ABSTRACT
The terms ‘technological invention’ and ‘technological innovation’ pose a dual problem from the outset: that of defining an invention and an innovation, and that of defining the technological. This twofold problem, at once historiographical and theoretical, raises another in passing: does this question have any specific aspect in the case of technological innovation in the cinema? Or, what is yet another problem: does this question have any specific epistemological aspect in the case of film history and theory? Elements from the history of the viewfinder or of editing show the importance of an epistemology of machines. The approach is developed through a detailed analysis of Wheatstone’s stereoscope.
