Charles francis jenkins inventor biography
Charles Francis Jenkins
American cinema pioneer
For other people with similar names, observe Charles Jenkins.
Charles Francis Jenkins | |
|---|---|
Frontispiece of Animated Pictures, | |
| Born | ()August 22, Dayton, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | June 6, () (aged&#;66) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | Bliss Electrical School |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Engineering career | |
| Projects | Over patents akin to a variety of inventions |
| Significant advance | Motion picture projector and television |
| Awards | Elliott Cresson Medal () John Scott Medal () |
Charles Francis Jenkins (August 22, &#; June 6, ) was an American engineer who was a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies.
His businesses included Charles Jenkins Laboratories and Jenkins Television Firm (the corporation being founded in , the year the Laboratories were granted the first commercial television license in the Joined States). Over patents were issued to Jenkins, many for his inventions related to motion pictures and television .
Jenkins was born in Dayton, Ohio, grew up near Richmond, Indiana, where he went to school and went to Washington, D.C. in , where he worked as a stenographer.
Motion pictures
Jenkins started experimenting with motion pictures in , and eventually quit his job and concentrated fully on the development of his possess movie projector, the Phantoscope.
As the Richmond Telegram reported on June 6, ,[1] about his endeavors to show his parents, friends, and newsmen a gadget he had been working on for two years: a "motion picture projecting box".
They gathered at Jenkins' cousin's jewelry store in downtown Richmond and viewed what may have been the first live-action film screening in front of an audience. The motion picture was of vaudeville dancer Annabelle doing a butterfly dance, which Jenkins had filmed himself in the backyard of his Washington boarding house.[2] According to later accounts, each movie frame was painstakingly colored by hand.[3]
A July article in the Photographic Times[4] noted how the Phantoscope had several advantages over Edison's Kinetograph; it was minor (5 x 5 x 8 inches), portable and cheap.
Although Jenkins had written that he intended to make a nickel-in-the-slot device (comparable to Anschütz's Electrotachyscope and the Kinetoscope), the machine could project its images "upon any size screen" with a magic lantern (comparable to the Zoopraxiscope that Muybridge used to project traced contours of his chronophotographic pictures).
The magazine published a selection of 15 circular frames of the 50 frames movie of a man putting a shot. Jenkins also planned to synchronize the movies to sound recordings with a phonograph (as previously suggested by Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Muybridge and others since very soon after the introduction of Edison's device in ).
At the Bliss Electrical Institution, in Washington, D.C., Jenkins met his classmate Thomas Armat, and together they improved the layout. They did a public assessing at Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in and subsequently broke up quarreling over patent issues.
This modified Phantoscope of Jenkins and Armat was patented July 20, Jenkins eventually sold his interest in the projector to Armat. Armat subsequently sold the rights to Thomas Edison, who marketed the projector under the name Vitascope.
It was with this projector that Edison began public showings in vaudeville theaters of filmed motion pictures, with paid admission.
Charles Francis Jenkins — was an American pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies. His businesses included Charles Jenkins Laboratories and Jenkins Television Enterprise the corporation being founded inthe year the Laboratories were granted the first commercial television license in the United States. Over patents were issued to Jenkins, many for his inventions akin to motion pictures and television. In his free time, Jenkins fancied himself to be an inventor.In , Jenkins published Animated Pictures,[5] an early overview of the historical development and explanations of the methods and machines.
Television
Jenkins moved on to work on television.
He published an article on "Motion Pictures by Wireless" in , but it was not until December that he transmitted moving silhouette images for witnesses, and it was June 13, , that he publicly demonstrated synchronized transmission of pictures and sound.
He was granted the U.S. patent No. 1,, (Transmitting Pictures over Wireless) on June 30, (filed on March 13, ).[6]
His mechanical technologies (also pioneered by John Logie Baird) were later overtaken by electronic television such as devised by Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth.
Charles Francis Jenkins - Wikipedia: Charles Francis Jenkins (August 22, – June 6, ) was an American engineer who was a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies.In , the Jenkins Television Corporation opened the first television broadcasting station in the U.S., named W3XK, which went on air on July 2 and first sent from the Jenkins Labs in Washington and from on from Wheaton, Maryland, five nights a week.
At first, the station could only send silhouette images due to its narrow bandwidth, but that was soon rectified and real black-and-white images were transmitted.
In March , Jenkins Television Corporation was liquidated and its assets acquired by Lee de Forest Radio Corporation.
Within months, the De Forest company went bankrupt and the assets were bought by RCA stopping all work on electromechanical television.
Charles Francis Jenkins was a pioneer of early cinema technology and the first person to show television in the United States.
Other endeavors and personal life
Jenkins also dabbled in automobiles with Jenkins Automobile Company. In , he invented the first automobile with an engine in the front of the car.[7] In he constructed the smallest ride for the inch tall Cuban performer Chiquita
Jenkins married Grace Romance in
Bibliography
In Charles Francis Jenkins published Animated pictures, its has expired and it is currently in the public domain.
Achievements, awards
Jenkins was awarded the prestigious Elliott Cresson Gold Medal for scientific achievement in and the Scott Medal in by the Franklin Institute & Science Museum-Philadelphia.
He was the founder and first president of the Culture of Motion Picture Engineers (now includes television, SMPTE).[8]
Jenkins wrote several books including Vision By Radio, Radio Photographs, Radio Photograms and The Boyhood of an Inventor, as well as many articles that focused on his inventions, which were published in a variety of national magazines.
He received an honorary doctor of science degree from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, his alma mater, in June [9]
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, leading known for the annual Emmy Awards, commemorates the contributions of Jenkins to the television industry by naming one of the academy's most prestigious awards after him: the Charles F.
Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is a special engineering honor to an individual whose contributions over moment have significantly affected the mention of television technology and engineering.
In , Jenkins staged the first "movie" show. He shipped his motion picture projector, which he called a phantoscope, from Washington to Richmond. In the jewelry store of his cousin, Charles Jenkins, at Main, he projected pictures of a dancer performing a "butterfly dance" onto the wall.
Jenkins was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in [10]
Charles Francis Jenkins died at age 66 in Washington, D.C.[9] He is interred in Rock Creek Cemetery.
The World War IILiberty ShipSS&#;C. Francis Jenkins was named in his honor.
See also
References
- ^Martin, Steve (June 7, ). "Projecting the future". Palladium-Item.Charles Francis Jenkins was born in the nation north of Dayton, Ohio, of Quaker parents, and spent most of his boyhood on a farm north of Richmond nearby Fountain City. He attended Earlham College and then traveled through the western United States. He went to Washington, D. Kimball, U.
pp.&#;A3, A4. Retrieved December 30, &#; via
- ^Herschell, William M. (May 10, ). "Inventor of 'Movie' Flashed First Clip in Richmond Store". Richmond Palladium. p.&#;7. Retrieved December 30, &#; via Hoosier State Chronicles.
- ^"First 'Movie' in U.S.
Produced in Richmond by Use of Trolley Wire and Pail of Water". Palladium-Item. March 17, p.&#; Retrieved December 30, &#; via
- ^Photographic Times and American Photographer. Scovill Manufacturing Company.
July
- ^Charles Francis Jenkins.Charles Francis Jenkins August 22, - June 6, was a famous American inventor who specialized in cinema and television. His efforts from late 20th and early 21st century proved to be instrumental in developing of television and camera technology, enabling the creation of modern television industry. Even though he primarily explored mechanical television projectors, he managed to produce cheap devices that enabled him to grow holder of first commercial television license in the United States. After working as a stenographer he started forming his plans for building mechanical movie projector.
(). Animated pictures: an exposition of the historical development of chronophotography, its present scientific applications and future possibilities, and of the method and apparatus employed in the entertainment [!] of large audiences by means of projec.
United States Patent and Trademark Office Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC).
- ^U.S. patent 1,,
- ^"Charles F. Jenkins - Ohio History Central". .
- ^Graham, Gerald G. ().
"3". Canadian film technology, . University of Delaware Press. pp.&#;41– ISBN&#;.
- ^ ab"Charles Francis Jenkins, Inventor, Former Richmond Resident, Dies at Capital".
Palladium-Item. June 6, p.&#;1.
Charles Francis Jenkins August 22, — June 6, was an American engineer who was a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of televisionthough he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies. His businesses included Charles Jenkins Laboratories and Jenkins Television Corporation the organization being founded inthe year the Laboratories were granted the first commercial television license in the United States. Over patents were issued to Jenkins, many for his inventions related to motion pictures and television. Jenkins was born in Dayton, Ohiogrew up near Richmond, Indianawhere he went to school and went to Washington, D.Retrieved December 30, &#; via
- ^"Charles Jenkins". National Inventors Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 30,
External links
- Charles Francis Jenkins at IMDb
- Case Files from the Franklin Institute on Jenkins's Phantoscope
- Biography emphasizing his movie projector development.
- BiographyArchived August 23, , at the Wayback Machine emphasizing his television endeavours.
- W3XK
- Various biographic excerpts
- Some imagesArchived April 28, , at the Wayback Machine
- Jenkins marriageArchived May 21, , at the Wayback Machine
- Animated pictures, public domain book, second reprint of version
- Vision by radio, radio photographs, radio photograms () Washington, D.C.: National Capitol Press