Latham Loop

The Latham Loop is used in film projection and image capture. It isolates the filmstrip from vibration and tension, allowing movies to be continuously shot and projected for extended periods.

Invention of the Latham loop is usually credited to film pioneers William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and Eugene Lauste. Both men worked with Woodville Latham, developing a motion picture camera and projector in 1895. Dickson later acknowledged Lauste as inventor of the loop, though rival claims were made in support of another Latham associate, engineer Enoch J. Rector, who used the technology to shoot an hour-and-a-half-long documentary film, The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, in 1897.

Woodville Latham applied for a patent on June 1, 1896. In his patent application, Latham wrote,

By 1905, virtually all motion picture projectors used the Latham loop. The patent expired in 1913.

When Thomas Edison excluded his competitor Biograph from licensing Edison's key motion picture patents in 1907, Biograph retaliated by purchasing the patent for the Latham loop. In a patent infringement suit by Edison against Biograph, a federal court upheld the validity of the Latham patent.

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