In any casual conversation regarding the history of film, the name of Louis Le Prince seldom arises.
Le Prince was the man responsible for the very first recording of motion images on film.
It was recorded one October day in 1888 in the garden of Oakwood Grange in Roundhay, Leeds.
Louis Le Prince was born in Metz, in 1842.
Later, he studied painting in Paris and then post-graduated in chemistry at Leipzig University.
This was the first invention he patented.
Eventually, Le Prince figured out that he would have to use a single lens.
This would take blurred pictures because the film would actually be moving during the exposure.
So he made a clamp to stop the film before the shutter opens to expose the image.
The shutter was a hole in a spinning disc.
The group walked around in circles, laughing to themselves.
The resulting recording became the earliest surviving motion images.
Le Princes 16-lens camera and projector.
Le Princes Single-lens camera.
Of course, Le Prince realized that capturing the pictures on film is only half the problem.
Unfortunately flexible celluloid wasnt invented until November 1888.
Needless to say, it wasnt a great success.
However, it was still the best anyone had invented yet.
The police conducted a search but found no bodies nor luggage.
Le Prince had mysteriously disappeared.
Seven years after his disappearance, Thomas Edison tried to take credit for the invention of the motion camera.
However, in Leeds, Le Prince is celebrated as a local hero.
There is a now a blue plaque at the same place that commemorates his work.
