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1887 - Friese-Greene and Edison: Neither Sight nor Sound
"Why should not moving pictures be combined with records of other sounds - all sounds, speech, traffic, the thud of horses' feet on the turf, the striking of the ball on bat at a cricket match, the sounds of human speech? Synchronization of sound and sight was surely only a matter of improvement in mechanism."
As early as 1887, British film pioneer Friese-Greene had been experimenting – unsuccessfully – with methods of synchronising sound to moving pictures. Realising he did not possess the technical skills necessary to succeed, Friese-Greene contacted American inventor Thomas Edison explaining the work he had been carrying out, his ambition to marry sound to the moving image, and asking whether, as inventor of the phonograph, Edison would be interested in collaborating on such a project.
Edison appeared interested at first, and invited Friese-Greene to send him all his research and drawings. This the hapless Englishman duly did, envisaging, no doubt, the beginning of an innovative partnership that would culminate with the phenomena of talking pictures. All he had to do was wait for Edison’s response to his records. And wait. And wait.
Friese-Greene never heard from Edison. The ‘Wizard of Menlo Park’ claimed he never received Friese-Greene’s papers.
Four years later, Edison would file for a patent for Kinetoscope in the US only. Perhaps, in view of Friese-Greene's earlier patent, he feared that his invention wouldn't stand up to the scrutiny of the UK's ‘test of novelty’. [ADD]
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