History of special effects.

From reading the book 'Special effects the history and techniques'  by Richard Rickitt
Cinema is now over a hundred years old photography being invented in the 19th century originally the 'flick' cinema was enough to satisfy audiences but after awhile the audiences wanted more they wanted to be allured into the cinema full of drama and magic that they wanted to believe in  which developed into trick cinema where they could see flying cars etc.. 
For the special effects world that developed with its audience as monsters in the 20's wouldn't scare people in the 80's so as tastes an developed and people were more immune to the horror it changed.

The first recognized special effect in film was in an 1895 film showing the execution of Mary queen if Scots. Alfred Clark, the director had an actor walk to the execution block and as the axe fell he stopped the camera and swooped the actor with a dummy. Techniques like this would remain the standard for films for most of the next century.This  technique was known as Stop Start and was only possible because of the development of the movie camera.The next big development was by the french magician Georges Melles.Georges Melles introduced various types of tricks into film making. Such as multiple exposure, time lapse photography and he even hand painted certain frames to give the effect of aging quickly. Throughout the 1920 and 1930 as film cameras improved so did the ability to create special effects. It was during this time that the make up side really began to grow.As science developed new materials make up artist were able to develop new technoques especially around prosthetic s.
One of the most advanced and ground breaking make up artists of this time was the actor Lon Chaney. He developed techniques that are still used today. He even became known as the man of a thousand faces.He is most famous for his role as quasimodo in the hinchback of notredame , the phantom in the phantom of the opera and as the professor and the man in the hat in the classic horror movie London aftef midnight. He would use such techniques as shading, mask making and padding in his body to change his appearance.Techniques such as molding have not changed much since then, they have just got easier due to the advances is materials.