History/Chemistry GCSE: Invention of motion pictures and celluloid
Michael Mosley, Cassie Newland and Mark Miodownik describe the scientific achievements of Eadweard Muybridge and Auguste and Louis Lumiere.
Eadweard Muybridge was tasked with finding out whether all horse’s feet leave the ground at the same time when they run.
He attached cameras to trip wires to take a series of images and proved that their feet do. These images were then shown in succession and became the first moving image.
In 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumiere invented the cinematograph and from here we now have the cinema.
The development of Celluloid and the work of the Kodak company are then described.
This clip is from the series The Genius of Invention.
Teacher Notes
This clip would be ideally suited to showing students the significant achievements of Muybridge and the Lumiere brothers.
It could set the scene for a project on this or other famous historical scientists.
Students could stain their written work with tea bags to make it look as if it were written many years ago.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching Chemistry and History. This topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC KS4/GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4/5 in Scotland.
