A very rare book published in 1960: full and very comprehensive history of how cinema was invented from the technical point of view.
Things become more interesting if we take into account that very few Soviet books were void of propaganda. This one is.
It still hasn’t lost its topicality: they say that each huge invention is preceded by a thousand smaller ones. All of them, or at least the bigger part of them, is described here in a very clear way.
The first huge leap is between the Ancient World and 1830s (when all the inventions were not cinematography proper); then we rush through the 19th century toward the first cinema evening.
English title: I. Sokolov “Cinema Invention History”
Original title (Russian): И. Соколов “История изобретения кинематографа”
First published in the Levinarium Telegram Channel (now closed and deleted)