Auguste Lumière
With his brother Louis, he gave the world the magic of moving pictures, inventing the camera and projector that launched cinema.
1862–1954 (age 92)·French inventor·Birthday: October 19·The Gilded Age
Biography
Auguste Lumière, alongside his younger brother Louis, operated not just as an inventor but as a visionary industrialist. While Louis often gets credit for technical genius, Auguste's managerial skill and scientific curiosity were the engine of their Lyon-based photographic plate factory, which funded their experiments. In 1895, they unveiled the Cinématographe, a device that could record, develop, and project film, and its first public screening in Paris of a train pulling into a station famously sent audiences scrambling. Auguste, however, considered cinema a 'invention without a future' and soon turned his restless intellect to biology and medicine, pioneering early research in cancer treatment and stereoscopic photography, leaving the film industry they created to flourish without him.
The Gilded Age
1860–1882
Born during or after the Civil War, they built industrial America — the railroads, the steel mills, the first skyscrapers. An era of massive wealth, massive inequality, and the belief that the future belonged to whoever could build it fastest.
Auguste was born in 1862, placing them squarely in The Gilded Age. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Auguste Was Born
The biggest hits of 1862
Auguste's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1862Born
President: Abraham Lincoln
1867Started school
President: Andrew Johnson
1875Became a teenager
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1878Could drive
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1880Could vote
Edison patents the incandescent light bulb
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1883Turned 21
President: Chester A. Arthur
1892Turned 30
President: Benjamin Harrison
1902Turned 40
The eruption of Mount Pelee kills 30,000 in Martinique
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1912Turned 50
Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage
President: William Howard Taft
1922Turned 60
King Tut's tomb discovered in Egypt
President: Warren G. Harding"April Showers" — Al Jolson
1932Turned 70
Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic
Gas: $0.18/galPresident: Herbert Hoover"Night and Day" — Fred AstaireBest Picture: Grand Hotel
1942Turned 80
Battle of Midway turns the tide in the Pacific
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,175Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"White Christmas" — Bing CrosbyBest Picture: Mrs. Miniver
1954Died at 92
Brown v. Board of Education desegregates US schools
Gas: $0.29/galHome: $8,925Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Little Things Mean a Lot" — Kitty KallenBest Picture: On the Waterfront
Key Achievements
- Co-invented the Cinématographe, the first viable film camera and projector, with his brother Louis.
- Organized and presented the first commercial public film screening in Paris in December 1895.
- Made significant later contributions to medical research, particularly in phototherapy and the study of tuberculosis.
Did You Know?
He initially thought the cinema had no commercial future and preferred his work in medical research.
The Lumière brothers' first film, 'Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory,' documented their own employees.
He was a pioneer in color photography, developing the Autochrome Lumière plate with his brother in 1907.
“Cinema is an invention without a future.”
