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The Cinématographe gave its name to cinema, and was the most widely used machine in the first days of the medium, being sent all over the world to photograph and show films. The Lumières’ own mechanic made the first trial machine on which they filmed/projected in the first months of 1895. The final design (for commercial production) was entrusted to engineer Jules Carpentier to make. He sent the Lumières two prototypes in November/December 1895, which were referred to as Number “0″ and Number “1″. Carpentier also started to assemble a few more machines, and three were completed (Nos. 2, 3 and 4), which he sent on 31st December. On 5 January 1896, Louis Lumière wrote to Carpentier, “you can quite happily launch the next two hundred machines we have ordered.”Very soon after that date, the first “production run” was started.This camera was designed and owned by that great pioneer of cinema Louis Lumière and then given to his daughter Yvonne. She passed it on to Henri Lumière and it was obtained from him by a private Lumière museum at Uzes in the south of France. When this museum collection was dispersed early in the 21st century, the camera was acquired for the “Race to Cinema” collection.
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  Lumière Camera Shutter Mechanism 

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