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There were many inventions across many different countries that morphed the cinema into what it is today. Thomas Edison’s assistant, W.K.L. Dickson got some Eastman Kodak film stock and started working on a machine that became the Kinetograph camera and the Kinetoscope viewing box. The film stock was cut into roughly 35mm wide (1-inch) strips and had 4 holes punched into either side of each frame so that the film could be pulled through the camera and Kinestoscope using toothed gears, a practice that would influence the entire history of filmmaking.

Kinetoscope pictured below

German inventors Max and Emil Skladanowsky invented the Bioscop, a projector that held 2 strips of film, each 3.5 inches wide, and ran them side by side. It projected the frames of each strip alternately. Eventually, as this proved clunky and cumbersome, they adopted the standard 35mm single-strip format.

Bioscop pictured below

Louis and Auguste Lumière then invented a groundbreaking projection system called the Cinématographe, which used 35mm film and an intermittent mechanism much like a sewing machine. The camera basically functioned as a printer for the positive copies (the original film frames) when they are made and then it was mounted in front of a magic lantern, making it function as part of the projector as well. The Lumières also decided to shoot at 16 frames per second (Edison used 45 frames per second), which became the standard for the silent film era.

Cinématographe pictured below

Another invention was the Mutoscope, invented by W.K.L. Dickson and Herman Casler and granted patent on 5 November, 1895. It is a penny-in-the-slot machine where the viewer turns a crank in order to turn a drum that contains a series of photographs. A stand shows the circular arrangement of the cards. Each of the cards are flipped down and briefly held still to create the illusion of movement.

Mutoscope pictured below