News of the new moving picture machines spread quickly to Europe, and the first
Kinetoscope parlour outside the United States opened in London in October 1984. It
has been suggested by some that Edison may have lost interest or confidence in the
Kinetoscope project at some time; the truth, of course, will never be known. However,
this notion may be supported by Edison 's neglect to file for worldwide patents. As the
popularity of Kinetoscope parlours grew throughout Europe, it became inevitable that
the machines would be copied. They were manufactured in England by Robert W. Paul,
who built numerous machines and incorporated some important innovations.
However, the Kinetoscope's popularity was to be short lived. There were a number
of reasons for this, principally the Lumiere brother's new Cinematography, introduced
in 1985. With the advent of a viable screen projection system, the Kinetoscope, or any
moving picture machine that could only be viewed by one person, would be rendered
nothing more than a coin-operated novelty, for which punters would not spend large
sums of money to use. In addition, Kinetoscopes were unreliable; film breakage was
common and frequent - not ideal in a coin-op environment. And priced at over $200
they were not cheap, but then they were not cheap to produce either. The relatively
complex machines had become, in a short period of time, an unviable means of
displaying a mere twenty seconds of film. If coin-operated moving picture machines
were to survive as amusement novelties, then they would have to be produced far more
cheaply and be far more reliable.
To be continued
A Kinetoscope parlour, San Fransisco c.1894 or 1985
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