Launch of the Worthing Lifeboat Coming Ashore

Worthing
1898
Silent
1m

Stunning footage of a lifesaving demonstration

This extraordinary film shows the public demonstration of the Worthing lifeboat on 6th April 1898. But it's also an exceptional demonstration of what could be achieved with WKL Dickson's unique 68mm film format - as well as of Dickson's skills as a filmmaker. The composition is equal to the best of Victorian photography, with Dickson's camera maintaining perfect focus despite a rare depth of field.

There is just one flaw, the result of Dickson's decision to place the main action in the bottom left corner of the frame. The enormous Biograph camera was impossible to move, and unfortunately the lifeboat crew carry their 'rescued sailor' a little too far up the beach, meaning this key part of the action falls partly out of shot. If you watch closely, you can see the crew responding to Dickson's shouted request to bring the unfortunate man back into the camera's line of vision.

Victorian Film

Celebrating the birth of film: the last great invention of the Victorian era.

Queen Victoria's long reign famously saw extraordinary advances: in industry, transport, science, culture... But one late but great innovation is too often missed from the list: the moving image. Yet film forever changed the way we see the world. And even before the French Lumière brothers presented their first demonstrations in London in 1895, British filmmakers were beginning to make their mark.

Here you'll find the most comprehensive gallery of Victorian films ever assembled. Hundreds of films made over the last six years of Victoria's reign, during which film was transformed from the pursuit of a handful of showmen, chemists and amateur enthusiasts into a dynamic industry, from fairground novelty into the greatest entertainment of the age.