View source for Kinora

{{distinguish|Kenora}}
[[File:Kinora, Fotomuseum Antwerp, Belgium, 2016-07-23, 2.jpg|right|250px|thumb|A 1905 Kinora at [[Fotomuseum Antwerp]]]]
The '''Kinora''' was an early [[film|motion picture]] device developed by the French inventors [[Auguste and Louis Lumière]] in 1895, while simultaneously working on the [[Cinematograph]]. It was patented in February 1896.<ref name=deadmedia/>
Basically a miniature version of the [[mutoscope]] for home use, the Kinora worked very much like a [[flip book]] in the shape of a [[Rolodex]]. It used conventional monochrome photographic prints fixed to strong, flexible cards attached to a circular core. A reel was revolved handle by turning a handle, making the pictures flip over against a static peg one by one. The moving pictures could be viewed through an eyepiece.<ref name=nmm/><ref name=ncssm>[http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/collections/toys/html/exhibit05.htm Kinora] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330234010/http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/collections/toys/html/exhibit05.htm |date=2012-03-30 }} at dlt.ncssm.edu, accessed 28 October 2011</ref>
The Cinematograph proved very successful so the Lumières did not bother with the Kinora but passed the idea on to Gaumont,who marketed the device and about a hundred different reels around 1900.<ref name=deadmedia/>
The British rights to the Kinora were bought by [[Biograph Company|The British Mutoscope & Biograph Co.]] in 1898, but the machine was not marketed in the UK until 1902.<ref name=nmm>{{Cite web |url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8188543/kinora-viewer-kinora-viewer |title=Kinora viewer |publisher=Science Museum Group |website=Science Museum Group Collection |accessdate=4 May 2020}}</ref> It became popular in the UK and over 12 different viewer models and over 600 reels were produced.<ref name=deadmedia>{{cite web|url=http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/13/138.html|title=Dead medium: the Kinora (on www.deadmedia.org)|last=Herbert|first=Stephen}}</ref> Biograph had constructed a studio in London in 1900 to film moving portraits of families and individuals. [[Flip books]] of 60 pictures in standard Mutoscope size were produced there as ''Bio-Gems'', before a Kinora reel portrait service became available in 1903.<ref name=Anthony1996/>
In May 1907 Biograph chairman W.T. Smedley set up Kinora Limited in London. The company introduced the first amateur Kinora camera in 1908,<ref name=Anthony1996>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Vaith3qNM4C&q=%22Kinora+Limited%22&pg=PA13|title = The Kinora: Motion Pictures for the Home 1896-1914 : A History of the System, and a Newly-compiled Illustrated Catalogue of Kinora Reels|isbn = 9780952394167|last1 = Anthony|first1 = Barry|year = 1996| publisher=The Projection Box }}</ref> using rolls of photographic paper or celluloid one inch (2.5cm) wide that could be sent to the company for processing.<ref name=ncssm/> A Kinora Grand for reels of 1,000 pictures of 2 1/2" by 3" also featured in their advertising booklet.<ref name=Anthony1996/> By 1914, when the company's London factory burned down, public interest in the Kinora had declined, as the cinema screen now held greater attractions. The company did not rebuild the factory.<ref name=ncssm/>
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110516150400/http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit05.htm Illustration and demonstration of the Kinora]
[[Category:Auguste and Louis Lumière]]
[[Category:Film and video technology]]
[[Category:History of film]]
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