1896 poster advertising the Vitascope. The Vitascope was an early film projector first demonstrated in 1895 by Charles Jenkins and Thomas Armat. It was a modified version of Jenkins' 'Phantoscope', which cast images via film and electric light onto a screen. Armat sold the Phantoscope to the Kinetoscope company, who approached Tomas Edison to finance its development and manufacture. Edison agreed on the conditions that he was credited for its invention and that it was renamed in the 'Vitascope'.