Not to be confused with the kineoscope (no T), the early device for recording televised images, Thomas Edisons’ invention was the prototype camera and playback device, all in one. Edison assigned his assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, to work on creating a mechanism by which rapid movement of still pictures over a light could create the visual illusion of movement. The biggest challenge turned out to be in finding a material that could be used to record and then display those images.

On this day, May 20, in 1891, after the materials problem solved itself with Kodak’s introduction of celluloid film, Edison’s prototype kinetoscope premiered at National Federation of Women’s Clubs convention.

Edison also coupled his invention with a kinetophone, which was essentially the addition of sound to the action on film. Kinetophones looked much like the kinetosopes — a waist-high cabinet with a peephole on top, but inside also contained a cylinder phonograph playing music or sounds, not synchronized but vaguely appropriate to the action.