pathé
has already established a successful business importing cylinder recordings from England and making
original recordings, which sell from his shop at 72 cours de Vincennes. |
à 1897 |
| l |
Pathé film company in France experiments with synchronising films and gramophone discs
to create sound films. |
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| September 29 |
Amateur photographer A P Fedetsky films Cossack Trick Riders at Kharkov
in the Ukraine. |
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| October 13 |
Programme of English films (probably R W Paul) shown at Auckland Opera House,
New Zealand by Professors Gow and Hausmann. |
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| October 27 |
Passengers Alighting from Ferry ‘Brighton’ at Manly is screened at the
Salon Lumière, 237 Pitt Street, Sydney. One of several subjects shot around Sydney Harbour during the
previous month by Maurice Sestier, Lumière’s Australian agent, and Walter Barnett, a portrait
photographer. |
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| October 31 |
The Australian Jockey Club (AJC) Derby horse race is filmed at Melbourne. |
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| October |
Programme of Edison films shown at Lvov, Poland. |
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| November 3 |
Maurice Sestier and Walter Barnett film the Melbourne Cup, the first famous film made
in Australia. |
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| November |
Edison introduces the Projectoscope (Projecting Kinetoscope) and abandons marketing
the Vitascope. |
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| December |
R W Paul offers a number of his ‘cinematograph reproductions’ (film prints)
to the British Museum for preservation. |
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| l |
Film production begins in
• Denmark: Kørsel med grønlandske Hunde (Running with Greenland dogs), made by Peter Elfedt;
• Hungary: Arnold Sziklay shoots footage of Emperor Franz Josef opening the Millenial Exhibition in Budapest;
• Italy: Italo Pacchioni replicates the Lumière favourite with Arrivo del treno stazione di Milano;
• Portugal: Aurelio de Paz dos Reis replicates another: Leaving the Factory;
• Spain: Eduardo Jimino films Salida de misa de doce en la Iglesia del Pilar en Zaragoza (Leaving
the noon mass at the Church of St Pilar in Zaragoza). |
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| l |
Brighton portrait photographer Esmé Collings makes more than 30 films during the year,
including at least one, The Broken Melody, in which a professional actor, a Mr Van Biene, is
employed. Collings had been a partner of William Friese-Greene. |
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| l |
American film cameraman Woodville Latham applies for a patent on his idea of creating
loops of film above and below the camera gate and continuously running
sprocket wheels to feed the film, to remove the tension in the film that frequently causes the film to tear.
R W Paul in Britain develops similar projection technology. |
à 1902 |
| l |
Lumière Cinématographe, Edison’s Kinetoscope and Vitascope and Lubin’s copy
of the Vitascope are demonstrated in Japan. |
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| l |
First Egyptian commercial film shows are given at Zavani Café in Alexandria. |
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| l |
Gramophone with clockwork motor and friction governor speed control goes on the market. |
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| l |
Parlophone record company is founded in Germany by the Carl Lindström Company. |
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| l |
Prestwich Film Company in UK introduces a film system based on 60mm wide film stock.
In the US, the Veriscope Company uses a 63mm film. |
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| l |
Among films released by Max Skladanowsky is Eine Lustige Gesellschaft vor dem
Tivoli in Kopenhagen (A Jolly Group in Front of Tivoli in Copenhagen), also released as Eine
Kleine Szene aus dem Strassenleben in Stockholm (A Little Scene of Street Life in Stockholm). |
see also July 21 |
| l |
Stage musician Georges Méliès establishes the Star Film Company in Paris. He buys a
film camera from R W Paul. |
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| l |
Hand-colouring of film prints is first employed. |
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| l |
British publisher George Newnes launches the Penny Library of Famous Books with
average weekly sales of 96,000 copies. |
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| l |
The Daily Mail newspaper founded in UK by Alfred Harmsworth. |
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