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1 Acres, Birt
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 23 July 1854 Virginia, USAd. 1918[br]American photographer, inventor and pioneer cinematographer.[br]Born of English parents and educated in Paris, Acres travelled to England in the 1880s. He worked for the photographic manufacturing firm Elliott \& Co. in Barnet, near London, and became the Manager. He became well known through his frequent lectures, demonstrations and articles in the photographic press. The appearance of the Edison kinetoscope in 1893 seems to have aroused his interest in the recording and reproduction of movement.At the beginning of 1895 he took his idea for a camera to Robert Paul, an instrument maker, and they collaborated on the building of a working camera, which Acres used to record the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on 30 March 1895. He filmed the Derby at Epsom on 29 May and the opening of the Kiel Canal in June, as well as ten other subjects for the kinetoscope, which were sold by Paul. Acres's association with Paul ended in July 1895. Acres had patented the camera design, the Kinetic Lantern, on 27 May 1895 and then went on to design a projector with which he gave the first successful presentation of projected motion pictures to take place in Britain, at the Royal Photographic Society's meeting on 14 January 1896. At the end of the month Acres formed his own business, the Northern Photographic Company, to supply film stock, process and print exposed film, and to make finished film productions.His first shows to the public, using the renamed Kineopticon projector, started in Piccadilly Circus on 21 March 1896. He later toured the country with his show. He was honoured with a Royal Command Performance at Marlborough House on 21 July 1896 before members of the royal family. Although he made a number of films for his own use, they and his equipment were used only for his own demonstrations. His last contribution to cinematography was the design and patenting in 1898 of the first low-cost system for amateur use, the Birtac, which was first shown on 25 January 1899 and marketed in May of that year. It used half-width film, 17.5 mm wide, and the apparatus served as camera, printer and projector.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFellow of the Royal Photographic Society 1895.Bibliography27 May 1895 (the Kinetic Lantern).9 June 1898 (the Birtac).Further ReadingJ.Barnes, 1976, The Beginnings of the Cinema in England, London. B.Coe, 1980, The History of Movie Photography, London.BC -
2 Photography, film and optics
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Ding HuanGabor, DennisKlic, KarolLippershey, HansMarton, LadislausTournachon, Gaspard FélixBiographical history of technology > Photography, film and optics
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3 Paul, Robert William
[br]b. 3 October 1869 Highbury, London, Englandd. 28 March 1943 London, England[br]English scientific instrument maker, inventor of the Unipivot electrical measuring instrument, and pioneer of cinematography.[br]Paul was educated at the City of London School and Finsbury Technical College. He worked first for a short time in the Bell Telephone Works in Antwerp, Belgium, and then in the electrical instrument shop of Elliott Brothers in the Strand until 1891, when he opened an instrument-making business at 44 Hatton Garden, London. He specialized in the design and manufacture of electrical instruments, including the Ayrton Mather galvanometer. In 1902, with a purpose-built factory, he began large batch production of his instruments. He also opened a factory in New York, where uncalibrated instruments from England were calibrated for American customers. In 1903 Paul introduced the Unipivot galvanometer, in which the coil was supported at the centre of gravity of the moving system on a single pivot. The pivotal friction was less than in a conventional instrument and could be used without accurate levelling, the sensitivity being far beyond that of any pivoted galvanometer then in existence.In 1894 Paul was asked by two entrepreneurs to make copies of Edison's kinetoscope, the pioneering peep-show moving-picture viewer, which had just arrived in London. Discovering that Edison had omitted to patent the machine in England, and observing that there was considerable demand for the machine from show-people, he began production, making six before the end of the year. Altogether, he made about sixty-six units, some of which were exported. Although Edison's machine was not patented, his films were certainly copyrighted, so Paul now needed a cinematographic camera to make new subjects for his customers. Early in 1895 he came into contact with Birt Acres, who was also working on the design of a movie camera. Acres's design was somewhat impractical, but Paul constructed a working model with which Acres filmed the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on 30 March, and the Derby at Epsom on 29 May. Paul was unhappy with the inefficient design, and developed a new intermittent mechanism based on the principle of the Maltese cross. Despite having signed a ten-year agreement with Paul, Acres split with him on 12 July 1895, after having unilaterally patented their original camera design on 27 May. By the early weeks of 1896, Paul had developed a projector mechanism that also used the Maltese cross and which he demonstrated at the Finsbury Technical College on 20 February 1896. His Theatrograph was intended for sale, and was shown in a number of venues in London during March, notably at the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square. There the renamed Animatographe was used to show, among other subjects, the Derby of 1896, which was won by the Prince of Wales's horse "Persimmon" and the film of which was shown the next day to enthusiastic crowds. The production of films turned out to be quite profitable: in the first year of the business, from March 1896, Paul made a net profit of £12,838 on a capital outlay of about £1,000. By the end of the year there were at least five shows running in London that were using Paul's projectors and screening films made by him or his staff.Paul played a major part in establishing the film business in England through his readiness to sell apparatus at a time when most of his rivals reserved their equipment for sole exploitation. He went on to become a leading producer of films, specializing in trick effects, many of which he pioneered. He was affectionately known in the trade as "Daddy Paul", truly considered to be the "father" of the British film industry. He continued to appreciate fully the possibilities of cinematography for scientific work, and in collaboration with Professor Silvanus P.Thompson films were made to illustrate various phenomena to students.Paul ended his involvement with film making in 1910 to concentrate on his instrument business; on his retirement in 1920, this was amalgamated with the Cambridge Instrument Company. In his will he left shares valued at over £100,000 to form the R.W.Paul Instrument Fund, to be administered by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, of which he had been a member since 1887. The fund was to provide instruments of an unusual nature to assist physical research.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFellow of the Physical Society 1920. Institution of Electrical Engineers Duddell Medal 1938.Bibliography17 March 1903, British patent no. 6,113 (the Unipivot instrument).1931, "Some electrical instruments at the Faraday Centenary Exhibition 1931", Journal of Scientific Instruments 8:337–48.Further ReadingObituary, 1943, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 90(1):540–1. P.Dunsheath, 1962, A History of Electrical Engineering, London: Faber \& Faber, pp.308–9 (for a brief account of the Unipivot instrument).John Barnes, 1976, The Beginnings of Cinema in Britain, London. Brian Coe, 1981, The History of Movie Photography, London.BC / GW
См. также в других словарях:
Birt Acres — (* 23. Juli 1854 in Richmond, Virginia; † 27. Dezember 1918 in London) war ein britischer Fotograf und Filmpionier. Er entwickelte 1895 eine der ersten kommerziell einsetzbaren Filmkameras und veranstaltete am 14. Januar 1896 die erste… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Birt Acres — est un réalisateur, directeur de la photographie, producteur et inventeur américain né le 23 juillet 1854 à Richmond, en Virginie, et décédé le décembre 1918. Sommaire 1 Biographie 2 Filmographie … Wikipédia en Français
Birt — may refer to:People* Charlie Birt (born 1942), Canadian politician. * John Birt (born 1944), Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation 1992 ndash;2000. * Henry Norbert Birt, Benedictine historian * William Radcliffe Birt… … Wikipedia
Birt — ist der Familienname von: Theodor Birt (1852–1933), deutscher Altphilologe und Schriftsteller John Birt, Baron Birt (* 1944), britischer Journalist, ehemaliger Generaldirektor der BBC und Life Peer William Radcliffe Birt (1804–1881), englischer… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Acres — ist ein Namensbestandteil folgender Orte: Garden Acres Henlopen Acres Highland Acres Kent Acres Lehigh Acres Les Cent Acres und Flüsse: Long Acres Branch, ein Fluss im US Bundesstaat Indiana Fair Acres Branch, ein Fluss im US Bundesstaat Texas… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Acres (surname) — Acres is a surname, and may refer to* Adam Acres, Canadian politician * Basil Acres, English footballer * Birt Acres, American photographer and film pioneer * Bob Acres, fictional character in The Rivals * Mark Acres, American basketball player * … Wikipedia
Birt Acres — Infobox actor bgcolour = silver name = Birt Acres imagesize = 200px caption = birthdate = birth date|1854|7|23 location = USA Richmond, Virginia, height = deathdate = death date and age|1918|12|27|1854|7|23 deathplace = UK Whitechapel, London… … Wikipedia
The Boxing Kangaroo — Infobox Film name = The Boxing Kangaroo image size = caption = director = Birt Acres producer = Birt Acres writer = narrator = starring = music = cinematography = editing = distributor = released = January 1896 runtime = country = United Kingdom… … Wikipedia
Arthur Melbourne-Cooper — (1874 1961) was a British film maker who witnessed the birth of the movies as an assistant/cameraman of Birt Acres (1854 1918) who, in 1895, developed the first British 35 mm moving picture camera.Cooper, for the next 20 years, pioneered in… … Wikipedia
The Derby (1895 film) — Infobox Film name = The Derby image size = caption = Screencap for The Derby director = Birt Acres producer = Birt Acres Robert W. Paul writer = narrator = starring = music = cinematography = Birt Acres editing = distributor = released = 1895… … Wikipedia
17,5 mm — Formatos de película cinematográfica de 17,5 mm. La película cinematográfica de 17,5 mm de ancho apareció por primera vez en 1898 de la mano de Birt Acres. Este fotógrafo inglés creó una cámara ligera con el fin de ponerla en manos de un extenso… … Wikipedia Español
