William Friese-Greene

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William Friese-Greene

British motion-picture pioneer

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Born:: September 7, 1855, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England

Died:: May 5, 1921, London (aged 65)

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William Friese-Greene (born September 7, 1855, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England—died May 5, 1921, London) was a British photographer and inventor, sometimes credited with the invention of cinematography.

Friese-Greene constructed a camera for taking a series of photographs on a roll of perforated film moving intermittently behind a shutter, the basic principle of a motion-picture camera. It would appear, however, that the camera was incapable of taking pictures at a sufficient rate for animation, for no successful presentation of moving pictures was given by him, and the credit for a successful cinematographic device must go to Thomas Edison.

Friese-Greene later pioneered stereoscopic and colour cinematography but lacked the technical knowledge necessary to bring his ideas to fruition.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.