The Man Who Made Movies: W. K. L. Dickson

W.K.L. Dickson was Thomas Edison's assistant in charge of theexperimentation that led to the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph -- the firstcommercially successful moving image machines. In 1891--1892, he established what weknow today as the 35mm format. Dickson also designed the Black Maria film studio andfacilities to develop and print film, and supervised production of more than 100films for Edison. After leaving Edison, he became a founding member of the AmericanMutoscope Company, which later became the American Mutoscope & Biograph,then Biograph. In 1897, he went to England to set up the European branch of thecompany. Over the course of his career, Dickson made between 500 and 700 films,which are studied today by scholars of the early cinema. This well-illustrated bookoffers a window onto early film history from the perspective of Dickson's ownoeuvre.