Devices of curiosity : early cinema and popular science / Oliver Gaycken.

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2015]

xii, 254 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: Where did these scorpions come from? -- "Revealing nature's closest secrets": F. Martin Duncan's popular-science films at the Charles Urban Trading Company -- Juggling flies and gravid plants: F. Percy Smith's early popular-science films -- "A drama unites them in a fight to the death": the flourishing of popular-science films in France, 1909-1914 -- A modern cabinet of curiosities: George Kleine's collection of popular-science films -- Popular science and crime melodrama: Louis Feuillade and the serial -- Conclusion: Round and round: from the somersaulting monkey to "bug workout."