Louis Le Prince was an artist who wanted to make pictures move. As a boy he reportedly spent time in the studio of Louis Daguerre, a friend of his father's and a pioneer of photography, so cameras were part of his childhood. In 1886 he patented a camera with 16 lenses, built to attempt the world's first motion pictures. Four years later he stepped onto a train and was never seen again. That is the strange shape of this story. A man who may have filmed first disappeared before he could show it to the public. Years afterward his son testified in a patent trial against Thomas Edison, trying to prove who had got there first. How did Le Prince's work come to that, and what happened to the man himself?
Le Prince: The Inventor of Film Who Vanished
Le Prince filmed a Leeds garden in 1888, then vanished from a Paris-bound train on September 16, 1890.
Chapter 1
The Man Who Filmed First
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Roundhay Garden Scene?
It is a film of just over two seconds that Louis Le Prince shot on October 14, 1888, in a garden in a Leeds suburb. It shows family members walking in a circle. It is the oldest surviving piece of motion picture film.
Why did Le Prince's cameras change from 16 lenses to one?
His 16-lens camera fired sixteen shutters in sequence, but each lens sat in a different position. The pictures jumped because each frame was taken from a slightly different angle. A single lens gave a steady, consistent viewpoint.
What happened to Louis Le Prince in 1890?
On September 16, 1890, he boarded a train to Paris after visiting his brother Albert. When the train arrived he was not on board and his luggage was missing. He was never found and was declared legally dead on September 16, 1897.
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