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Robert W. Paul

October 24, 2023

Robert William Paul (3 October 1869 – 28 March 1943) was an English pioneer of film and scientific instrument maker.

Robert W. Paul
Paul c. 1896
Born
Robert William Paul

(1869-10-03)3 October 1869
Liverpool Road, London, England
Died28 March 1943(1943-03-28) (aged 73)
Putney, London, England
OccupationElectrician
Known forThe theatrograph

He made narrative films as early as April 1895, which were shown first in Edison Kinetoscope knockoffs. In 1896 he showed his films projected, at about the time the Lumière brothers were pioneering projected films in France.[1]

His first notably successful scientific device was his Unipivot galvanometer.[2]

In 1999, the British film industry erected a commemorative plaque on his building at 44 Hatton Garden, London.

Early career Edit

Paul was born in Liverpool Road, in present-day Inner London, and educated at the City of London School.[3] He began his technical career learning instrument-making skills at the Elliott Brothers, a firm of London instrument makers founded in 1804, followed by the Bell Telephone Company in Antwerp. In 1891, he established an instrument-making company, the Robert W. Paul Instrument Company, and established a workshop at 44 Hatton Garden, London, which later became his office.[citation needed]

In 1894, he was approached by two Greek businessmen who wanted him to make copies of an Edison Kinetoscope that they had purchased. He initially refused until learning that Edison had not patented the invention in Britain. Paul purchased a Kinetoscope, reverse-engineering a model that could be manufactured in Britain. He manufactured a number of these - according to one account of his "200" but later revised this to "60".[citation needed]

However, the only films available were 'bootleg' copies of those produced for the Edison machines. As Edison had patented his camera (the details of which were a closely guarded secret), Paul resolved to solve this bottleneck by creating his own camera. Via a mutual friend, Henry W. Short, Paul was introduced to Birt Acres, a photographic expert and much-respected photographer who was the General Manager at Elliott & Son's photographic works. Acres had been working on a machine for rapid photographic printing, so Paul applied his discoveries in producing the "Paul-Acres Camera", as named by historian John Barnes, in March 1895.[4] It was the first camera made in England, capable of shooting film in Edison's 35mm format.[citation needed]

On 24 October 1895, Paul applied for a patent for a device to evoke the effects that H. G. Wells had described in his novel The Time Machine, published the previous year. Audiences would be given the illusion of traveling backwards or forwards in time, of seeing in close-up or at a distance life in eras long before or after their own times.[5] Paul wrote, "The Spectators should be given the sensation of voyaging from the last epoch to the present, or the present epoch may be supposed to have been accidentally passed and a present scene represented on the machine coming to a standstill, after which the impression of travelling forward again to the present epoch may be given, and the re-arrival notified by the representation on the screen of the place at which the exhibition is held ..."[6] The patent was never completed and nothing came of it.[7]

Film innovation Edit

Paul obtained a concession to operate a kinetoscope parlour at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, and the success of this venture inspired him to attempt surpassing Edison by projecting moving images onto a screen. While Paul and Birt Acres shared innovator status for creating Britain's first 35mm camera, they quickly dissolved the partnership to operate as competitors in the film camera and projector markets.[8]

Acres would present his projector at the Royal Photographic Society on 14 January 1896 to much acclaim. Paul would present his own, the Theatrograph, shortly after on 20 February at Finsbury Park College, ironically on the same day as the Lumière brothers first film projections in London.[9]

In 1896, he pioneered a system of projecting motion pictures onto a screen using a double Maltese cross system, coinciding with the Lumière brothers' projection system. After some demonstrations before scientific groups, he was asked to supply a projector and staff to the Alhambra Music Hall in Leicester Square, and he presented his first theatrical programme on 25 March 1896. This included films shot by Birt Acres, featuring cartoonist Tom Merry drawing caricatures of the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II (1895)[10] and Prince Bismarck (1895).[11] Merry had previously performed his lightning-fast drawing as part of a music hall stage act. Nearby, the Lumière brothers showcased their projections at Empire Music Hall. The use of his Theatrograph in music halls across England helped popularize cinema among the British population. To support the many showmen interested in making films of local interest, Paul established a separate manufacturing department focused on cameras, projectors, and cinema equipment with a dedicated office and showroom.[12]

Continuing his innovations with portable cameras, Paul built the 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' in April 1896, the first camera to feature reverse-cranking. This mechanism allowed for the same film footage to be exposed several times. The ability to create super-positions and multiple exposures was used in Paul's 1901 film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost, the oldest known film adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. French filmmaker Georges Méliès began his career using cameras built by Paul.[9]

In 1898, he designed and constructed Britain's first film studio in Muswell Hill, North London.

The British Film Catalogue credits Paul's Our New General Servant (1898) with the "first use of intertitles".[13]

Extended career Edit

Throughout his career, Paul continued to see internationally renowned instruments like the Unipivot galvanometer, winning gold medals at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and 1910 Brussels International Exposition.[14] Upon the outbreak of World War I, he began producing military instruments, including early wireless telegraphy sets and instruments for submarine warfare. In December 1919, the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company took over the smaller but successful Robert W. Paul Instrument Company, becoming The Cambridge and Paul Instrument Company Ltd. The name was shortened to the Cambridge Instrument Co Ltd in 1924 when it was converted to a public company.[15]

Paul continued to make his own films that pioneered techniques such as close-up framing and cut transitions, selling them either directly or through newer new distribution companies. While Paul exited the film industry by early 1910, his importance was recognized among contemporaries through the moniker 'Daddy Paul'.[16]

Without prior knowledge of Paul's contributions to film, the technology company Kinetic purchased the 44 Hatton Garden property in London in 1994, renaming it Kinetic House.[17] In 1999, the British film industry commemorated the work of Paul by erecting a commemorative plaque on the building, an event attended by film industry actors and union members, such as Sir Sydney Samuelson, the first British Film Commissioner.[18]

Selected filmography Edit

The Unfortunate Policeman, (1905)
Hyde Park Bicycling Scene 1896

Filmed by Birt Acres:

Made independently:

Legacy Edit

In April 2019, the Bruce Castle Museum held a 150th anniversary exhibition curated by Ian Christie entitled "Animatograph! How Cinema was Born in Haringey".[19]

In August 2019, the Barnet London Borough Council approved a proposal by Lipton Plant Architects to have the Light House project involving flats, a supermarket, and car park in London's Muswell Hill suburb to include an unusual shimmering void cutout as a tribute to Paul's work in early film.[20]

In November 2019, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford opened an exhibition, The Forgotten Showman: How Robert Paul Invented British Cinema, dedicated to Paul and his work in the film industry.[21] It remained open from 22 November 2019 to 21 February 2021 with intervening closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[22]

References Edit

  1. ^ "The Soldier's Courtship". thebioscope.net. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Unipivot galvanometer - Physics Museum - the University of Queensland, Australia". physicsmuseum.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  3. ^ Register of Pupils at The City of London School 1880-1900 (PDF). p. 68. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  4. ^ Barnes, John (1996–1998). The beginnings of the cinema in England 1894-1901. Maltby, Richard, 1952-. Exeter [England]: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 0859895645. OCLC 36996858.
  5. ^ Baxter, John (1970). Science Fiction in the Cinema. New York, N.Y.: Paperback Library. pp. 14. ISBN 9780498074165.
  6. ^ Cook, Olive (1965). The Saturday Book Vol.25. London: Hutchinson & Company.
  7. ^ "Who's Who of Victorian Cinema". www.victorian-cinema.net. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  8. ^ Mast, Gerald; Kawin, Bruce F. (2007). . In Costanzo, William (ed.). A Short History of the Movies (Abridged 9th ed.). Pearson Education, inc. pp. 23–24. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
  9. ^ a b However this distinction has also been claimed by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (28 August 1841 – vanished 16 September 1890) who was a French inventor and shot the first moving pictures on paper film using a single lens camera.[1][2] He has been heralded as the "Father of Cinematography" since 1930.[3] Mast, Gerald; Kawin, Bruce F. (2007). . In Costanzo, William (ed.). A Short History of the Movies (Abridged 9th ed.). Pearson Education, inc. pp. 23–24. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
  10. ^ accessed 3 Nov 2007
  11. ^ accessed 3 Nov 2007
  12. ^ London on Film (Screening Spaces), Pam Hirsch (Editor), Chris O'Rourke (Editor) Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2017 edition (28 October 2017) Language: English ISBN 978-3319649788
  13. ^ The British Film Catalogue, by Denis Gifford, Routledge 2016, p 142
  14. ^ "Unipivot Galvanometer | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  15. ^ http://waywiser.fas.harvard.edu/people/2462/robert-w-paul-instrument-company, retrieved April 8, 2020
  16. ^ Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema (Cinema and Modernity), Ian Christie, University of Chicago Press; First edition (9 December 2019) Language: English ISBN 978-0226105628
  17. ^ "Kinetic House - London EC1N | Buildington". www.buildington.co.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  18. ^ https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/robert-w-paul, retrieved Ap[ril 8 2020
  19. ^ "Animatograph! How cinema was born in Haringey". Harringay Online. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  20. ^ Waite, Richard (27 August 2019). "Lipton Plant gets OK for scheme with cutaway honouring British film pioneer". Architects' Journal. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  21. ^ Blow, John (22 November 2019). "Bradford's National Media Museum's new exhibition on 'ignored' cinema pioneer Robert Paul begins". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  22. ^ "The Forgotten Showman". National Science and Media Museum. 7 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.

External links Edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert W. Paul.
  • Robert W. Paul at IMDb
  • Robert William Paul (Who's Who of Victorian Cinema)

October 24, 2023
robert, paul, robert, william, paul, october, 1869, march, 1943, english, pioneer, film, scientific, instrument, maker, paul, 1896bornrobert, william, paul, 1869, october, 1869liverpool, road, london, englanddied28, march, 1943, 1943, aged, putney, london, eng. Robert William Paul 3 October 1869 28 March 1943 was an English pioneer of film and scientific instrument maker Robert W PaulPaul c 1896BornRobert William Paul 1869 10 03 3 October 1869Liverpool Road London EnglandDied28 March 1943 1943 03 28 aged 73 Putney London EnglandOccupationElectricianKnown forThe theatrographHe made narrative films as early as April 1895 which were shown first in Edison Kinetoscope knockoffs In 1896 he showed his films projected at about the time the Lumiere brothers were pioneering projected films in France 1 His first notably successful scientific device was his Unipivot galvanometer 2 In 1999 the British film industry erected a commemorative plaque on his building at 44 Hatton Garden London Contents 1 Early career 2 Film innovation 3 Extended career 4 Selected filmography 5 Legacy 6 References 7 External linksEarly career EditPaul was born in Liverpool Road in present day Inner London and educated at the City of London School 3 He began his technical career learning instrument making skills at the Elliott Brothers a firm of London instrument makers founded in 1804 followed by the Bell Telephone Company in Antwerp In 1891 he established an instrument making company the Robert W Paul Instrument Company and established a workshop at 44 Hatton Garden London which later became his office citation needed In 1894 he was approached by two Greek businessmen who wanted him to make copies of an Edison Kinetoscope that they had purchased He initially refused until learning that Edison had not patented the invention in Britain Paul purchased a Kinetoscope reverse engineering a model that could be manufactured in Britain He manufactured a number of these according to one account of his 200 but later revised this to 60 citation needed However the only films available were bootleg copies of those produced for the Edison machines As Edison had patented his camera the details of which were a closely guarded secret Paul resolved to solve this bottleneck by creating his own camera Via a mutual friend Henry W Short Paul was introduced to Birt Acres a photographic expert and much respected photographer who was the General Manager at Elliott amp Son s photographic works Acres had been working on a machine for rapid photographic printing so Paul applied his discoveries in producing the Paul Acres Camera as named by historian John Barnes in March 1895 4 It was the first camera made in England capable of shooting film in Edison s 35mm format citation needed On 24 October 1895 Paul applied for a patent for a device to evoke the effects that H G Wells had described in his novel The Time Machine published the previous year Audiences would be given the illusion of traveling backwards or forwards in time of seeing in close up or at a distance life in eras long before or after their own times 5 Paul wrote The Spectators should be given the sensation of voyaging from the last epoch to the present or the present epoch may be supposed to have been accidentally passed and a present scene represented on the machine coming to a standstill after which the impression of travelling forward again to the present epoch may be given and the re arrival notified by the representation on the screen of the place at which the exhibition is held 6 The patent was never completed and nothing came of it 7 Film innovation EditPaul obtained a concession to operate a kinetoscope parlour at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and the success of this venture inspired him to attempt surpassing Edison by projecting moving images onto a screen While Paul and Birt Acres shared innovator status for creating Britain s first 35mm camera they quickly dissolved the partnership to operate as competitors in the film camera and projector markets 8 Acres would present his projector at the Royal Photographic Society on 14 January 1896 to much acclaim Paul would present his own the Theatrograph shortly after on 20 February at Finsbury Park College ironically on the same day as the Lumiere brothers first film projections in London 9 In 1896 he pioneered a system of projecting motion pictures onto a screen using a double Maltese cross system coinciding with the Lumiere brothers projection system After some demonstrations before scientific groups he was asked to supply a projector and staff to the Alhambra Music Hall in Leicester Square and he presented his first theatrical programme on 25 March 1896 This included films shot by Birt Acres featuring cartoonist Tom Merry drawing caricatures of the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II 1895 10 and Prince Bismarck 1895 11 Merry had previously performed his lightning fast drawing as part of a music hall stage act Nearby the Lumiere brothers showcased their projections at Empire Music Hall The use of his Theatrograph in music halls across England helped popularize cinema among the British population To support the many showmen interested in making films of local interest Paul established a separate manufacturing department focused on cameras projectors and cinema equipment with a dedicated office and showroom 12 Continuing his innovations with portable cameras Paul built the Cinematograph Camera No 1 in April 1896 the first camera to feature reverse cranking This mechanism allowed for the same film footage to be exposed several times The ability to create super positions and multiple exposures was used in Paul s 1901 film Scrooge or Marley s Ghost the oldest known film adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol French filmmaker Georges Melies began his career using cameras built by Paul 9 In 1898 he designed and constructed Britain s first film studio in Muswell Hill North London The British Film Catalogue credits Paul s Our New General Servant 1898 with the first use of intertitles 13 Extended career EditThroughout his career Paul continued to see internationally renowned instruments like the Unipivot galvanometer winning gold medals at the 1904 St Louis World s Fair and 1910 Brussels International Exposition 14 Upon the outbreak of World War I he began producing military instruments including early wireless telegraphy sets and instruments for submarine warfare In December 1919 the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company took over the smaller but successful Robert W Paul Instrument Company becoming The Cambridge and Paul Instrument Company Ltd The name was shortened to the Cambridge Instrument Co Ltd in 1924 when it was converted to a public company 15 Paul continued to make his own films that pioneered techniques such as close up framing and cut transitions selling them either directly or through newer new distribution companies While Paul exited the film industry by early 1910 his importance was recognized among contemporaries through the moniker Daddy Paul 16 Without prior knowledge of Paul s contributions to film the technology company Kinetic purchased the 44 Hatton Garden property in London in 1994 renaming it Kinetic House 17 In 1999 the British film industry commemorated the work of Paul by erecting a commemorative plaque on the building an event attended by film industry actors and union members such as Sir Sydney Samuelson the first British Film Commissioner 18 Selected filmography Edit source source source source source The Unfortunate Policeman 1905 source source source source source source Hyde Park Bicycling Scene 1896Filmed by Birt Acres The Derby 1895 Footpads 1895 The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race 1895 Rough Sea at Dover 1895 Made independently Blackfriars Bridge 1896 Comic Costume Race 1896 A Sea Cave Near Lisbon 1896 The Soldier s Courtship 1896 The Twins Tea Party 1896 Two A M or the Husband s Return 1896 Robbery 1897 Come Along Do 1898 A Switchback Railway 1898 Tommy Atkins in the Park 1898 Our New General Servant 1898 The Miser s Doom 1899 Upside Down or the Human Flies 1899 Army Life or How Soldiers Are Made 1900 Chinese Magic 1900 Krugers Dream of an Empire 1900 Hindoo Jugglers 1900 A Railway Collision 1900 Artistic Creation 1901 Cheese Mites or Lilliputians in a London Restaurant 1901 The Countryman and the Cinematograph 1901 The Devil in the Studio 1901 The Haunted Curiosity Shop 1901 The Magic Sword 1901 An Over Incubated Baby 1901 Scrooge or Marley s Ghost 1901 Undressing Extraordinary 1901 The Waif and the Wizard 1901 The Extraordinary Waiter 1902 A Chess Dispute 1903 Extraordinary Cab Accident 1903 The Voyage of the Arctic 1903 Mr Pecksniff Fetches the Doctor 1904 The Unfortunate Policeman 1905 The Motorist 1906 Is Spiritualism A Fraud 1906 Legacy EditIn April 2019 the Bruce Castle Museum held a 150th anniversary exhibition curated by Ian Christie entitled Animatograph How Cinema was Born in Haringey 19 In August 2019 the Barnet London Borough Council approved a proposal by Lipton Plant Architects to have the Light House project involving flats a supermarket and car park in London s Muswell Hill suburb to include an unusual shimmering void cutout as a tribute to Paul s work in early film 20 In November 2019 the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford opened an exhibition The Forgotten Showman How Robert Paul Invented British Cinema dedicated to Paul and his work in the film industry 21 It remained open from 22 November 2019 to 21 February 2021 with intervening closures due to the COVID 19 pandemic 22 References Edit The Soldier s Courtship thebioscope net 25 July 2011 Retrieved 8 April 2020 Unipivot galvanometer Physics Museum the University of Queensland Australia physicsmuseum uq edu au Retrieved 8 April 2020 Register of Pupils at The City of London School 1880 1900 PDF p 68 Retrieved 23 October 2020 Barnes John 1996 1998 The beginnings of the cinema in England 1894 1901 Maltby Richard 1952 Exeter England University of Exeter Press ISBN 0859895645 OCLC 36996858 Baxter John 1970 Science Fiction in the Cinema New York N Y Paperback Library pp 14 ISBN 9780498074165 Cook Olive 1965 The Saturday Book Vol 25 London Hutchinson amp Company Who s Who of Victorian Cinema www victorian cinema net Retrieved 8 April 2020 Mast Gerald Kawin Bruce F 2007 Birth In Costanzo William ed A Short History of the Movies Abridged 9th ed Pearson Education inc pp 23 24 Archived from the original on 16 July 2011 a b However this distinction has also been claimed by Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince 28 August 1841 vanished 16 September 1890 who was a French inventor and shot the first moving pictures on paper film using a single lens camera 1 2 He has been heralded as the Father of Cinematography since 1930 3 Mast Gerald Kawin Bruce F 2007 Birth In Costanzo William ed A Short History of the Movies Abridged 9th ed Pearson Education inc pp 23 24 Archived from the original on 16 July 2011 Tom Merry Lightning Cartoonist sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II Birt Acres 1895 BFI accessed 3 Nov 2007 Tom Merry Lightning Cartoonist sketching Bismarck Birt Acres 1895 BFI accessed 3 Nov 2007 London on Film Screening Spaces Pam Hirsch Editor Chris O Rourke Editor Palgrave Macmillan 1st ed 2017 edition 28 October 2017 Language English ISBN 978 3319649788 The British Film Catalogue by Denis Gifford Routledge 2016 p 142 Unipivot Galvanometer Science Museum Group Collection collection sciencemuseumgroup org uk Retrieved 8 April 2020 http waywiser fas harvard edu people 2462 robert w paul instrument company retrieved April 8 2020 Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema Cinema and Modernity Ian Christie University of Chicago Press First edition 9 December 2019 Language English ISBN 978 0226105628 Kinetic House London EC1N Buildington www buildington co uk Retrieved 8 April 2020 https www londonremembers com memorials robert w paul retrieved Ap ril 8 2020 Animatograph How cinema was born in Haringey Harringay Online Retrieved 22 September 2019 Waite Richard 27 August 2019 Lipton Plant gets OK for scheme with cutaway honouring British film pioneer Architects Journal Retrieved 22 September 2019 Blow John 22 November 2019 Bradford s National Media Museum s new exhibition on ignored cinema pioneer Robert Paul begins The Yorkshire Post Retrieved 30 January 2020 The Forgotten Showman National Science and Media Museum 7 August 2020 Retrieved 7 August 2020 External links Edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert W Paul Robert W Paul at IMDb Robert William Paul Who s Who of Victorian Cinema Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Robert W Paul amp oldid 1173219822, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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