Technologies

Kinetoscope

kih-NET-oh-scope

Cinema

Citation Formats

General Reference

Film and Media Atlas. "Kinetoscope." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://media.interactiveatlas.org/technologies/kinetoscope.

APA Style

Film and Media Atlas. (n.d.). Kinetoscope. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://media.interactiveatlas.org/technologies/kinetoscope

BibTeX

@misc{filmandmediaatlas-kinetoscope,
  author = {Film and Media Atlas},
  title = {Kinetoscope},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://media.interactiveatlas.org/technologies/kinetoscope},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The peephole motion picture viewer developed at Thomas Edison's laboratory, principally by W. K. L. Dickson: a cabinet in which one viewer at a time watched a loop of perforated 35 millimeter film. Kinetoscope parlors opened commercially in 1894, and its film gauge became the standard the industry kept for a century.

Facts

Introduced Year

1894 1

First commercial parlor, New York, April 1894; laboratory demonstrations from 1891 and 1893.

Origin

Edison laboratory, West Orange, New Jersey; W. K. L. Dickson led the development. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

In Medium

Film

Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Sources

1. Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source

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