Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince

Le Prince is considered the pioneer of the motion picture. His father was an intimate friend of Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), the famous pioneer of photography, who gave his son some early lessons in the art. In 1875 he saw a series of photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge at Palo Alto, California. Le Prince was attracted to the idea of producing a series of photographs i.e. motion pictures. In the summer of 1888 Le Prince secured the services of Frederic Mason a wood-maker to make parts of cameras, etc. On returning to Leeds he employed as assistant James Longley who had worked with him before. Some of the metal work was also made by his inventor father-in-law (Joseph Whitley). LePrince had completed two cameras, each with a single lens, had photographed a series of pictures at the rate of 12- 16 per second in October 1888. Of the three remaining films housed at the National Media Museum Bradford, two of them were shot on 14th October 1888 in Roundhay, Leeds. The third was shot on leeds Bridge. On September 16, 1890 Le Prince left his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wilson at Bourges to visit his brother, an architect and surveyor of Dijon. He was last seen entering the train for Paris with his luggage. Intensive searches were made by French and English detectives, but to no avail. His disappearance remains a mystery to this day.