Thomas Edison’s ‘Black Maria’, a frame building covered in black roofing-paper, was built at the Edison Laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, USA and completed at a cost of $637.67 (then £132.15) on 1 Feb 1893.

Here Edison made short vaudeville-act films for use in his Kinetoscope, a peep-show machine designed for amusement arcades.



The building was constructed so that it could be revolved to face the direction of the sun.