Louis Le Prince

Le Prince was born on 28 August 1841 in Metz.[10][11] His family referred to him as "Augustin" and English-speaking friends would later call him "Gus".[12] Le Prince's father was a major of artillery in the French Army[13] and an officer of the Légion d'honneur. He grew up spending time in the studio of his father's friend, the photography pioneer Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre,[13] from whom the young Le Prince allegedly received lessons relating to photography and chemistry and for whom he was the subject of a Daguerrotype, an early type of photograph. His education went on to include the study of painting in Paris and post-graduate chemistry at Leipzig University,[13] which provided him with the academic knowledge he was to utilise in the future.

He moved to Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK in 1866, after being invited to join John Whitley,[1] a friend from college, in Whitley Partners of Hunslet, a firm of brass founders making valves and components.[14][15] In 1869 he married Elizabeth Whitley, John's sister[1] and a talented artist. The couple started a school of applied art, the Leeds Technical School of Art, in 1871, and became well renowned for their work in fixing colour photography on to metal and pottery, leading to them being commissioned for portraits of Queen Victoria and the long-serving Prime Minister William Gladstone produced in this way; these were included alongside other mementos of the time in a time capsule—manufactured by Whitley Partners of Hunslet—which was placed in the foundations of Cleopatra's Needle on the embankment of the River Thames.

In 1881 Le Prince went to the United States[13] as an agent for Whitley Partners, staying in the country along with his family once his contract had ended. He became the manager for a small group of French artists who produced large panoramas, usually of famous battles, that were exhibited in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.[13][14]

During this time he began experiments relating to the production of 'moving' photographs, designing a camera that utilised sixteen lenses,[14] which was the first invention he patented. Although the camera was capable of 'capturing' motion, it wasn't a complete success because each lens photographed the subject from a slightly different viewpoint and thus the image would have jumped about, if he had been able to project it (which is unknown).

The plaque in Leeds

After his return to Leeds with his family in May 1887,[14] Le Prince built a single-lens camera in mid-late 1888. An experimental model was developed in a workshop at 160 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds. An updated version of this model was used to shoot his motion-picture films. It was first used on 14 October 1888 to shoot what would become known as Roundhay Garden Scene and a sequence of his son Adolphe playing the accordion. Le Prince later used it to film road traffic and pedestrians crossing Leeds Bridge. The film was shot from Hicks the Ironmongers, now the British Waterways building on the south east side of the bridge,[1] now marked with a commemorative Blue plaque.

Working with the skilled mechanic James Longley, he attempted to create a projector during 1889 and 1890. The images were to be separated, printed and mounted individually on a flexible band, moved by metal eyelets. They also create a single lens projector, with individual pictures mounted in wooden frames.[9] His family and co-workers say they saw these images projected on a screen in the Leeds workshop, but no public projection ever took place.

In September 1890, Le Prince was preparing a trip to the United States to have the public première of his work to join his wife and children. Before his journey, he decided to return to France to visit his brother in Dijon. Then, on 16 September, he took a train to Paris, but when the train arrived, Le Prince's friends discovered that Le Prince was not on board.[16] He was never seen again by his family or friends.[1] The only person to see Le Prince at the Dijon station was his brother.[17] The French police, Scotland Yard and the family undertook exhaustive searches, but never found his body or luggage.

Although this mysterious disappearance case was never solved, four main theories have been proposed:

Suicide

The grandson of Le Prince's brother told film historian Georges Potonniée that Le Prince wanted to commit suicide because he was on the verge of bankruptcy. He had already arranged his suicide and he planned for his own body and belongings never to be found. However, Potonniée noted that Le Prince's business was profitable and that he was proud of his inventions, and thus had no reason to commit suicide.[18] More recent researchers claim Potonniée was incorrect and that Le Prince had debts from his own work and his business collaborations with John Whitley.[17]

Patent Wars assassination, "Equity 6928"

Christopher Rawlence pursues the assassination theory, along with other theories, and discusses the Le Prince family's suspicions of Edison over patents (the Equity 6928) in his 1990 book and documentary The Missing Reel. Rawlence claims that at the time that he vanished, Le Prince was about to patent his 1889 projector in the UK and then leave Europe for his scheduled New York official exhibition. His widow assumed foul play though no concrete evidence has ever emerged and Rawlence prefers the suicide theory. In 1898, Le Prince's elder son Adolphe, who had assisted his father in many of his experiments, was called as a witness for the American Mutoscope Company in their litigation with Edison [Equity 6928]. By citing Le Prince's achievements, Mutoscope hoped to annul Edison's subsequent claims to have invented the moving-picture camera. Le Prince's widow Lizzie and Adolphe hoped that this would gain recognition for Le Prince's achievement, but when the case went against Mutoscope their hopes were dashed. Two years later Adolphe Le Prince was found dead while out duck shooting on Fire Island near New York, apparently having committed suicide.[19]

Disappearance ordered by the family

In 1966, Jacques Deslandes proposed a theory in Histoire comparée du cinéma (The Comparative History of Cinema), claiming that Le Prince voluntarily disappeared due to financial reasons and "familial conveniences". Journalist Léo Sauvage quotes a note shown to him by Pierre Gras, director of the Dijon municipal library, in 1977, that claimed Le Prince died in Chicago in 1898, having moved there at the family's request because he was homosexual; but he rejects that assertion.[20] There is no evidence to suggest that Le Prince was gay.[21]

Fratricide, murder for money

In 1967, Jean Mitry proposed, in Histoire du cinéma, that Le Prince was killed. Mitry notes that if Le Prince truly wanted to disappear, he could have done so at any time prior to that. Thus, most likely he never even boarded the train in Dijon. He also questions that if the brother, who was confirmed to be the last person to see Le Prince alive, knew Le Prince was suicidal, why didn't he try to stop him, and why didn't he report this to the police before it was too late?[22]

Le Prince was officially declared dead in 1897.[23] A photograph of a drowning victim from 1890 resembling Le Prince was discovered in 2003 during research in the Paris police archives.[13][24]

Back view of Le Prince's single-lens Cine Camera-Projector MkII opened (Science Museum, London, 1930).

Le Prince developed a single-lens camera in his workshop at 160 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, which was used to shoot his motion-picture films. Remaining surviving production consists of two scenes in the garden at Oakwood Grange (his wife's family home, in Roundhay) and another of Leeds Bridge.

Forty years later, Le Prince's daughter, Marie, gave the remaining apparatus to the National Science Museum, London (later transferred to the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (NMPFT), Bradford, which opened in 1983 and is now the National Science and Media Museum). In May 1931, photographic plates were produced by workers of the Science Museum from paper print copies provided by Marie Le Prince.[2] In 1999, these were re-animated to produce digital versions. Roundhay Garden was alleged by the Le Prince family to have been shot at 12 frame/s and Leeds Bridge at 20 frame/s, although this is not borne out by the NMPFT versions (see below) or motion analysis.[26]

All available versions of these sequences are derived from materials held by the National Science and Media Museum.

• 
  Sequence of 12 complete frames + 4 partial frames, from National Science Museum, London circa 1931. (Courtesy NMPFT, Bradford) NMPFT. Filmed in Paris before 18.08.1887.

The only existing images from Le Prince's 16-lens camera are a sequence of 16 frames of a man walking around a corner. This appears to have been shot onto a single glass plate (which has since broken), rather than the twin strips of Eastman paper film envisaged in his patent. Jacques Pfend, a French cinema-historian and Le Prince specialist, confirms that these images were shot in Paris, at the corner of Rue Bochart-de-Saron (where Le Prince was living) and Avenue Trudaine. Le Prince sent 8 images of his mechanic running (which may be from this sequence) to his wife in New York City in a letter dated 18 August 1887,[27] which suggests it represented a significant camera test. Exposure is very irregular from lens to lens with a couple of the images almost completely bleached out, so there was clearly much work still to be done.

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  Roundhay, 1888 original 20 frames by National Science Museum, London 1931 (Courtesy of NMPFT, Bradford).

The 1931 National Science Museum copy of what remains of a sequence shot in Roundhay Garden features 20 frames. The frames appear to have been printed in reverse from the negative, but this is corrected in the video. The film's damaged edge results in distortion and deformation on the right side of the stabilised digital movie. The scene was shot in Le Prince's father-in-law's garden at Oakwood Grange, Roundhay on October 14, 1888. The NMPFT animation lasts two seconds at 24fps (frames per second), meaning the original footage is playing at 10fps. In this version, the action is speeded up - the original footage was probably shot at 7fps.

Louis Le Prince filmed traffic crossing Leeds Bridge from Hicks the Ironmongers[1] at these coordinates: 53°47′37.70″N 1°32′29.18″W.[28]

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  6-frame sequence (118-120 & 122–124) of Leeds Bridge (National Science Museum, London 1923)
• 
  20-frame sequence of Leeds Bridge (National Science Museum)(Courtesy NMPFT, Bradford)

The earliest copy belongs to the 1923 NMPFT inventory (frames 118–120 and 122–124), though this longer sequence comes from the 1931 inventory (frames 110–129). According to Adolphe Le Prince who assisted his father when this film was shot in late October 1888, it was taken at 20fps. However, the digitally stabilised sequence produced by the NMPFT lasts two seconds, meaning the footage is playing here at 10fps. As with the Roundhay Garden sequence, its appearance is speeded up, suggesting the original footage was probably shot at 7fps. This would fit with what we know of the projection experiments, where James Longley reported a top speed of 7fps.[29]

• 
  Copy of original 19 frames (numbered 41–59) by National Science Museum, London 1931 (Courtesy of NMPFT, Bradford).

The last remaining film of Le Prince's single-lens camera is a sequence of frames of Adolphe Le Prince playing a diatonic button accordion. It was recorded on the steps of the house of Joseph Whitley, Louis's father-in-law.[2] The recording date may be the same as Roundhay Garden as the camera is in a similar position and Adolphe is dressed the same. The NMPFT has not remastered this film. An amateur animation of the first 17 frames is here on YouTube. The running speed appears to be 5-6fps