William Kennedy Dickson

Lore & Background

William Kennedy Dickson was born on 3 August 1860 in Le Minihic-sur-Rance, Brittany, France. His mother, Elizabeth Kennedy-Laurie, was American from Virginia; his father, James Waite Dickson, was a Scottish artist, astronomer and linguist who claimed direct lineage from painter William Hogarth and from Judge John Bradshaw, who sentenced King Charles I to death. At age 19 in 1879, Dickson wrote to Thomas Edison seeking employment but was turned down. That same year he moved to Virginia (his mother and sisters had already been living in Britain). In 1883 he was finally hired at Edison's laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

In 1888, Edison conceived of a device that would do 'for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear' and filed a preliminary patent claim that October for what became the Kinetoscope. Dickson, the company’s official photographer, was tasked with making it real. Early attempts used micro-photographs on a cylinder. After Edison met Étienne-Jules Marey in late 1889, he ordered a shift to film rolls. Dickson worked with Eastman to develop practical celluloid film, starting with 19mm horizontal film and circular images, eventually settling on 35mm film with a 1.33:1 ratio—a standard still used in cinema.

Dickson’s team also built the Kinetoscope viewing machine. A first prototype using 19mm film appeared in May 1891 at a women’s club meeting hosted by his wife. The 35mm camera was mostly finished by fall 1892, and the completed Kinetoscope—a peep-show cabinet with a continuous film loop lit by a small lamp—was unveiled at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on 9 May 1893. The illusion of motion came from moving perforated film with sequential images, lit by brief flashes through a rotating shutter. They also created the Kinetograph camera, shooting up to 46 frames per second, using an escapement disc mechanism to stop and advance film quickly—the first practical system for high-speed intermittent film movement, foundational for cinematography.

In late 1894 or early 1895, Dickson advised the Latham brothers and their father, who ran a major Kinetoscope exhibition company. They hired former Edison employee Eugene Lauste, likely on Dickson’s suggestion. After leaving Edison in April 1895, Dickson helped the Lathams, possibly devising the Latham loop (first described publicly in 1890 by William Friese-Greene) to allow longer film strips

Reader's Guide

William Kennedy Dickson's significance lies in his foundational contributions to motion picture technology. Under Edison, he transformed the concept of the Kinetoscope into a working device, developing the 35 mm film format and the intermittent movement mechanism that became the basis for cinematography for the next century. He also directed The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894), the first film with live recorded sound using the Kinetophone. After leaving Edison, he helped design the Eidoloscope projector and widescreen camera used in the first commercial movie screening on 20 May 1895. His later work with the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company produced the Mutoscope, a flip-book-style viewer popular at seaside locations. Despite his pioneering role, Dickson died without being given credit for his contributions; this omission was later corrected by the research of Gordon Hendricks and Paul Spehr.

Did You Know?

• Dickson was the first person to make a film of the Pope, and his Biograph camera was blessed by Pope Leo XIII.
• He directed The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894), the first film to use the Kinetophone for live recorded sound.
• The 35 mm film format with a 1.33:1 picture ratio that Dickson settled on is still in use in cinema today.
• Dickson's father claimed direct lineage from painter William Hogarth and from Judge John Waite, who sentenced King Charles I to death.