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Film projectors
The Lumière brothers invented the first successful movie projector. They made their first film, Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon, in 1894, which was publicly screened at L'Eden, La Ciotat a year later. The first commercial, public screening of cinematographic films happened in Paris on 28 December 1895. -
Handouts.
In Germany, around 1439, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which started a printing revolution that lasted until the end of the 20th Century. -
White boards.
Whiteboards became commercially available in the early 1960s, but did not become widely used until 30 years later. Early whiteboards needed to be wiped with a damp cloth and markers had a tendency to leave marks behind, even after erasing the board. -
Overhead projector. (1960's)
A Brief History: Roger Appeldorn created a machine that projected the image of writing on clear film in the early 1960s, while working at 3M, according to the company's recount of the invention of the overhead projector. -
Slide projectors.
A carousel slide projector is a slide projector that uses a rotary tray to store slides, used to project slide photographs and to create slideshows. It was first patented on May 11, 1965, by David E. Hansen of Fairport, NY. Hansen was an engineer at the Eastman Kodak Company. -
Flipcharts. (1970's)
The flipchart we know (on a small whiteboard) was invented by Peter Kent in the 1970s. Peter Kent was the founder and CEO of the visual communications group Nobo plc, and it is believed that they were the first company to put the large pieces of paper over whiteboards, rather than over other materials. -
Magnetic boards.
Also know as Magna Doodle is a magnetic drawing toy, consisting of a drawing board, a magnetic stylus, and a few magnet shapes. Invented in 1974, over forty million units have been sold to date worldwide, under several brands, product names and variations. -
Digital projector.
Dr. Larry Hornbeck invented the first DLP chip called the Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) in 1987. The device consists of an array of small mirrors wherein each mirror is responsible for projecting one pixel on the screen. -
Smart board.
The SMARTboard was invented by David Martin and Nancy Knowlton through their company SMART Technologies in 1991. It was the first interactive whiteboard that was able to provide touch controls in the same way as a computer.
