Auguste Lumière

Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière, Born 19 October 1862 in Besançon (France). Died: 10 April 1954 in Lyon (France).

Auguste Lumière and his brother Louis Lumière invented a new machine to manufacture photographic gelatin dry-plates in 1882, which made them wealthy. They invented the Cinematograph, a machine which made and projected what were arguably the first modern-day motion pictures, in 1895. They made many movies over the next several years, most of which were a minute or less in length and consisted of one shot from a stationary camera, but Louis and Auguste Lumière’s films established the basics of cinematography, camera-angle, composition, and directorial technique. Seeing little business future in the Cinematograph, they stopped making movies in 1901.

Lumière’s primary interest was in medical matters, and he left the film shop in 1910, using the proceeds of the brothers’ photography business to establish a large-scale research laboratory in Lyon. Over the last several decades of his life, Auguste Lumière was more famous for his medical research than for his work in motion pictures. He owned and operated the first x-ray machinery in France, and with his substantial albeit self-taught knowledge of chemistry and radiology he managed the radiology department at the famed Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon Hospital. He conducted investigations into cancer, pharmacology, senility, tuberculosis, and other medical matters, and wrote more than a dozen books documenting his research.—nndb.com