'this paper draws on film studies literature to consider cinematographic devices themselves as they were utilised in experimental endeavour. As historians of cinematography have noted, 'the' cinematograph has never existed as such. Rather, a range of illusion-generating mechanisms emerged during the nineteenth century, and culminated in the production of various means by which successive images might be inscribed and displayed (Mannoni [1994] 2000; Gunning [1986] 2006). Emphasising the mediating function of cinematographic devices rather than the cinematographic recording or projection of images brings to the fore their dual function in relation to scientific practice. [note: 'I employ 'device' rather than 'tool' or 'thing' here to denote the literary as well as practical uses to which cinematographic mechanisms were put. On 'epistemic things' see Rheinberger, 1997.']'