Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The Black Maria in New Jersey was built to turn with the sun. The figure is taken from Smithsonian Institution, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Edison's first film studio had a roof that opened

The Black Maria in New Jersey was built to turn with the sun Built in 1893 at West Orange, New Jersey, the Black Maria was a tar-paper shed with a hinged roof and walls that opened to let daylight fall on the performer. The whole building sat on a turntable so it could follow the sun. Films made there were shown in Kinetoscope peep-show machines. It sits in Mondo's movies & tv collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Smithsonian Institution

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More facts like this

Kinetoscope parlours let one viewer watch at a timeThe first opened in New York in 1894 with rows of peep-show machines The oldest surviving film is about two seconds longLouis Le Prince shot Roundhay Garden Scene in Leeds in 1888 The first paid film screening was in Paris in 1895The Lumière brothers showed short films to a paying audience on 28 December The Jazz Singer brought sound to feature filmsWarner Bros. released it in 1927 with synchronised songs and speech Sound pushed film to 24 frames per secondStudios adopted the rate in the late 1920s because optical sound needed it Film stock was slit from 70mm rollsEastman Kodak cut Edison's wide roll in half to make the standard gauge

Tags: edison, 1893, film-history

Edison's first film studio had a roof that opened: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The Black Maria in New Jersey was built to turn with the sun. The figure is taken from Smithsonian Institution, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a movies & tv fact?: Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.