A couple of follow up notes to what we discussed last night.
- 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.
- LePrince’s film, Roundhay Garden Scene, from 1888, is available on YouTube.
- A few years ago, Ars Technica profiled the the Motion Pictures Patents Company, the Thomas Edison–led cartel.
- 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.