Louis Lumière

@Discoverers, Family and Facts

Louis Lumière and his brother Auguste were French inventors who made the world’s first true motion picture

Oct 5, 1864

FrenchInventors & DiscoverersLibra Celebrities
Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: October 5, 1864
  • Died on: June 6, 1948
  • Nationality: French
  • Famous: Discoverers, Inventor of Cinematograph, Inventors, Inventors & Discoverers
  • Spouses: Rose Winckler
  • Siblings: Auguste Lumière
  • Known as: Louis Jean Lumière, Louis Jean Lumiere

Louis Lumière born at

Besançon

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Birth Place

Louis Lumiere died on June 6, 1948, aged 83.

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Personal Life

Louis Jean Lumière was born on October 5, 1864, in Besançon, France, to Claude-Antoine Lumière and Jeanne Joséphine Costille Lumière. He had three siblings—a sister named Jeanne and two brothers, Édouard and Auguste. His father was a painter turned photographer.

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Childhood & Early Life

Louis became interested in photography at an early age, a fascination he shared with his elder brother Auguste. He was blessed with creativity, confidence and a love for science and performed well at La Martiniere technical high school.

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Childhood & Early Life

After graduating from high school, Louis Lumière joined his brother and father to work in the photographic firm his father ran. This collaboration proved to be very fruitful and the father and sons successfully developed a new, cutting edge, "dry" photographic plate, dubbed the "blue label" plate.

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Career

The invention was a commercial success as well and over the next several years the family accumulated a vast fortune manufacturing the plate. The money earned helped the brothers in funding further experimentation. Now they shifted their focus to color photography.

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Career

Their father retired in 1892 and the brothers now began working on developing motion-picture technology. Their prior experimentation in color photography came in much handy during this time.

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Career

Their father went to a showing of Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope in Paris and was much impressed by the equipment. He asked his sons to work on building a similar machine. At around the same time, French inventor Léon Bouly had invented a device called the cinematograph. Bouly was however unable to develop his machine further so he sold his rights to the device and its name to the Lumière Brothers.

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Career

The brothers worked to improvise the cinematograph and were successful in building a device that combined a camera with printer and projector. They patented the device in 1895 and made their first motion picture ‘Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon’ the same year. This film showed workers leaving the Lumière factory.

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Career

Auguste and Louis Lumière were awarded the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, the highest award given by the Franklin Institute, in 1909 for their work in color photography.

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Awards & Achievements