Discover

'Birt Acres' (July 23, 1854–1918), born in Richmond, Virginia, USA of English parents was a photographer and film pioneer.
He was the inventor of the first British 35 mm moving picture camera, the first daylight loading home movie camera and projector, ''Birtac'', was the first travelling newsreel reporter in international film history and the first European film maker who had his films shown in the United States in public performances.
He contributed much to the introduction and development of cinematography in all its aspects, from the construction of cameras, projectors, film viewers, coating- and slitting machines and the manufacture of highly sensitized 35 mm raw film stock, to mobile newsreel reporting and the public projections of moving pictures.
With his partner Robert W. Paul, he was the first person to build and run a working 35 mm camera in Britain. The pair fell out after Acres patented their design in his own name on May 27, 1895. He made some very early silent films during the Victorian era including in 1895: a film of the ''Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race'', ''The Arrest of a Pickpocket'', ''The Comic Shoeblack'', ''The Boxing Kangaroo'' and ''Performing Bears''.
Acres was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and on January 14, 1896 he demonstrated his ''Kineopticon'' system to members and wives of the Society, at the Queen's Hall in London. This was the first public film show to an audience in the United Kingdom^[1]..

Contents

Most important achievements

Filmography

References

External links

Most important achievements

★ 1889 Apparatus for washing prints (patented).

★ 1891 Printing process for stereoscopic photographs (for continuously contact print making) (patented).

★ 1893 Hopper feed installation for rapidly projecting slides in a biunial lantern to create the illusion of movement (patented).

★ 1895 Kinetic Camera with appliance for forming (patented).

★ 1895/96 Electroscope, apparatus for continuous viewing by more than one spectator of 35mm film.

★ 1896 Installation for wholesale production of raw stock 35 mm film.

★ 1896 Kineopticon, improved apparatus for projecting 35 mm film (patented).

★ 1897 Cine camera with 2 lenses to resolve flicker problems and to enhance brightness.

★ 1898 Birtac, home movie camera for daylight loading of 17,5 mm film (patented).

Filmography

Date	Title	Role	Notes
1897	''Henley Regatta''	Director
1897	''An Unfriendly Call''	Director
1896	''The Boxing Kangaroo''	Director
1896	''Boxing Match; or, Glove Contest''	Director
1896	''Dancing Girls''	Director
1896	''Golfing Extraordinary, Five Gentl''	Director
1896	''Landing at Low Tide''	Director
1896	''Pierrot and Pierrette''	Director
1896	''A Surrey Garden''	Director
1895	''The Arrest of a Pickpocket''	Director
1895	''Charge of the Uhlans''	Director, Producer
1895	''The Derby''	Director, Cinemtaographer, Producer
1895	''The German Emperor Reviewing His Troops''	Director	aka Kaiser Wilhelm Reviewing His Troops (USA)
1895	''Opening of the Kiel Canal''	Director, Cinemtaographer, Producer	aka Inauguration of the Kiel Canal by Kaiser Wilhelm II (UK)
1895	''The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race''	Director, Cinemtaographer, Producer
1895	''Rough Sea at Dover''	Diretor, Cinemtaographer, Producer
1895	''Shoeblack at Work in a London Street''	Director
1895	''Smith and Machinery at Work''	Director, Cinemtaographer, Producer
1895	''Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist''	Director, Cinemtaographer, Producer	aka Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II
1900	''Briton vs. Boer''	Producer

References

1. Birt Acres biography accessed 21 Jun 2007

External links

★

★ Birt Acres biography and credits at BFI Screenonline

★ Birt Acres at earlycinema.com