Episode 19. And Why Would The Sun Deceive? (or, 'The Mute Testimony of the Picture')

In early 1888, Louis Le Prince built a one lens motion picture camera in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Is it possible to say what influenced his decision to change from the sixteen lens machine he had already built, to this new (and soon to be historic) camera? This episode attempts to do that...

A short warm up for Episode Forty.

Le Prince sees the publication of his US Patent for a multi-lens camera. His excitement must have been mixed with apprehension as his designs were put into the public domain and suddenly available to potential rivals. And in Leeds, things were complicated: not only was he struggling to get a working projector for his multi-lens sequences, he had had some kind of eureka moment at the very end of 1887. What was it? This episode explores Le Prince's work from the end of 1887 to the beginning of 1888.

Louis Le Prince has returned to Leeds. This is where history will be made - but not immediately. What did Le Prince do with his machines in the lead up to creating his one lens camera. This episode will begin to find out.

We have already seen Le Prince using his 16 lens camera in Paris in 1887 - but we know so little about what happened. This episode asks 'what can be discovered about those lost months and the images that came out of them?'

Not quite an episode; not quite an interval; a few words to see us on to the next stage of the story of Louis Le Prince.

Le Prince travels from England to Paris. There, he nurses his mother, who is ill, struggles with his US Patent specifications, and  builds a sixteen lens camera. Sometime around the summer of 1887, he films scenes in Paris.

We begin by looking at Le Prince as he leaves New York for Europe in April 1887, and follow him rushing between Leeds, London and on to Paris.

While in London, he visits his brother-in-law who is responsible for a huge exhibition in the heart of London - the great American Exhibition, the star of which is  undoubtedly Buffalo Bill and his famous Wild West show. 

This episode looks at the story of Whitley and Buffalo Bill and how their incredible journeys intersected with that of Louis Le Prince.

Drawing to the end of the US Patent analysis, we discover a mistake in our research. Instead of becoming disheartened, we instead use this mistake to help us answer questions about the theories concerning possible corruption on the part of the US Patent Office. 

1887. Le Prince was so close to getting his patent application allowed. But nothing seemed to run smoothly for the inventor.  We examine the Patent Claims he tried to add, which almost ruined things for him - and we get to the bottom of one of the enduring conspiracy theories regarding Le Prince and his US Patent.