120 years before Avatar in 3-D, the kinetoscope was the first high-tech movie experience · Wiki Wormhole · The A.V. Club

What it’s about: Motion pictures date back to the 1890s, when the Lumière brothers debuted the first movie projector. But the same decade brought a competing technology, which, instead of projecting a moving image onto a screen, gave a private showing for the viewer’s eyes only.

Source: 120 years before Avatar in 3-D, the kinetoscope was the first high-tech movie experience · Wiki Wormhole · The A.V. Club