Birt acres

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Birt Acres (born July 23, 1854 in Richmond , Virginia , † December 27, 1918 in London ) was a British photographer and film pioneer . In 1895 he developed one of the first commercially available film cameras and held the first film screening in London on January 14, 1896 . His recordings are among the oldest British films, and Acres also made the oldest film recordings of the German Emperor Wilhelm II.

biography

Birt Acres filming during the 1895 Epsom Derby

Acres was born to British immigrants in Richmond, Virginia. His parents were killed in the American Civil War , after which Acres grew up with his aunt. This encouraged Acres' interest in photography and enabled him to study art at the Sorbonne in Paris . Acres returned to the United States after completing his studies , but then went to England in the mid-1880s, where he established himself as a photographer.

In 1892, Birt Acres was hired as a manager at Elliott and Son , a manufacturer of photography accessories. At Elliott and Son , Acres developed an apparatus for the rapid reproduction of photographic recordings via a magic lantern . At the end of 1894, Acres was introduced to the engineer Robert William Paul by a colleague . Paul built the kinetoscope , a film viewing device developed by William KL Dickson for Edison , and looked for a technician who could provide him with new film material.

Elevation drawing of Acres' film camera

Based on Acres' plans, a film camera, the so-called Kineopticon , was developed within a few months , which was first successfully tested in March 1895 when the film Incident at Clovelly Cottage was recorded. Paul proudly sent a sample of the film to Edison and established a partnership with Acres. Acres and Paul made films in a variety of locations, including the Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge , the Epsom Derby and the white cliffs of Dover . The partnership between Acres and Paul broke up after only six weeks, when Birt Acres applied for a patent for the Kineopticon under his name on May 27, 1895 . Paul felt betrayed and bitterly argued with Acres for years about the authorship of this first commercially available British film camera. As recently as the 1910s, Paul tried to marginalize Acres' contributions.

After separating from Paul, Birt Acres accepted an offer from Cologne entrepreneur Ludwig Stollwerck to travel to Germany to film. On June 21, 1895, Acres filmed the opening ceremony of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in Kiel as well as a troop visit by the German Emperor Wilhelm II in the vicinity of the event. The film Opening of the Kiel Canal is one of the oldest film recordings in Germany and made Wilhelm II the first head of state to be captured on film.

After returning from Germany, Acres concentrated on building a film projector . After a successful test in early January, Acres first presented its projector to the Royal Photographic Society on January 14, 1896 . He came so that its competitor RW Paul before, the same time only on 20 February 1896 the London premiere of Lumière'schen Cinématographe presented his own film projector. Birt Acres has thus held the first public film screening in the UK.

Acres gave numerous screenings to photographic societies and briefly ran a movie theater in May 1896, but he saw the new medium of film as an instrument for scientific work rather than an entertainment medium. So he left Paul and other British film pioneers to develop a British film industry in the late 1890s and concentrated on the technical development of film. He sold film material with his own company Northern Photographic Works and in 1898 presented the Birtac, the first cine camera for domestic use. Cheaper competing products meant that the Birtac turned into a financial fiasco, and Acres had to file for bankruptcy in 1901.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Acres tried again in the production and development of film material, but had to declare bankruptcy a second time in 1909. In 1918, Birt Acres died in London at the age of 64. His achievements were gradually forgotten, but were rediscovered in the 1970s through the work of film historian John Barnes.

Filmography (selection)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frederick A. Talbot: Moving Pictures. How they are made and worked. JB Lippincott Co., Philadelphia PA 1912, pp. 36-39 (Reprinted. Arno Press et al., New York NY 1970, ISBN 0-405-01638-7 ).
  2. ^ Peter Zimmermann (ed.): History of documentary film in Germany. Volume 1: Uli Jung, Martin Loiperdinger (ed.): Kaiserreich. 1895-1918. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-010584-6 , p. 68.
  3. ^ Rachael Low: The History of British Film. Volume 1: 1896-1906. Reprinted edition. Edited and with a new introduction by Jeffrey Richards. Routledge, London 1997, ISBN 0-415-15451-0 , p. 113.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Acres, Birt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British photographer and film pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Richmond , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1918
Place of death London