Draft:Richard J Appleton

Richard J Appleton (1856-1946) an inventor who was the son of Bradford photographer Thomas Appleton. Appleton & Co was a Bradford business created in the 1850's that produced cameras and magic lanterns. The firm was based in Bradford. Appleton started to run the business in the early part of the 1890's and proceeded to purchase the photographic part of the company Percy Lund and Co.

X-Rays were experimented with in 1896 with the help of his son Richard Norman Appleton. Cinematography was becoming popular and Appleton invented a motion picture apparatus that included the workings of a camera, printer and projector called a Cieroscope. The Cieroscope first appeared in his shop in November 1896.

With the backing of the local newspaper the Bradford Argus, Appleton formulated the idea to film Queen Victoria's Jubilee procession through the streets of London on 22 June 1897 using his recently invented Cieroscope then screen the film back in Bradford the evening of the same day. A railway carriage was fitted out as a dark room so the film could be processed on the journey back up to Bradford. This he succeeded in doing and the film was shown outside the Bradford Argus building on a giant screen. It was estimated that 250,000 local people watched the film over the next few days.