Phenakistoscopes (1833)
4 days ago
- #optical-illusions
- #animation
- #Victorian
- The Phenakistoscope was a popular Victorian toy and an early form of animation.
- It worked by spinning a disc with slits and viewing the reflection in a mirror to create moving images.
- Invented simultaneously in 1832 by Joseph Plateau in Brussels and Simon von Stampfer in Berlin.
- Plateau, a physicist with an art background, hand-painted the original designs.
- Von Stampfer, a mathematician, created a similar device called the Stroboscope.
- Mass-produced versions were marketed under names like Phantasmascope and Fantoscope.
- Mclean’s Optical Illusions or Magic Panorama (1833) was among the earliest mass-produced Phenakistoscopes.
- Later replaced by the Zoetrope and then film, the Phenakistoscope was largely forgotten.
- The concept has resurfaced in the internet age with short, looping animations like GIFs.