In France, inventor Léon Guillaume Bouly patents a device that allows to photograph motion. He names the device “Cynématographe Léon Bouly”. Unbeknownst to any member of Steinway family, the invention will indirectly lead to a major increase in sales of Steinway & Sons pianos in the late 1890s and within the first two decades of the next century, and to even greater drop in sales afterwards.