Devices Of Curiosity: Early Cinema And Popular Science

Synopsis

'devices Of Curiosity' Excavates A Largely Unknown Genre Of Early Cinema, The Popular-science Film. Primarily A Work Of Cinema History, It Also Draws On The Insights Of The History Of Science. Beginning Around 1903, A Variety Of Producers Made Films About Scientific Topics For General Audiences, Inspired By A Vision Of Cinema As An Educational Medium. This Book Traces The Development Of Popular-science Films Over The First Half Of The Silent Era, From Its Beginnings In England To Its Flourishing In France Around 1910. Prologue: Where Did These Scorpions Come From? -- Revealing Nature's Closest Secrets: F. Martin Duncan's Popular-science Films At The Charles Urban Trading Company -- Juggling Flies And Gravid Plants: F. Percy Smith's Early Popular-science Films -- A Drama Unites Them In A Fight To The Death: The Flourishing Of Popular-science Films In France, 1909-1914 -- A Modern Cabinet Of Curiosities: George Kleine's Collection Of Popular-science Films -- Popular Science And Crime Melodrama: Louis Feuillade And The Serial -- Conclusion: Round And Round: From The Somersaulting Monkey To Bug Workout. Oliver Gaycken. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.