Background
William Friese-Greene was born on September 7, 1855 in Bristol, City of Bristol, United Kingdom.
1880
William Friese-Greene and daughter
The Friese-Greene grave in Highgate Cemetery
Plaque at Middle Street, Brighton
William Friese Greene and his son Claude
William Friese-Greene was born on September 7, 1855 in Bristol, City of Bristol, United Kingdom.
William Friese-Greene studied at the Queen Elizabeth's Hospital school. In 1871 he was apprenticed to the Bristol photographer Marcus Guttenberg, but later successfully went to court to be freed early from the indentures of his seven-year apprenticeship.
In 1877 William Friese-Greene set up his own studio in Bath, and by 1881 had expanded his business with more studios in Bath, Bristol and Plymouth. In Bath William Friese-Greene came into contact with John Arthur Roebuck Rudge. He built what he called the Biophantic Lantern, which could display seven photographic slides in rapid succession, producing the illusion of movement. William Friese-Greene was fascinated by the machine and worked with Rudge on a variety of devices over the 1880s, various of which Rudge called the Biophantascope. Moving his base to London in 1885, he began to experiment with the new Eastman paper roll film, made transparent with castor oil, before turning his attention to experimenting with celluloid as a medium for motion picture cameras.
On 21 June 1889, William Friese-Greene was issued patent no. 10131 for his camera. It was apparently capable of taking up to ten photographs per second using paper and celluloid film. He worked on a series of moving picture cameras until early 1891. In 1890 William Friese-Greene developed a camera with Frederick Varley to shoot stereoscopic moving images. The camera ran at a slower frame rate, and although the 3-D arrangement images worked, there are no records of projection. Friese-Greene's experiments in the field of motion pictures were at the expense of his other business interests and in 1891 he was declared bankrupt. To cover his debts he had already sold the rights to the 1889 moving picture camera patent for £500 (£60,000 in 2016 terms). The renewal fee was never paid and the patent eventually lapsed.
From 1903 William Friese-Greene lived in Brighton where there were a number of experimenters developing still and moving pictures in colour. Initially working with William Norman Lascelles Davidson, he patented a two-colour moving picture system using prisms in 1905. He and Davidson gave public demonstrations of this in January and July 1906 and Friese-Greene held screenings at his photographic studio.
On 5 May 1921 William Friese-Greene attended an important and stormy meeting of the cinema trade at the Connaught Rooms in London. The meeting had been called to discuss the current poor state of British film distribution and was chaired by Lord Beaverbrook. Disturbed by the tone of the proceedings, Friese-Greene got to his feet to speak. The chairman asked him to come forward onto the platform to be heard better, which he did, appealing for the two sides to come together. Shortly after returning to his seat, he collapsed. People came to his aid and took him outside, but he died almost immediately of heart failure.
A very grand funeral was staged for him, a two minute silence was observed in some cinemas and a fund was raised to commission the famous architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to design a memorial for his grave. He was buried in the eastern section of London's Highgate Cemetery.
William Friese-Greene married the Swiss Helena Friese (born Victoria Mariana Helena Friese) on 24 March 1874.