The kinetoscope did not have long life but was
certainly eventful one. Yet its novelty value was
short-lived. ^
He developed the same strategy for cylinder records— his
moulding process would have given him monopoly the mass
production records, had his patents been unheld. Although it
suffered from constant neglect, the motion picture project was
taken from experimental device commercial product in
about five years (1889-1894). Audiences began dwindle 1895 and one
entrepreneur admitted May that year that: "our candid
opinion that the kinetoscope business will dead duck
52
after this season. The machine brought new art into
being and laid the foundations new industry. The
management the motion picture project was governed by
commercial considerations; the laboratory was busy devising a
projector but Edison refused introduce model because he
saw that would ruin the peep show trade. The
. It
was also entirely new product for the Works; the labor had
to trained and new equipment designed and installed.VI-42
wanted monopoly the film media and captive market the
peep show exhibitors who needed constant supply film. This was not fast some in
the Edison organization would have liked but was
nevertheless considerable achievement for the laboratory." the end the year the Works were
only making few kinetoscopes each month.
The kinetoscope was instant success; its appeal was
universal and was sight see
