Vitascope, motion-picture projector patented by Thomas Armat in 1895; its principal features are retained in the modern projector: sprocketed film operated with a mechanism (the “Maltese cross”) to stop each frame briefly before the lens, and a loop in the film to ease the strain. The Vitascope was adopted by Thomas A. Edison to project his Kinetoscope films, leading first to the Nickelodeon theatre and soon to the full-length motion picture. See also Cinématographe; Kinetoscope.