Lauren Scott

Edison's Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze

Thomas Alva Edison

1894 January 7

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Thomas Edison's Record of a Sneeze is a short film that shows Edison's assistant William Kennedy Dickson sniffs a pinch of dust in order to make himself sneeze. This film recording was the first copy right film in the United States of America. This short film was also a result of Thomas Edison's invention of the kinetoscope, which in turn was the real reason why the film gained its fame.<!--more-->

The invention of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope and his film Fred Ott's Sneeze came about during the time of the Second Industrial Revolution which lasted from 1850 to 1901. Most of the inventions that came about were focused on science. New chemical and electricity developments were brought about.

This work became typical for its era because it was invented during The Second Industrial Revolution and for the reason that Edison did not takeout foreign patents on his new inventions of his kinetoscope. This caused various innovations and imitations of Edison's invention which in turn caused similar motion pictures made by other inventors abroad. Typically filmers would film things like gymnastics, dancing, and basic short silly films. Filming was also used for study purposes and it was not until later that films were made longer and with sound. This film of Fred Ott's Sneeze launched the products of further inventions and new film making technology.

Without the documentation of this film there would have been no proof that Edison's kinetoscope functioned perfectly. Therefore, this film is very innovative of its time and stands out from its peers because it is one of the first recordings that in turn brought about even greater film recordings.

There was not really much to see in record of a sneeze but the fact that Edison invented a way to record and film blew people away. As Lerner mentions in her article once the invention of Edison's kinetoscope was made inventors from all over Europe in Germany, France, and England, made copies of Edison's invention (Lerner.) They even went as far as to make improvements on it. For instance, in France two brothers that were known as the Lumiere brothers created a projecting device called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere brothers found a way to project their films on a screen.

What people today think about this particular work by Thomas Edison is that it is one of his most famous pieces. For instance, as Nordon mentions in his brief book review that a professor of Film studies and American studies at Yale University named Charles Musser has Fred Ott's Sneeze listed off as one of the famous names, he writes about in his book An Annotated Filmography (Nordon.) There was no real difference in the reception of this work from then and now. The people back then saw it as the board spring to new and further inventions. In another brief article Ellison goes to talk about how the people of this time and age also see it as what gave birth to cinema (Ellison.)

My personal reaction to Fred Ott's Sneeze and the invention behind the making of the short film was that it was one of the most incredible works that could have ever been invented. I found the documentation of this work meaningful because without it there would not have been all the new innovations that have branched off from it.

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