Mechanical Memories Magazine

The British Mutoscope & Biograph Syndicate Ltd. was incorporated on the 21 st July
1897 with William Thomas Smedley as Chairman and Koopman as Managing Director.
Other directors included several media tycoons, who saw potential in the Mutoscope as
an animated newspaper. Dickson took on the role of technical manager and chief
cameraman. Impressive headquarters were established with a new five-storey building
in London's Great Windmill Street, and in December of that year, the British company
became independent from the American Mutoscope Company. A little more than a year
later, in January 1899, the company was voluntarily wound-up in order for a much
larger new company to be formed - the British Mutoscope & Biograph Co., the first
ever film company to be floated on the London stock exchange.
The London company soon became the central hub of a worldwide organisation,
with sister companies created in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands,
Austro-Hungry, India and South Africa, all controlled either directl y or indirectly from
London. In addition, regional companies were created in this country to handle the
placing and operating of machines , and co-ordinating travelling Biograph performances
in provincial theatres. Unlike in America, far more importance was placed in the
Mutoscope's role in the British and Continental business.
The Mutoscope made its UK debut at the Waverly Market, Edinburgh, where eight
machines were in operation between 20 th December 1897 and 8 th January 1898 . Less
than two weeks later, eight machines were in operation at the Cycle Exhibition, Bingly
Hall , Birmingham from the 20 th to 29 th January. It seems likely that they were the same
machines, as it is known that a small number of machines were shipped over from the
States at about that time. During 1898, growth in the Mutoscope operation was steady
and sustained, although falling far sho11 of grossly overestimated predictions. Venues
where machines were sited fell into three categories: Mutoscope Parlours, operated
directly by the regional companies; large leisure centres, where machines we re operated
on shares; and railway stations, again operated on a shares basis.
In it's company prospectus in February 1899, the British Mutoscope & Biograph
Company listed sixty-one Mutoscope Parlours in the UK, operated by the va rious
regional companies. With an average of twenty-five machines per location, this
represents a total of something in the order of fifteen hundred machines. However, it
appears the company was always over-optimistic in its forecasts and targets for siting
machines, as is evidenced at it 's AGM in June of that year, when shareholders were
advised that it intended to have four to six hundred Mutoscope Parlours operating by
the end of the year; a target never remotely achieved.
It is estimated that by the turn of the century, something in the order of two
thousand machines were operating at various leisure centres throughout the UK.
Numbers of machines could range from several to several hundred. For example, in
September 1899, the secretary of the Blackpool Tower Company confirmed placement
of three hundred machines; smaller venues would have had just a handful of machines
operating. In addition, the British Mutoscope & Biograph Company made claims to
shareholders of having two thousand machines sited at railway stations, although it has
been suggested that this figure was probably exaggerated. Although the total number of
Mutoscopes operating by the close of the nineteenth century (probably the peak) will
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