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1. Jason Lefkowitz (jalefkowit@octodon.social)'s status on Monday, 16-Jan-2023 02:29:46 JST Jason Lefkowitz

   Every schoolchild knows that Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera. Right?

   Not so fast. Edison first publicly exhibited his motion picture system (actually designed by an employee of his, William Kennedy Dickson) in 1891. But three years before that, in 1888, a Frenchman, Louis Le Prince, shot what is now believed to be the oldest surviving motion picture — a scene of his family in the garden of their house in Leeds, England. Le Prince got a British patent for his work that same year.

   So why doesn’t the world remember Louis Le Prince as the inventor of the motion picture? Because on September 16, 1890, while preparing for the first public exhibition of his system, Louis Le Prince got on a train… and vanished.

   The inventor was never seen again. In the 132 years that followed, no one has ever been able to establish what happened to him.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Le_Prince

   • Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Monday, 16-Jan-2023 02:31:10 JST Adrian Cochrane

     in reply to

     @jalefkowit I get the impression Edison as we remember him was more a corporation than a man...