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{{For|the mid-20th-century television technology|kinescope}}
[[Image:Kinetoscope.jpg|thumb|315px|right|Interior view of Kinetoscope with peephole viewer at top of cabinet]]
The '''Kinetoscope''' is an early [[film|motion picture]] exhibition device. Though not a [[movie projector]]—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of [[video]]: it creates the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of [[film perforations|perforated film]] bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S. inventor [[Thomas Alva Edison|Thomas Edison]] in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee [[William Kennedy Laurie Dickson]] between 1889 and 1892. Dickson and his team at the Edison lab also devised the '''Kinetograph''', an innovative [[movie camera|motion picture camera]] with rapid [[intermittent movement|intermittent, or stop-and-go, film movement]], to photograph movies for in-house experiments and, eventually, commercial Kinetoscope presentations.
In April 1894, the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures in history was given in New York City, using ten Kinetoscopes. Instrumental to the birth of American movie culture, the Kinetoscope also had a major impact in Europe; its influence abroad was magnified by Edison's decision not to seek international [[patents]] on the device, facilitating numerous imitations of and improvements on the technology. In 1895, Edison introduced the '''Kinetophone''', which joined the Kinetoscope with a [[phonograph cylinder|cylinder]] [[phonograph]]. Film projection, which Edison initially disdained as financially nonviable, soon superseded the Kinetoscope's individual exhibition model. Many of the projection systems developed by Edison's firm in later years would use the Kinetoscope name.
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