The Urban Bioscope, also known as the Warwick Bioscope was a

film projector A movie projector (or film projector) is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in ...

developed by Walter Isaacs in 1897 for

Charles Urban Charles Urban (April 15, 1867 – August 29, 1942) was a German-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in Cinema of the United Kingdom, British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the do ...

of the

Warwick Trading Company The Warwick Trading Company was a British film production and distribution company, which operated between 1898 and 1915. History The Warwick Trading Company had its origins in the London office of Maguire and Baucus, a firm run by two American ...

. The projector used a beater movement. It has two names because it was created by Charles Urban and Walter Isaacs. It was a 35mm fast-pull-down-beater-movement machine allegedly based on

Georges Demenÿ Georges Demenÿ (12 June 1850 in Douai – 26 October 1917 in Paris) was a French inventor, chronophotographer, filmmaker, gymnast and physical fitness Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the abilit ...

patents. In 1897, Urban joined Warwick Trading in the UK. At that time he brought with him the Bioscope from America for resale. Earlier versions of the scope projected both slides and films. These versions came with a "spoolbank" attachment that made it possible for very short films to be repeated without pause.

References

History of film Film and video technology Luke McKernan, ''Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897-1925'' (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2013), {{film-tech-stub