“Hand-cranked animation” The father of the animated cartoon, Émile Cohl, and his camera that set it all in motion

This article takes a new angle on the idea that the animated cartoon could have an inventor. It does this by trying to establish whether there was a “first-known machine” used to produce animated cartoons in a bid to see if the director Émile Cohl (Fantasmagorie, 1908) can be credited as the inventor of this genre. We will go back to the technical roots of his work on image, with particular reference to his use of an “animation camera”.