Re research assistance

[P3D Peter Homer <P.J.Homer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael J. D'Abrosca asks about a TV "documentary about a guy (a Scottish
immiigrant?) who invented a motion picure camera,but ended up being sqashed
by Thomas Edison .
  Here in the UK I have twice now seen a documentary about a British
emigrant to the states called Le,Prince (presumably the family were
originaly French) but he actualy came from Leeds in England where there are
still descendants .
 He is not that off topic because his camera/projector had no less than 16
lenses in two rows of eight with shutters than opened in sequence . This
reduced the need for the film to be advanced quickly but would also produce
stereo images . According to his family this was one of his intentions and
would also solve some of the problem of geting all the images registered on
screen but not the eight vertical images for each eye which would be
impossible
which was one reason his device was not practical. Le Prince disapeared on
one of his trips on ship between Britain and America  Suicide is one
suspicion although some of his family seem to think he might have been "
eliminated " by rivals. His descendants " knew" that he was involved in the
early cinema but got confirmation of this when his name was mentioned by
the actor playing Frierse-Greene in the film about him "The magic Box" .
Perhaps he is the one he is thinking of although I am not shure he was an
immigrant. Frierse Greens camera had just two lenses and was also intended
for stereo but I dont recall a connection with fire Island lighthouse in
either case . All this infromation is from memory but  do have some
literature on both Frierse-Green and Le-Prince which I can check up on
tonight.          P.J.Homer



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