First meeting of the members of the K.M.C.D. Syndicate on September 22, 1895, from left: Henry N. Marvin, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, Herman Casler, and Elias Bernard Koopman

Elias Bernard Koopman (1860 – August 23, 1929) was a founder of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.[1] He was also a founder of The Magic Introduction Company.[2] He later headed the Runsyne Corporation, a maker of electrical signs.

Biography

He was born in 1860. In 1895 with William Kennedy Dickson and Herman Casler and Henry Marvin he founded the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.[1]

He committed suicide by stabbing himself in the abdomen in 1929 in the Hotel Cumberland. He was taken to the hospital while still alive, but he died a few hours later. He left a note for his brother, Harry Koopman telling him of his intentions. In the note he asked that his family not mourn for him. He also asked that his body be donated to science. He was 69 years old.[3]

Patents

References

  1. 1 2 "Elias Bernard Koopman". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2007-09-25. One of the four men who founded the KMCD syndicate which later became the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company; Elias Koopman, unlike his partners (Dickson, Marvin and Casler), had a commercial rather than a technical background, running the Magic Introduction Company which marketed magical toys and optical novelties, including the Photoret pocket watch detective camera invented by Casler and Dickson (Billy Bitzer was a company employee).
  2. 1 2 "The Magic Introduction Company". The Lampworks. Retrieved 2007-09-25. One of the principals of The Magic Introduction Company, Elias Bernard Koopman, (b. 1860, d. 1929) was granted patent number 414,058 on October 29, 1889 (see photo above). His invention for a "pocket lamp" is in effect an early incarnation of the cigarette lighter.
  3. ↑ "Koopman Stabs Himself. Head of Runsyne Corporation Dies in Hospital Hours Later". The New York Times. August 24, 1929. Retrieved 2007-09-25. Elias Koopman, 69 years old, President of the Runsyne Corporation, electrical sign advertisers, of 250 West 54th Street, was found unconscious in a room in the Hotel Cumberland, 220 West 54th Street, as the result of a self inflicted stab wound to the abdomen.


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