[3] He began his technical career learning instrument-making skills at the Elliott Brothers, a firm of London instrument makers founded in 1804, followed by the Bell Telephone Company in Antwerp.

Acres had been working on a machine for rapid photographic printing, so Paul applied his discoveries in producing the "Paul-Acres Camera", as named by historian John Barnes, in March 1895.

[citation needed] On 24 October 1895, Paul applied for a patent for a device to evoke the effects that H. G. Wells had described in his novel The Time Machine, published the previous year.

[7] Paul obtained a concession to operate a kinetoscope parlour at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, and the success of this venture inspired him to attempt surpassing Edison by projecting moving images onto a screen.

Paul would present his own, the Theatrograph, shortly after on 20 February at Finsbury Park College, ironically on the same day as the Lumière brothers first film projections in London.

After some demonstrations before scientific groups, he was asked to supply a projector and staff to the Alhambra Music Hall in Leicester Square, and he presented his first theatrical programme on 25 March 1896.

This included films shot by Birt Acres, featuring cartoonist Tom Merry drawing caricatures of the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II (1895)[10] and Prince Bismarck (1895).

[15] Paul continued to make his own films that pioneered techniques such as close-up framing and cut transitions, selling them either directly or through newer new distribution companies.

[18] Filmed by Birt Acres: Made independently: In April 2019, the Bruce Castle Museum held a 150th anniversary exhibition curated by Ian Christie entitled "Animatograph!

[19] In August 2019, the Barnet London Borough Council approved a proposal by Lipton Plant Architects to have the Light House project involving flats, a supermarket, and car park in London's Muswell Hill suburb to include an unusual shimmering void cutout as a tribute to Paul's work in early film.