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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Quaker Farm Boy and the Wizard of Menlo Park: How C. Francis Jenkins Fought to Keep Thomas Edison from Claiming Credit for One of Jenkins' Most Significant Inventions

Gibbs, Cheryl Jeanne
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5979-7665
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1543522521915393

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts, Miami University, History.
For decades, C. Francis Jenkins fought efforts to discredit his role in inventing the first successful motion picture projector. Thomas Armat, his partner in creating the projector, licensed it to Thomas Edison without the permission of Jenkins and agreed to let Edison market the projector as his own. Armat then sued over rights to his patent with Jenkins. Although he and Jenkins each claimed to be the true inventor, the joint patent was upheld. Jenkins, however, falsified evidence to prove his case and, in disgrace, sold Armat the rights to the multi-million dollar joint patent for a few thousand dollars. Jenkins then sought recognition for the invention from scientific institutions. Every time he succeeded, Armat and Edison fought to erase the name of Jenkins from the historical record. They filed suit and sent angry letters to organizations that honored Jenkins. Although Jenkins documented his work on the projector in books and scrapbooks, by 1947 Armat had written Jenkins out of the story of how the projector came to be. When scholars in the late 1970s and 1980s debunked the myths surrounding Edison and credited Jenkins and Armat with the first successful commercial screening of a motion picture, Jenkins got his due.
Allan Winkler (Advisor)
56 p.
History
C Francis Jenkins; Phantoscope; motion picture projector; Thomas Armat; Vitascope; Thomas Edison; Franklin Institute; Smithsonian; Richmond, Indiana; Bliss School of Electricity; Boyhood of an Inventor; Radiovision

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gibbs, C. J. (2019). The Quaker Farm Boy and the Wizard of Menlo Park: How C. Francis Jenkins Fought to Keep Thomas Edison from Claiming Credit for One of Jenkins' Most Significant Inventions [Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1543522521915393

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gibbs, Cheryl. The Quaker Farm Boy and the Wizard of Menlo Park: How C. Francis Jenkins Fought to Keep Thomas Edison from Claiming Credit for One of Jenkins' Most Significant Inventions. 2019. Miami University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1543522521915393.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gibbs, Cheryl. "The Quaker Farm Boy and the Wizard of Menlo Park: How C. Francis Jenkins Fought to Keep Thomas Edison from Claiming Credit for One of Jenkins' Most Significant Inventions." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1543522521915393

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.