What was the name of Edison’s motion-picture camera patented in 1897?

Thomas Edison’s motion-picture camera patented in 1897 was called the Kinetograph.

The Kinetograph was a motion-picture camera developed for Edison’s laboratory and associated with inventor William Kennedy Laurie Dickson. It captured a rapid sequence of photographic images on strips of film. When shown in succession, the images created the impression of moving action.

The camera worked with the Kinetoscope, a separate viewing machine that allowed one person at a time to look through a peephole at a moving film. The two names are easy to confuse because they were developed as parts of the same early motion-picture system. The Kinetograph recorded; the Kinetoscope displayed.

Edison’s motion-picture work helped create an early commercial film industry in the United States. The Black Maria studio in West Orange produced films for the system. Edison’s organization controlled important patents and production activities, although motion-picture development involved many inventors and companies beyond Edison alone.