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French Inventor with a background in photography and chemistry.
After serving in the Franco-Prussian War, Louis returned to the Britain where he had been living with his wife, Lizzie Whitley, and together they set up an art school in Park Square, Leeds.
In 1881 they moved to America where Lizzie got a job with the New York Institute for the Deaf and where Louis began experimenting with moving picture machines. His breakthrough came on October 14th, 1888 when he managed to record a moving piece of film. Lasting only 2.11 seconds, the scene captures Adolphe Le Prince (Louis’ son), Sarah Robinson Whitley (Louis’ mother-in-law), Joseph Whitley and Harriet Hartley walking around in a garden. By today’s standards it sounds like nothing exciting, but back then, who had seen such a thing before? Louis applied for several patents for his work in Britain, France and America. In the late summer of that year, after visiting in France with friends, Louis was last seen boarding a train from Bourges to Dijon, where his brother lived. He was never seen again. Any hopes he had of being recognized as the true father of the motion picture were lost as he vanished before he was able to patent the new camera in Britain and demonstrate its operation in America. However, his work survives. Along with Roundhay Garden Scene, there’s also Leeds Bridge, a 6-frame sequence where Louis filmed the passing traffic on Leeds Bridge from an ironmongers. There’s also Man Walking Around A Corner and a 19-frame sequence called Accordion Player which shows Adolphe Le Prince playing a diatonic button accordion. They are short, grainy and at first glance might not seem much, but these are the oldest known films we have, if not the first. His body was never recovered. Whatever the case might be, it certainly is a curious one.
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variant spelling:
LE PRINCE, Louis Aimé Augustin
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Curriculum vitae
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* 28.08.1841
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Metz, France
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born
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1881 - 1886
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Fabrication d’une caméra utilisant seize lentilles qui fut sa première invention à être brevetée.
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11.01.1888
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Déposa le brevet d’une caméra de projection cinématographique possédant une seule lentille.
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14.01.1888
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Invention du premier film connu, un court métrage et de la première projection cinématographique.
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† 16.09.1890
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Dijon, Bourgogne, France
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died
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