Thomas Armat and Thomas Edison

An important addition to the Library's collection of motion picture archives are the surviving papers of Thoms Armat (1866-1948), inventor of the motion picture projector, the gift of his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Christopher Brooke Armat of Washington, D.C. Of particular interest is a letter from Thomas Edison, dated May 25, 1922, in which he discusses their early partnership: ". . . I have stated that I had a projection machine, but that when you came on the scene I saw you had a very much better one than mine, and that I dropped my experiments and built yours, which was the first practicable projection machine." The Armat-Edison machine as manufactured was called the Vitascope.

The Armat gift also includes an Orville Wright letter, glass plate negatives of various projection machines, a rare brochure issued by the Armat Motion Picture Company of Washington, D.C. and a copy of Portraits of Popular Picture Players, produced as a souvenir of the dinner given to Thomas A. Edison on December 16, 1912 by the Motion Picture Patents Company. This is Thomas Armat's copy with Edison's autograph on the commemoration page. The Armat Papers are a perfect complement to the archives of motion picture historian, Terry Ramsaye, reported on in Newsletter 23.