The motion picture projector, like the electric carbon arc light, was apparently known since antiquity. Surprisingly, however, animated pictures were not recreated until relatively recently. According to Henry Chase Hill, the editor of the 1917 edition of The Wonder Book of Knowledge, a well-known manufacturer of movie projectors related what really inspired its growth and development—in the following year. That man, who should have been one in the know, said:
“A bet was made in 1871 by the late Senator Leland Stanford, of California, that a running horse at no time had all four feet off the ground. Edward Muybridge, an Englishman, by way of experiment, placed numerous cameras at regular intervals about the track, which, by electrical contact, were mapped by the horse in passing. It proved that the horse always had, when running, one foot on the ground. Although this was not the first record of motion pictures, it served to demonstrate their practicability.
“Development had dragged until the Muybridge experiment. In 1880, Muybridge produced, in San Francisco, the ‘Zoopraxiscope,” which projected pictures (on glass positives) on a screen. Later Muybridge conferred with Edison regarding a combination of his machine with the phonograph, then in its infancy. Then, in about 1883, he went abroad and held frequent conferences with M. Marey of the Institute of France.
“Marey first utilized the continuous film, though it was George Eastman who brought it to its present state of high perfection. A great deal of the tremendous present popularity of motion pictures is due to the invention of the translucent film. The early Kodak film became the great factor in the cinematograph manufacture.
“In 1893, Lumiere produced the ‘Cinematograph,’ the first machine to project from a film. Edison in 1896 produced his ‘Vitascope.’ These machines became models of the greatly improved article of today.
“The first real machine was brought to America in 1894. At least, that is as near as I can recollect the date. It was a Lumiere cinematograph and was exhibited at Union Square Theater, New York City. The French manufacturing firm instructed J. B. Colt & Company to furnish an operator. The Colt Company was interested in the sale of lanterns and slides and the foreign firm naturally turned to them for assistance.
“They furnished an operator, Edward Hadley. Although he had never seen a motion-picture machine, Hadley was a man who had been in their employ and was naturally familiar with lanterns and electricity. To the best of my belief, Hadley was the first motion picture operator in America.”