On April 21, 1895, Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, demonstrated the first movie projector developed in the United States, calling it the Panopticon. Up until this time, Edison’s Kinetoscope could only show films viewed through peep-show boxes with viewers seeing it one at a time. Projecting to a large audience was a big advance. Critical to their success was the “Latham Loop” that let the film be projected smoothly.
