- Creator of the camera dolly.
- Was the first Englishman to give a motion picture exhibition before a fee-paying audience.
- Co-founder (w/Birt Acres) of British production company Robert W. Paul Productions, formed in 1895.
- Of the almost 800 productions credited to Paul, less than 80 are known to survive today.
- On 24 October 1895, Paul filed a patent application for a moving picture journey through time, inspired by the H.G. Wells novella The Time Machine, in which the audience would experience the physical sensation of being transported through time and space. The patent was never completed and nothing came of it.
- His film of the Derby of 3 June 1896 was shown at two major London theatres within twenty-four hours of the event taking place, thus marking the true beginning of the news film.
- The British Film Catalogue credits Paul's Our New General Servant (1898) with the "first use of intertitles".
- In 1999, the British film industry erected a commemorative plaque on his building at 44 Hatton Garden, London.
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