The movie camera is a mechanical device with which a sequence of pictures is recorded in rapid succession on a roll of film. The invention of this device spawned a multi-billion dollar film industry whose movies have entertained audiences worldwide.

The history of the movie camera spans many years. In 1833, Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau (1801-1883) created the Phenakistoscope. When this apparatus, made up of a cardboard disk around which sequential drawings were attached, was rotated, the subject of the drawing appeared to move. In order to create the illusion of movement, photographs must be taken rapidly and later viewed rapidly. In 1872, Englishman Eadweard Muybridge used a series of cameras to take sequential pictures of a running horse. Two years later in France, astronomer Pierre Jules Janssen (1824-1907) designed a revolving camera attached to a telescope and used it to photograph Venus. By the late 1870s Muybridge...