Vitascope

They had made modifications to Jenkins' patented Phantoscope, which cast images via film and electric light onto a wall or screen.

[1] With the original Phantoscope and before he partnered with Armat, Jenkins displayed the earliest documented projection of a filmed motion picture in June 1894 in Richmond, Indiana.

The company realized that their Kinetoscope would soon be a thing of the past with the rapidly advancing proliferation of early cinematic engineering.

[3] Thomas Edison was slow to develop a projection system at this time, since his company's single-user Kinetoscopes were very profitable.

However, films projected for large audiences could generate more profits since fewer machines were needed in proportion to the number of viewers.

[citation needed] Dickson formed the American Mutoscope Company in December 1895 with partners Herman Casler, Henry Norton Marvin, and Elias Koopman.

The premiere of the Vitascope was a quick response to threat of losing a very large amount of money to the Lumiere Cinematographe, which vaudeville managers were about to invest in.

[2] Raff and Gammon recognized that they would get more money and positive exposure by releasing their technology ahead of the Lumiere Cinematographe in the United States.

[4] After the Vitascope made its infamous debut in Manhattan, the device was distributed across the nation including exhibitions in Boston, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Portland, Scranton, New Haven, New Orleans, New London, Cleveland, Buffalo, San Francisco, Asbury Park, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and more.

[citation needed] The Edison Company developed its own projector known as the Projectoscope or Projecting Kinetoscope in November 1896, and abandoned marketing the Vitascope.