Charles francis jenkins phantascope

Introduction

Every filmmaker—from D.W. Griffith to Steven Spielberg—owes a debt of gratitude to C. Francis Jenkins, perhaps the least known inventor of his generation. Jenkins' legacy, however, is vast; His technologies gave rise to the motion picture industry that still captures our imaginations today.

Who was C. Francis Jenkins? What was the Phantoscope apparatus, and what did Jenkins contribute to motion pictures?

Early Life

Charles Francis Jenkins was born to Quaker parents in 1868 just north of Dayton, Ohio, and grew up on a farm near Richmond, Indiana. He went to country school, high school, and then to Earlham College. Jenkins left for Washington, D.C. in 1890 where he worked as a secretary at the U.S Life Saving Service. A year later, he began experimenting with movie film, and concentrated on developing the Phantoscope, his own prototype of the motion picture projector.

Jenkins claimed to stage the first "movie" show in 189