Joseph Timchenko

Joseph Andriyovych Tymchenko (; 26 April 1852 – 20 May 1924) was a Ukrainian inventor and mechanic. He is best known for his invention of a type of film camera in 1893, which was a predecessor to the inventions of Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1895.

Timchenko was born into a serf peasant family in the Kharkiv Governorate of the Russian Empire, where he worked at the mechanical workshop of Kharkiv University until 1874, when he moved to the city of Odesa. He then worked for much of his career as a mechanic at Odesa University, where he developed a wide range of inventions, including pressure-testing devices, railway electrical signals, and underwater mines. In the summer of 1893, he constructed a prototype film camera, later known as the "Tymchenko snail", and on 9 January 1894 gave one of the earliest public demonstrations of projected moving pictures at the Ninth Congress of Natural Scientists and Physicians of the Russian Empire in Moscow. Despite receiving numerous awards throughout his career, Timchenko's workshop at the Odesa University was destroyed in 1920, and he died in poverty in 1924, receiving little recognition for his inventions during his lifetime.

Early life Tymchenko was born on 26 April 1852 in the village of Okip, Kharkiv Governorate, Russian Empire on the estate of the landowner Khotentsev. He was born into a serf peasant family, and later attended the local church parish school. He was then sent to the city of Kharkiv at the age of fourteen for further learning, and his maternal uncle, Glazunov, who was a clerk in a bookstore managed to secure Joseph a spot be an apprentice to Alexander Edelberg in the mechanical institution of Kharkiv University. Edelberg owned both an optical shop and the workshop, and permitted Joseph to attend university lectures on physics and natural sciences while at the workshop. The camera was used to film subjects at a racetrack, with the films being entitled The Horseman and The Spear-Thrower. However, he would never receive fame for his invention afterward, and in 1909 was dismissed by the university administration to convert the workshop into a plague laboratory. It was installed on the building at 10/12 Moskovskyi Avenue, which housed the mechanical workshop of Kharkiv University that he worked at during his youth.

Recognition and awards 1882 – Silver medal at the 15th All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow; 1884 – Gold medal at the Agricultural and Factory Exhibition in Odesa; 1886 – Gold medal at the Bessarabian Exhibition of Agriculture and Industry in Chișinău; 1889 – Silver medal at the Exposition Universelle; 1896 – Gold medal at the 16th All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod; 1900 – Knight of the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class; 1900 – Gold medal at the Exposition Universelle; 1902 – Gold medal and 1st prize at the International Fisheries Exhibition in St. Petersburg; 1910 – Silver medal at the Art and Industrial Exhibition in Odesa.