The Kinora viewer was invented by Auguste and Louis Lumière and patented in Britain in 1896. The Casler patent which appeared commercially in the Mutoscope was acknowledged by the Lumières on the machine which Anthony suggests indicated a joint agreement regarding production. By 1900 the viewer was being manufactured by Gaumont. The British Mutoscope and Biograph Company purchased the rights to the Lumière Kinora as early as June 1898 but it was not until 1902 that it appeared on the British market where it attracted more attention than hitherto and was made in significantly larger numbers than its predecessor.

An example of the later British Mutoscope and Biograph Co. Ltd. model is in the Royal Collection at Windsor.