Louis LePrince and Thomas Edison

A couple of follow up notes to what we discussed last night.

1. Although Edison was first to market the kinetograph in the United States, there is compelling evidence that Louis LePrince was the first to invent a single-lens camera. He vanished in 1890, a year before Edison and WKL Dickson made the first successful camera test with the kinetograph.
2. LePrince’s film, Roundhay Garden Scene, from 1888, is available on YouTube.
3. A few years ago, Ars Technica profiled the the Motion Pictures Patents Company, the Thomas Edison–led cartel.
4. Speaking of patent pools, Apple, Microsoft, RIM, and Sony Ericsson all own patents related to mobile telephony that were once owned by the now-defunct Nortel Networks. They outbid Google and Samsung for the patent portfolio in 2011.

I’ll try to get around to watching the 220-minute version of Heaven’s Gate (1980). You should, too.