Mechanics of the system

The full name of the Kinora system was advertised as “The Kinora System of Animated Photography” and it consisted of 3 elements: the Viewer, the Reel (flipbook)

· Viewer: There where various types of viewers and of various materials (wood, metal and glass). The most common ones where the manual–driven, however there were also clockwork-driven models. The manual models had a simple manual handle in order to rotate the reel, in this case the framerate was not fixed and depended on the speed of the turning handle whilst a person that was using it. The metal clockwork-drive model had a motor in the base that spin the reel in the viewer mounted on top with a pedestal that permitted tilting for a different viewing position. It had incorporated mirror and double lenses in order to permit the light to enter. The viewer contained a metal stop that permitted the small images to pause for a very short period of time and also to flatten them at the moment of viewing through the lens.

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8345946/clockwork-kinora-viewer-viewer

· Reel (flipbook): a classical reel contained 640 curved photo which, depending on the speed, would produce 30-40 seconds of moving images. The canter of the reel was usually made of brass with a hole in the middle to mount it onto the viewer. The Images were attached to the central core, printed on bromide paper with a dimension of 24mm x 19mm. The reels where the reproduction of previous film that where professionally produced as well as homemade prints with the Kinora Camera.

https://www.europeana.eu/en/blog/the-kinora-the-first-home-cinema-technology