Franz von Uchatius

Franz von Uchatius (1811–1881) was an Austrian artillery general and inventor. His inventions included both military applications and pioneer work in cinematography.

He invented a motion picture projector in the early 1850s, developing it over the years from 1845 from the device then called stroboscope (Simon von Stampfer) and phenakistiscope (Joseph Plateau). This was the first example of projected animation, demonstrated in 1853; it is also described as the combination of the zoetrope with the magic lantern. It was called the kinetoscope, a term later used by Thomas Edison (see kinetoscope). He applied it to lecture on ballistics.

He worked also on a smokeless powder, improved cannons and alloys (his steel bronze was a copper-tin alloy ), and a balloon bomb, used in 1849 against Venice, sent up from a paddle steamer. Uchatius steel was produced industrially, by mixing granulated iron with iron oxide.