The Shadow Traps
In October 1888, the French inventor Louis Le Prince shot what many people now believe to be the world’s first films. On the 16th September 1890, and just before he was due to sail to New York to demonstrate his films in public for the first time, Le Prince boarded the Dijon to Paris train and was never seen again.The Shadow Traps podcasts will tell the story of Le Prince, his life, his films and his mysterious disappearance. It is a mystery story, an exploration of invention and obsession and a love letter to film. To find out more and support this podcast, go to www.patreon.com/theshadowtraps
Episodes
45 episodes
Episode 40. A Panic of Possibilities
In early 1888, Louis Le Prince built a one lens motion picture camera in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Is it possible to say what influenced his decision to change from the sixteen lens machine he had already built, to this new (and soon to be his...
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Season 1
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Episode 40
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21:47
Interim Episode. Please Dislocate Your Mind
A short warm up for Episode Forty.
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Season 1
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Episode 0
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5:01
Episode 39. 'Grandpa Consoles Me (At Least He Thinks So)'
Le Prince sees the publication of his US Patent for a multi-lens camera. His excitement must have been mixed with apprehension as his designs were put into the public domain and suddenly available to potential rivals. And in Leeds, things were ...
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Season 1
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Episode 39
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49:27
Episode 38. The 'To Be or Not To Be', a Revelation Before the Second Sleep.
Louis Le Prince has returned to Leeds. This is where history will be made - but not immediately. What did Le Prince do with his machines in the lead up to creating his one lens camera. This episode will begin to find out.
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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27:20
Episode 37. Two White Gashes for Eyes.
We have already seen Le Prince using his 16 lens camera in Paris in 1887 - but we know so little about what happened. This episode asks 'what can be discovered about those lost months and the images that came out of them?'
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Season 1
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Episode 37
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25:04
A Few Words in the Interval
Not quite an episode; not quite an interval; a few words to see us on to the next stage of the story of Louis Le Prince.
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Season 1
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Episode 0
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4:32
Episode Thirty Six. History at ten to thirty-two a second.
Le Prince travels from England to Paris. There, he nurses his mother, who is ill, struggles with his US Patent specifications, and builds a sixteen lens camera. Sometime around the summer of 1887, he films scenes in Paris.
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Season 1
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Episode 36
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27:51
Episode Thirty Five. Cowboys and Yorkshireman.
We begin by looking at Le Prince as he leaves New York for Europe in April 1887, and follow him rushing between Leeds, London and on to Paris.While in London, he visits his brother-in-law who is responsible for a huge exhibition in the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 35
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49:11
Episode 34. There is something I should add....
Drawing to the end of the US Patent analysis, we discover a mistake in our research. Instead of becoming disheartened, we instead use this mistake to help us answer questions about the theories concerning possible corruption on the part of the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 34
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26:47
Episode 33. Amidst the Dense Thickets of Patent Correspondence
1887. Le Prince was so close to getting his patent application allowed. But nothing seemed to run smoothly for the inventor. We examine the Patent Claims he tried to add, which almost ruined things for him - and we get to the bottom of on...
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Season 1
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Episode 33
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30:03
Episode 32. Successively, continuously and in combination with...
1887. Le Prince seems to be getting closer to having his patent application accepted. However, just when he seems to have succeeded, he does something that puts everything in jeopardy.
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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18:08
Episode 31. A New Realm of Possibility
Le Prince, frustrated time and again by the Patent Office rejecting his designs, is struggling to find a way of getting his ideas accepted. Will he find a way to appease Patent Examiner William Burke? And will Burke's rejections ultimately lead...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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37:42
Episode 30. Flying Pictures
Le Prince has applied for a US Patent, however, things do not go to plan. The Patent Office rejects several of the inventor's claims, forcing him to go back and re-think. This episode looks at some of Le Prince's attempts to get his designs acc...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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25:27
Episode 29. 'Be It Known'
1886. Louis Le Prince is ready to go public with his designs for a motion picture camera and applies for a US Patent. We look at how the inventor made the jump from a rough and rudimentary Ferris-Wheel viewer to a sophisticated multi-lens recei...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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26:48
Episode 28. Sheep-Jumping as seen through Several Lenses.
While Le Prince works on his cameras, Lizzie is offered an opportunity that might change both their lives. What will now become of Le Prince's experiments? Should he show them to Thomas Edison? We reach 1886 and see that Le Prince is finally re...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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25:33
Episode 27. The New York Cockle and Burn Years
This episode tries to find an answer to the question 'What exactly did Le Prince achieve with his experiments in New York in the mid-1880's?' To help with this, we look at witness statements and descriptions of the work allegedly done and attem...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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32:11
Episode 26. The Man in Black and the Silly from Posillipo
What do blue aliens from the moon Pandora and a painting by Marcel Duchamp have in common? We look at the work of Etienne-Jules Marey, another inventor who was capturing motion while Le Prince was experimenting in New York.
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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25:59
Episode 25. The Crafty Fox
A look at six cards from the Le Prince children to their grandparents. What can we learn about the children from them - and is there anything else they might tell us?
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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13:24
Episode 24. An Impression of Life (with its reliefs and its hollows)
We take another look at Le Prince's American cameras and explore the possibility that he planning on capturing 3D motion pictures. And if that were the case - what were the precedents which might have convinced him that this was a possibility i...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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32:16
Episode 23. 'Buffalo Bill was never more surprised in his life'
John Whitley enlists the help of the legendary Buffalo Bill for his American Exhibition project. Meanwhile, Louis Le Prince begins work on his motion picture cameras - but how much do we know, can we know, about these cameras? To help ...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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32:13
Episode 22. The Fly, the Projector and the Troubadour's Card.
Le Prince starts experiments with projectors and enlists the help of an assistant. Meanwhile, his work on the giant cycloramas of Theophile Poilpot sees him work on a second project - the Monitor and Merrimac panorama. And John Whitley get his ...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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26:17
Episode 21. First Principles (The Experiments Begin)
Le Prince begins his experiments in motion pictures with two designs for machines with which to view images. What can we learn about them? How did they come about? And what might Le Prince do next?
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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23:50
Episode 20. Vocalion
The Le Princes are joined in New York by John Whitley who, in a break from his travels, has a new plan. We also, take a closer look at an incomplete three paragraph anecdote from Lizzie's memoirs to discover how Le Prince was involved in the pa...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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21:57
Episode 19. And Why Would The Sun Deceive? (or, 'The Mute Testimony of the Picture')
A short, digressive episode in which we will explore the perceived authority of photographic images through its use in the solving of crime, the persuading of people in the existence of ghosts and in the potential to influence perceptions of co...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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17:25