Segundo de Chomón has been placed alongside of Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès and James Stuart Blackton when it comes to early films, optical illusions, and special effects. And rightly so. Some great pre cinema contributions have come out of Spain.

SEGUNDO VÍCTOR AURELIO CHOMÓN Y RUIZ (1871-1929) Chomón was encouraged to make films because of his French actress wife, Julienne Mathieu. Below is a clip of her in El Hotel Electrico a 1908 animation directed by Segundo de Chomón.

1 Portrait and autograph of Pierre Jacquet-Droz 2 A figure of Cupid drawn by the drawing figure 3 Jacquet-Droz writing automaton 4 View of the mechanism from behind -- all from the brochure issued by the Society of History and Archæology, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Right, the front and back of these three famous members of the Jaquet-Droz automaton family. Left, a clipping from the London Post, 1776, advertising the writing and drawing figures, from the Harry Houdini Collection.

THE JAQUET-DROZ MUSICIAN A woman at the organ, is the Jaquet-Droz automaton, the Musician. No 18th century music box is used. She actually presses down with her fingers on the keys of a real organ. She breaths, moves her head and abdomen as a pianist would.

WHAT BREWSTER HAD TO SAY This highlighted section is from ‘Letters on Natural Magic,’ by Sir David Brewster published by John Murray, London in 1832 on page 262 expressing his marvel at the work of Jaquet-Droz and others.

PROGRAM ME SEE The Jaquet-Droz Writer in this 4:48 video from the BBC.

THE JAQUET-DROZ WRITER This automaton of Pierre Jaquet-Droz is perhaps the most famous and best-known in the world. The Writer is highly complex. With a system for each letter written, the Writer can scribe a letter capable of containing 40 characters. THE JAQUET-DROZ DRAUGHTSMAN This automaton of the Jaquet-Droz family appears as a young child but has the ability to draw 4 distinct pictures; 🎞️ Louis XV 🎞️ Marie Antoinette 🎞️ Louis XVI 🎞️ a dog, perhaps the Jaquet-Droz pet

1768-1774 AUTOMATONS PIERRE JAQUET-DROZ (1721-1790) Pierre Jaquet-Drozs was the head of the famous Prussian-born watchmaking family of Europe. Along with sons Henri-Louis, and Jean-Frédéric, they ventured into automatons to complement their watch sales. The first cinema cyborgs.

2. Developing the Spectacle of Time Unlike static paintings or sculptures, an automaton’s primary draw was its movement and the spectacle of a sequence unfolding over time, even if it was a simple, repetitive loop (like a writing or drawing figure). This focus on a time-based visual medium directly relates to the essence of film. The concept of a process or a scene unfolding automatically, without direct human intervention once started, is a central theme shared by automatons and the cinematic device. As some theorists note, the camera itself is an "automatic" device, mechanically capturing an image stream. In essence, automatons and their successors, like the mechanical theatres and animated tableaux, were major components of the popular entertainment landscape in the centuries leading up to the 19th century optical toy boom, which were the more immediate forerunners of cinematic technology.

AUTOMATONS Automatons are an important predecessor to the mechanical and visual ideas that led to film. They belong to the history of pre cinema for several key reasons, primarily due to their role in developing mechanical movement for entertainment and creating a fascination with the illusion of life. Automatons contributed to pre cinema history in two significant ways: by advancing mechanical technology and by pioneering the concept of visual and temporal illusion. 1. Advancing Mechanical Illusion and Movement Automatons were intricate clockwork or hydraulic devices that created controlled, repeated, lifelike movements. This development of mechanical systems for performance is a direct ancestor to the machinery of the film camera and projector, which also rely on precise, continuous mechanical motion (gears, sprockets, etc.). Automata were used as early forms of mechanical theatre, such as the devices described by Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century BC. Later examples, like the tableaux mécaniques (mechanical pictures) of the 18th and 19th centuries, were essentially framed, moving scenes that were extremely popular, demonstrating a public appetite for mechanical visual entertainment before the invention of cinema. Automatons captivated audiences by creating the illusion of a living, self-operating figure (a "self-operating machine"). This quest to replicate and represent lifelike motion and existence is a core goal that was ultimately achieved with greater fidelity by cinema.

The Science Museum Group holds a Haydon & Urry Eragraph Projector as does the Cinémathèque française. Film history reference notes and French cinémathèque catalogue entries place Haydon & Urry’s machines on the market from May 1896 onward and discuss their supply of both machines and films. The Eragraph isn’t a blockbuster name but it’s important for understanding small British makers who served local exhibitors and showmen during cinema’s first years. Haydon & Urry’s strategy appeared to be selling hardware and then producing short films to feed that hardware, like many other cinema pioneers.

1893 THE ERAGRAPH GEORGE HAYDON AND FRANK HARVEY URRY Haydon and Urry Limited was a late 19th / early 20th century maker of moving image equipment that produced phonographs, coin-operated machines and moving image viewers and projectors including something called the Eragraph, which is listed as a film projector. Within four years of start-up, Haydon & Urry applied for a patent on 10 February 1897 for their Eragraph design. According to my sources, the Eragraph was durable and reliable and became popular with travelling showmen in that era. The Eragraph was a 35mm, hand-cranked film projector that used a Maltese-cross intermittent, and examples are described as made of brass, and relatively compact, and robust. They also produced the Autocosmoscope, a penny-in-slot viewer showing 'lifelike reproductions of living pictures'.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ~ EERILY PRESCIENT ~ A slight departure from pre cinema but a cousin nonetheless, is this imagery from Punch, in 1906showing one person receiving an amatory message and the other, racing results. How distant are they, from smart phones and electronic devices? Not very. Image University of Toronto Library via Public Domain Review.