cinematograph

n. [ Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, motion + -graph. ] 1. an older name for a movie projector, a machine, combining magic lantern and kinetoscope features, for projecting on a screen a series of pictures, moved rapidly (25 to 50 frames per second) and intermittently before an objective lens, and producing by persistence of vision the illusion of continuous motion; a moving-picture projector; also, any of several other machines or devices producing moving pictorial effects. Other older names for the movie projector are animatograph, biograph, bioscope, electrograph, electroscope, kinematograph, kinetoscope, veriscope, vitagraph, vitascope, zoogyroscope, zoopraxiscope, etc.

The cinematograph, invented by Edison in 1894, is the result of the introduction of the flexible film into photography in place of glass. Encyc. Brit. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. A camera for taking chronophotographs for exhibition by the instrument described above. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]