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Les origines (1847-1886)

Fils d'un couple de canadien, Samuel Edison et de Nancy Elliott, Thomas A. Edison est né dans l'Ohio (Milan) où il est recensé (1850). Son père a exercé de nombreux métiers dont le secteur du bois. En 1854, la famille s'intalle à Port Huron (Michigan) où elle est toujours recensée en 1860.

Thomas Edison (c. 1857)

Thomas abandonne l'école et commence a travaillé comme vendeur de journaux et de bonbons sur la ligne de chemin de fer qui va de Port Huron à Détroit.

Thomas Edison (1861).

Vers l'âge de douze ans ([1859]), Thomas Edison, pour des raisons non éclaircies, perd une grande partie de son audition. Il travaille, par la suite, comme télégraphiste dans plusieurs villes américaine (1863-1868) dont Toronto (Canada) et Boston où il est employé par la Western Union.

En 1869, il quitte son emploi, s'installe à New York et il dépose son premier brevet pour un "improvement in electrographic vote-recorder" (US 90.646, 01/06/1869). En octobre de cette même année, il forme avec Franklin L. Pope et James Ashley, la société Pope, Edison & Co.

Hartford Courant, Hartford, mercredi 15 mars 1871, p. 2.

Il constitue également d'autres sociétés et, en 1873, il épouse Mary Stilwell avec laquelle il aura trois enfants: Marion, Thomas et William. En 1874, il commence à travailler, en collaboration avec George B. Prescott, sur un système télégraphique pour la Western Union à partir des travaux de Samuel Morse :

New Inventions in Telegraphy
The present is an age of scientific wonders, among the most recent of which some new inventions in telegraphic science attract attention. Four messages can now be sent over a single wire in opposite directions by an improved system, the invention of Professor Morse, but one message could be sent over a wire at a time, but in 1871 Mr. J. B. Stearnes invented the duplex apparatus by which two messages could be sent simultaneously in opposite directions over a single wire; but unlike the Morse instrument messages could not be dropped at way stations except by the use of a repeater. The new invention not only sends four messages simultaneously, thus making a simple wire ; but unlike the Morse instrument messages could not be dropped at way stations except by the use of a repeater. The new invention not only sends four messages simultaneously, thus making a single wire equal in effectiveness to four, but enables them to be dropped at any way station on the circuit.

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Times Union, Brooklynm vendredi 10 juillet 1874, p. 4.

C'est à la fin de l'année 1875 que Thomas Edison commence à chercher des terrains pour installer une usine à Menlo Park :

Mr. Hussey, the inventor, is building a factory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, for the manufacture of the instruments; and Mr. Edison, of Newark, discoverer of Newark, discoverer of the new electric force, has purchased land at the same place for a factory, in which the manchinery for some of his numerous inventions is to be constructed.

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Daily Press and Herald, Knoxville, jeudi 23 décembre 1875, p. 4.

New Jersey. Menlo Park. Laboratoire. 1877
Source: Collections Henry Ford

La première grande invention que Thomas Edison va mettre au point à Menlo Park est le phonographe, dès la fin de l'année 1877. Dans les premiers jours du mois de novembre, The Scientific American rend compte, sous le titre "Speech Automatically Transmitted in short Hand by the Telegraph" des avancées des recherches du Dr. Rosapelly's et du professeur Marey. En écho à cet article, The Sun évoque l'état des travaux de Thomas Edison et écrit :

Nothing could be more incredible than the likelihood of once more hearing the voice of the dead, yet the invention of the new instrument is said to render this possible hereafter. It is true that the voices are stilled, but whoever has spoken or whoever may speak into the mouth piece of the Phonograph, and whose words are recorded by it, has the assurance that his speech may be reproduced audibly in his own tones long after he himself has turned to dust. A strip of indented paper travels through a little machine, the sounds of the latter are magnified, and posterity, centuries hence hear us as plainly as if we were present. Speech has become, as it were, immortal.

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The Sun, New York, mardi 6 novembre 1877, p. 3.

Le journal donne également la parole à Edward H. Johnson qui a eu l'occasion de rencontrer Edison qui l'a autorisé à évoquer le phonographe dont il donne une description et une illustration :

The subjoined illustration, although not the actual design of the apparatus as used by Mr. Edison, will better serve to illustrate and make clear the principle upon which he is operating.

A is a speaking tube provided with a mouth-pices, C-; X is a metallic diaphragm wichi responds powerfully to the vibrations of the voice. In the centre of the diaphragm is secured a small chisel-shaped point. D is a drum revolved by clockwork, and serves to carry forward a continuous fillet of paper, having throughout its length and exactly in the centre a raised V-shaped boss, such as would be made by passing a fillet of paper through a Morse register with the lever constantly depressed. [...]

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The Sun, New York, mardi 6 novembre 1877, p. 3.

Quelques semaines plus tard Edison dépose le brevet du phonographe : "Improvement in phonograph or Speaking Machines (US200.521 du 24/12/1877).

"The Talking Phonograph" Scientific American, 22 décembre 1877, p. 384.	Levin Handy. Studio de Mathew Brady (Washington D.C.) Thomas A. Edison et le phonographe second prototype (18 avril 1878) [D.P.]

Grâce à une photographie datée de 1878, on peut connaître l'essentiel des proches collaborateurs d'Edison alors qu'il est à Menlo Park : T. Seymour, "Basic" Lawson, J. F. Randolph, George Carman, F. McLoughlin, J. F. Ott, Dr. Haid, F. R. Upton, Charles Batchelor, Francis Jehl, Martin N. Force, Albert Swanson et S. L. Griffin.

 
Edison and his Principal Assistants at Menlo Park, 1878
Source: Collections Henry Ford

La second invention importante que va réaliser Thomas A. Edison à Menlo Park est la lampe à incandescence due à Joseph Swan, mais dont il dépose une version améliorer le 27 janvier 1879. En 1880, il est recensé à East New Brunswick (New Jersey). Au cours des années qui suivent, il va se consacrer essentiellement aux recherches en relation avec l'électricité. 

Le kinetograph (1887-1893)

Les premiers essais  (1887-1889)

Le génie de Menlo Park cherche, alors, à inventer un nouvel appareil susceptible de reproduire des images animées. Dans un document publié dans The Century Magazine, en juin 1894, il raconte comme lui est venue cette idée:

In the year 1887, the idea occurred to me that it was possible to devise an instrument which should do for the eye what the phonographe done for the ear, and that by a combination of the two, all motion and sound could be recorded et reproduced simultaneously.

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DICKSON, 1894: 206.

Au cours de ces différentes étapes, William Dickson va être étroitement associé aux recherches de Thomas A. Edison. Dans un premier temps, s'inspirant du fonctionnement du phonographe à cylindre, des essais sont effectués:

The initial experiments took the form of microscopic pin-point photographs, placed on a cylindrical shell, corresponding in size to the ordinary phonograph cylinder. These two cylinders were then placed side by side on a shaft, and the sound record was taken as near as possible synchronously with the photographic image impressed on the sensitive surface of the shell. The photographic portion of the undertaking was seriously hampered by the defects of the materials at hand, which however excellent in themselves, offered no substance sufficiently sensitive. How to secure clear-cut outlines, or indeed any outlines at all, together with phenomenal speed, was the problem which puzzled the experimenters. The Daguerre, albumen, and kindred processes met the first requirements, but failed when subjected to the test of speed. These methods were therefor regretfully abandoned, a certain precipitate of knowledge being retained, and a bold leap was made to the Maddox gelatine bromide of silver emulsion, with which the cylinders were coated. This process gave rise to a new and serious difficulty. The bromide of silver haloids, held in suspension with the emulsion, showed themselves in an exaggerated coarseness when it became a question of enlarging the pin-point photographes to the dignity of one eighth of an inch, projecting them upon a screen, or viewing them through a binocular microscope. Each session of size augmented the difficulty, and it was resolved to abandon that line of experiment, and to revolutionize the whole nature of the proceedings by discarding these small photographs, and substituting a series of very much larger impressions affixed to the outer edge of a swiftly rotating wheel, or disk, and supplied with a number of pins, so arranged as to project under the center of each picture. On the rear of the disk, upon a stand, was placed a Geissler tube, connected with an induction coil, the primary wire of which, operated by the pins, produced a rupture of the primary current, which, in its turn, through the medium of the secondary current, through the medium of the secondary current, lighted up the Geissler tube at the precise moment when a picture crossed its range of view. This electrical discharge was performed in such an inappreciable fraction of time, the succession of pictures was so rapid, and the whole mechanism so nearly perfect, that the goal of the inventor seemed almost reached.

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DICKSON, 1894: 206-208.

Comme l'explique Dickson, ces premières expériences vont échouer. De ces essais, il ne reste semble-t-il aucun matériel.

Le prototype à cylindre (1889-1890)

Edison and his Chief Assistants, 1889
A. and "W. K. L. Dickson, "The Life and Inventions of Edison"
Cassier's Magazine, vol. III, nº 18, avril 1893, p. 452.

Thomas A. Edison va donc s'orienter vers une nouvelle solution basée sur l'utilisation d'un tambour mobile.

Cylindre de kinetograph nº 3 ([juin-juillet 1889]) reproduit dans: SPEHR, 2008: 140.	Cylindre de kinetograph (c. 1889) Source: Thomas Edison National Historical Park. National Park Service

Le cylindre de 4 1/2" de diamètre et de 3" est enfilé sur une tige filetée dotée d'un mouvement latéral rotatif. Le film ou papier photographique enroulé sur le cylindre permet de prendre de 600 à 700 photogrammes à un rythme de 8 à 10 images par seconde. Pour visualiser les images de petite dimension, il faut utiliser un microscope. Voici la description qu'en donne Dickson :

Then followed some experiments with drums, over which sheets of sensitized celluloid film wew drawn, the edges being pressed into a narrow slot in the surface, similar in construction to the old tin-foil phonograph. A strating-and-stoppping-device very similar to the one now in use was also applied. The pictures were then taken spirally to the number of two hundred or so, but were limited in size, owing to the rotundity of surface, which brought only the center of the picture into focus. The sheet of celluloid was then developed, fixed, etc., and placed upon a transparent drum, brustling at its outer edger with brass pins. When the drum was rappodly turned, these came in contact with the primary current of an induction coil, and each image was lighted up in the same manner as described in the previous disk experiment, with this difference only, that the inside of the drum was illuminated.

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DICKSON, 1894: 208.

Monkeyshines nº 2 (21-27 novembre 1890).

Alors que les essais de ce prototype sont en cours, même s'ils ne semblent pas concluants, Thomas A. Edison va faire un séjour en Europe. L'Exposition Universelle de Paris, l'Exposition Universelle se tient du 5 mai au 31 octobre 1889. La société Edison dispose du stand le plus important du pavillon américain, surmonté d'une ampoule électrique.

Stand Edison. Exposition Universelle de Paris (1889)
Source: NMAH Hammer Collection, Smithsonian

Quelques semaines après le début de l'Exposition, Thomas A. Edison fait une demande de passeport (1^er août 1889) pour se rendre en Europe. Son arrivée au Havre, à bord de La Bourgogne, est saluée par la presse française et Gaston Calmette lui consacre un très long article dans Le Figaro dont voici quelques lignes :

ÉDISON EN FRANCE
Au Havre, onze août.
Il est six heures du matin. Le sémaphore signale l'arrivée de la Bourgogne, sur laquelle se trouve Edison.
[...]
Enfin, voici l'homme ! Debout sur le paquebot, il agit son mouchoir et sourit, faisant signe à ses amis qu'il les reconnaît déjà. Le remorqueur aborde le paquebot, cinq minutes encore et nous sommes réunis autour du Maître dans la salle de jeu de la Bourgogne.

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CALMETTE, 1889: 1-2.

À bord du remorqueur, se trouve Alfred O. Tate, secrétaire particulier d'Edison qui est arrivé par Londres. Le génie de Menlo Park est reçu avec tous les honneurs. Des banquets sont organisés, Le Figaro (26 août) le reçoit dans ses salons... Lors de son séjour parisien, Edison ne va pas manquer de monter à la tour Eiffel, le clou de l'Exposition.

Giuseppe Primoli, Adolphe Salles et Thomas Edison, visite à la Tour Eiffel, 10 septembre 1889.
Source : Musée d'Orsay.

Le lendemain, Edison, son épouse et sa fille quittent Paris pour un court séjour en Allemagne et en Grande-Bretagne :

Edison est parti hier matin à huit heures par l'express de Cologne, avec Mme Edison, Mlle Edison et l'un de ses secrétaires, M. Hammer.
Dans quarante-huit heures il sera à Londres, puis il reviendra à Paris et y passera trois ou quatre jours avant de s'embarquer au Havre.

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Le Figaro, Paris, jeudi 12 septembre 1889, p. 1.

Pourtant, le séjour européen va se prolonger encore quelques jours. En effet, c'est à bord de La Champagne, que Thomas Edison et son épouse regagnent les États-Unis et accostent le 7 octobre à New York.

Le prototype 19 mm (1890-1891)

Le prototype à cylindre ne donnant pas satisfaction, Thomas A. Edison, probablement influencé par les travaux de Marey, s'oriente vers une solution différente. Au printemps 1891, finalement, il parvient à réaliser une version plus satisfaisante de son kinetograph. C'est à l'occasion de l'Exposition de Chicago, le 12 mai, qu'il va présenter l'état de ses recherches en matière d'images animées. Le Chicago Tribune offre un long article où le savant donne de nombreuses précisions sur sa nouvelle invention :

EDISON AND THE BIG FAIR
HE TALKS OF THE ELECTRICAL EXHIBITS AND OF INVENTIONS.
Where the Power for the Building Should Be Placed Experience at Paris and Philadelphia with Divided Exhibits His Latest Invention, the Klnetograph, and What He Claims for It-How Electricity Will Crowd Out Gas-Its Uses as a Motor and What He Expects of It.
Electricity is to be the wonder of the Exposition.
This is the opinion of Thomas A. Edison, who arrived in Chicago yesterday morning, and Mr. Edison should know.
"What shall I exhibit at the Exposition?" he said, repeating the question put to him. "The results of my researches in electricity. I shall have all that I placed on exhibition at Paris and such novelties as I may be fortunate enough to work out between now and the opening of the Exposition."
"What is one of these novelties?"
"The kinetograph. What does that mean? The first half of the word means 'motion' and the other half write. That is, the portrayal of motion. This instrument or result is a combination of photography and phonography. By means of it I shall be able to reproduce an opera, prize-fight, or a drama - anything which human beings enact that may be photographed or heard. Facial expressions, the twitching of the muscles, the modulation of the voice may be reproduced. The latter feature is the phonograph. The former and the combination of the two is the burden of my work."
"What success are you having with experiments?"
"I can reproduce a prize-fight without much difficulty. The varying expressions of the face, the gathering and relaxation of the muscles are as yet a little hazy in reproduction, but I shall bring them out distinctly in the end."
How It Is Done.
"In what manner do you reproduce this?"
"On a screen. Photography with certain electrical appliances will do this, and when the process is completed the reproduction will be lifelike."
"Then a chorus or drama may be presented?"
"Yes. A perspective view of the stage may be reproduced. The entrance and exit of the actors just as they take place in the actual presentation and all their facial expressions and other movements may be shown. While the actors are performing in the picture phonographs in exact harmony with the gestures will do the talking. This is my latest novelty. It will be at the World's Fair provided I be given sufficient room."
"How much space do you want?"
"For all purposes I had an acre at the Paris Exposition. I should want more at this."
"How about a divided electrical exhibit?"
"It should by all means be united. That was the great fault with the Paris Exposition. The electrical exhibit was so scattered that I had to walk nearly fifty miles in order to see what was being exhibited. A division creates extra expense, disrupts the display, and causes dissatisfaction."
"It is proposed to place the power plant and dynamos of the electrical exhibit in the machinery annex 1.500 feet away. What do you think of the proposition?"
"It is a bad thing to do. The power should be adjacent or contiguous to the electrical budding. If that structure is 700 feet long, as you say, an annex 50 feet wide along one side of the building would furnish all the room necessary. With what other shortcomings the Paris Exposition might have had it furnished power in the same building with the electrical display.
"As to the conduct of electrical power from the machinery annex to the electrical building, that will prove unsatisfactory. The conductors will get out of order and the ground will have to be torn up to make the repairs. If there are twenty different exhibiters there will have to be several times as many tearings up. Then the Fair Commissioners will get tired and say the thing will have to be stopped. The exhibiters, on the other hand, will complain that they are not being fairly treated and there will be dead exhibits.
Power in the Same Building.
"If the Exposition company should attempt to make arrangements for conducting the power, any and all accidents would be charged to the company. The right way to do is to place the power in the same building with the exhibits. At the Centennial an attempt was made to do something similar and when the authorities were ready to start the machinery it would not start."
"Suppose it is impracticable at this late day to make the change in the building."
"It should not be too late, but if it is. why, a division of the exhibit in two parts would be much better than a dozen as at Paris.
"I have heard there was a movement to split up the electrical exhibit, and I have thought the management should be careful. The desire to make money out of everything is strong in this country, but there should be some patriotism exhibited in the management or conduct of the Exposition. The commercial spirit should be kept out as far as possible."
Then the "Wizard" was led into a brief discussion of what in a general way may be expected in the line of general development."
"Do you see those locomotives running along there?" he said, pointing to some of the Illinois Central's. "Within ten years they will be electric motors. Gas as an illumminator is another thing which will be superseded by electricity. I expect to see electric-light wires run along the streets of Chicago where the gas mains now are. The gas-houses will be turned into plants for manufacturing fuel gas instead of illuminating gas. There is more money in producing light than heat from coal, but electricity will eventually supply the light and gas will be used for fuel."
Mr. Edison comes to Chicago on business connected with the Edison company here with reference to lighting the city. He is accompanied by Samuel Insull. Second Vice-President of the General Edison company : J. P. Ord, Controller; and E. H. Lewis, general counsel. Before the return of the party Prof. Barrett, Chief of the Department of Electricity, will hold a conference with Mr Edison.
As to the construction of a power annex next to the Electrical .Building, E. T. Jeffery, Chairman of the Committee on Grounds and Buildings, said yesterday that it would be impracticable. On the east side of the building is a canal. On the west side is the avenue be tween the Electrical Building and the Mines and Mining Building. There is no room, he said, on either side tor an annex.

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Chicago Tribune, Chicago, mercredi 13 mai 1891, p. 2.

The Sun, New York, jeudi 28 mai 1891, p. 2.

L'idée de projection est bien présente dans les déclarations de Thomas A. Edison, mais il n'est pas en mesure d'en offrir une démonstration effective. Ni le journaliste, ni les membres du Women's clubs of America invités à découvrir son laboratoire ne découvrent des vues projetées :

The surprised and pleased club women saw a small pine box standing on the floor. There were somo wheels and belts near the box, and a workman who had them in charge. IN the top of the box was a hole perhaps an inch in diamter. As they looked through this hole they saw the picture of a man.It was a most marvellous picture. It bowed ans smiled and waved ist hands and took off its hat with the most perfect naturalness and grace.

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"The Kinetograph", The Sun, New York, jeudi 18 mai 1891, p. 1-2.

Dickson Greeting (<28 mai 1891)

Pour ces essais, Edison emploi une bande de 3/4 de pouce (19 mm). Quelques semaines plus tard, ce dernier va déposer deux brevets pour le kinetograph (US589168. 24/08/1891) et un appareil de projection (US493426. 24/08/1891).

Le prototype 35 mm (1892-1894)

Le format 19 mm ne donne pas totalement satisfaction, car la qualité est insuffisante. Quelques mois plus tard, grâce à la suggestion de William Dickson, c'est une bande de 35 mm qui est adoptée et qui devient par la suite le format standard. Il évoque, tout en se trompant de date, son rôle dans le choix de cette solution :

At the end od the year 1889 [sic], I increased the width of the picture from 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch, ten, to 1 inch by 3/4 inch high. The actual width of the film was 1 3/8 inches to allow for the perforations now punched on both edges, 4 holes to the phase or picture, which perforations were a shade smaller than those now in use. This standardized film size of 1889 has remained, with only minor variations, unaltered to date.

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DICKSON, 1933: 451

DICKSON, 1933: 452.

Au cours de l'année 1892, le nouveau kinetograph est testé, mais l'on ne connaît que quatre films dont des séries chronophotographiques sont publiées dans The Phonogram (octobre 1892). Sur l'une d'elle, A Hand Shake, on reconnaît William Dickson et William Heise.

Kinetograph Motion-Picture Camera, [1894].
Source: The Henri Ford (Dearborn. Michigan).

Alors que le kinetograph est pratiquement au point, il reste à poursuivre les recherches et à lancer la réalisation du kinetoscope et la construction du "studio" la Black Maria qui commence en décembre 1892.

Black Maria (mars 1894)

Le kinetoscope (1891-1893)

Thomas A. Edison dépose également un brevet pour un appareil de projection (US493426. 24/08/1891). Pour le savant américain, la reproduction de l'image n'est qu'un perfectionnement de son phonographe et son intention est de parvenir à construire un appareil permettant de combiner le son et l'image. Cela explique qu'il ait commencé par son prototype à cylindre dont le principe rappelle le fonctionnement du phonographe. Quant à  la reproduction, elle semble occuper une place secondaire, l'idée étant de parvenir à projeter les vues animées. Toutefois, le retard accumulé fait que le seul appareil disponible, en 1893, pour visualiser les vues animées est le kinetoscope. À parcourir la presse, on constate une assez grande confusion dans l'utilisation, entretenue ou pas par le propre Edison, des termes "kinetograph" et "kinetoscope". C'est ce que l'on remarque dans l'article suivant qui rend compte de la première séance publique organisée le 9 mai 1893 au Brooklyn Institute avec un kinetoscope, pourtant nommé kinetograph :

WIZARD EDISON.
A Wonderful Instrument of His Exhibited in Brooklyn.
IT IS THE KINETOGRAPH, AND IT PUTS ACTUAL, MOVING LIVE BEFORE THE EYE-DESCRIBED BY JOHN M. HOPKINGS, OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE-HUNDREDS VIEW THE MECHANISM.
The kinetograph, Edison's wonderful new invention, by means of which a moving, living scene is brought before the eye, while the ear hears the accompanying sounds, was publicly exhibited for the first time anywhere at the annual meeting of the Department of Physics of the Brooklyn Institute, which took place last evening. The instrument which was exhibited, however, only presented the moving picture without the noises accompanying. But even in this form it was startling in its realism and beautiful in the perfection of its working.
The scene represented was a blacksmith's forge, with three men alternately hammering the white hot metal, passing the bottle from hand to hand, drinking from it and then resuming their toil at the smithy-all done with amazing quickness, naturalness, and truth. The very sparks from the forge could be seen tying. To the observer the first thought was: "This is Nature," and the second, "How did even 'Wizard' Edison succeed in putting real life so perfectly and truthfully in any piece of mechanism, however intricate?"
Before the exhibition of the new instrument, new officers of the Department of Physics were elected: President, Prof. Samuel Sheldon, of the Polytechnic Institute; Vice-President, Prof. W. Gould Levison; Secretary, James R. Priddy; Treasurer, P. H. Vaneveren.
[...]
After showing in the lantern two or three sections of the kinetographs, to give an idea of how they looked, the kinetograph was opened for use and the audience passed up the right of the stage, took a view of the scene presented and passed on. Mr. Hopkins stated that the present instrument, among a number of others, was going to Chicago, there to be exhibited in the Fair grounds as a penny-in-the-slot machine. W. Kennedy Dickson, the expert who brought the machine from the Edison laboratory, has been engaged in perfecting, under Edison's direction, for five years. The pictures taken by the camera can scarcely be distinguished from one an other, so slight is the difference between successive views. This explains the continuity and unbroken character of the scene as presented in the kinetograph.

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The Standard Union, New York (Brooklyn), mercredi 10 mai 1893, p.5.

La vente de l'appareil va s'opérer à partir du printemps 1894 et les premiers à acquérir et à exploiter le kinetoscope dnas les "kinetoscopes parlors" sont les frères Holland qui installent le premier salon kinétoscopique à New York, à partir du mois de mai 1894.

Mrs Thomas A. Edison, Madeline Edison et Charles Edison (c. 1895).

1896: Deces de Samuel Edison.

Detroit Free Press, Detroit, jeudi 27 février 1896, p. 3. 

No solo Edison se interesa por la guerra:

During an interview with Mr. Guth, of Kansas City, Mo., he informed our representative that he will leave for Cuba to take pictures of the Battle ship Maine, the fleet and divers. He expects to be gone about two weeks.

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Phonoscope, New York, février 1898, nº 2, p. 9.

La American Mutoscope Company también rueda cintas del hundimiento del Maine. 

Motion Picture Patents Company (18 Décembre 1908)
[devant de gauche à droite] Frank L. Dyer, Siegmund Lubin, William T. Roch, Thomas A. Edison, J. Stuart Blackton, Jeremiah J. Kennedy, George Keine et George K. Spoor.
[derrière de gauche à droite] Frank J. Marion, Samuel J. Long, William N. Selig, Albert E. Smith, Jacques A. Berst, Harry N. Marvin, William Singhi et Peter Huber.
Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences [rep. dans Andrew A. Erish, Col William N. Selig, the man who invented Hollywood, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2013, p. 29.

Edison in library with motion picture manufacturers, licensees
of Motion Picture Patents Company, Building 5, December 19, 1908. Seated clockwise from Thomas A. Edison: Jeremiah J. Kennedy, Henry N. Marvin, Jacques A. Berst, George K. Spoor, William T. Rock, Peter Huber, Siegmund Lubin, Albert E. Smith, J. Stuart Blackton, William Siwghi, Samuel Long Kalem, William N. Selig, George Kleine, Frank Merion, Frank L. Dyer. Photograph by G. Kleine. Photo no. 14.820/17.

Sources

CALMETTE Gaston, "Édison en France", Le Figaro, Paris, 12 août 1889, p. 1-2.

DICKSON Antonia et W.K.L., "Edison's Invention of the Kineto-Phonograph", The Century Magazine, vol. XLVIII, nº 2, juin 1894, p. 206-214.

DICKSON W. K. L. et Antonia DICKSON, The Life and Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1894, 396 p.

GARBIT Frederick J., The Phonograph and its inventor, Thomas Alvah Edison, Boston, Gunn, Bliss & Co., 1878, 24 p.

McCLURE J. B., Edison and his inventions, Chicago, Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company, 1889, 288 p.

MUSSER Charles, Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900, Smithsonian Institution Presse, 1997, 720 p.

"The Kinetograph", The Sun, New York, jeudi 18 mai 1891, p. 1-2.

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