Thomas Edison’s amazing kinetophone

On 6 October 1889, Thomas Edison cranked the handle on his kinetophone, also known as a kinetophonograph, and showed the world his first motion picture.

Most of the actual work that went into the kinetophone was done by Edison’s assistant William Dickson who fused together Edison’s phonograph and the Zoetrope, which was a circular display of slides that merged into a moving scene when hand-cranked.

Edison created a film and presented it to the world, starting a revolution in film making, all thanks to this device debuted exactly 125 years ago.

To learn more about some of the most amazing inventions in history, check out the latest issue of How It Works, which will tell you all about the first hearing aid, profile a visionary in Steve Jobs and feed your mind with everything else from futuristic concept cars to prehistoric dinosaur bones.