(loo-mee-air')
Louis Jean Lumiere, b. Oct. 5, 1864, d. June 6, 1948, and Auguste Marie
Lumiere, b. Oct. 19, 1862, d. Apr. 10, 1954, were French inventors of an
early motion-picture projector and pioneer filmmakers. The two brothers
took over management of their father's photographic supply factory in Lyons
in 1893. There Louis developed (1895) the Cinematographe, a single machine
that functioned both as camera and projector. Its unique feature was a
system of claws that moved the film mechanically but held each frame long
enough for viewers to perceive the image. The Cinematographe was first
demonstrated before a paying audience in Paris on Dec. 28, 1895, with the
showing of 10 of the brothers' films, including Workers Leaving a Factory
and a comic sequence, The Sprinkler Sprinkled. The public exhibition marked
the beginning of cinema history. In the next few years the Lumieres
continued to produce short, 2-minute films that were records of everyday
life; they also made documentaries, newsreels, and a historical film, The
Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1897).

Bibliography: Quigley, Martin, Jr., Magic Shadows: The Story of the Origin
of Motion Pictures (1969).