phenakistoscope
Phenakistoscope
The phenakistoscope (also spelled phenakistiscope or phenakitiscope) was an early animation device that used the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion.
What is it and how does it work?Persistence of motion is key for the Phenakistoscope to work. The illusion of motion was first theorised by the Greek mathematician Euclid and later by Newton. However, the true principle didn't become firmly conducted until 1829 by Joseph Plateau.
The Phenakistroscope works by a series of two discs being mounted on the same axis. The first disc featured slits around the edge, and the second consisted of images drawn with successive actions. These discs both spin in the same direction to create the illusion of movement when viewed in a mirror through the first disc's slots. The phenakistoscope can only be used by one person at a time, however.
The Invention
Who invented it?
Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (14 October 1801 – 15 September 1883) was a Belgian physicist. He was one of the first persons to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this he used counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits in the other.
Plateau's inspiration had come primarily from the work of Michael Faraday and Peter Mark Roget (the compiler of Roget's Thesaurus). Faraday had invented a device he called "Michael Faraday's Wheel," that consisted of two discs that spun in opposite directions from each other. From this, Plateau took another step, adapting Faraday's wheel into a toy he later named the phenakistoscope. So despite the fact that he has taken inspiration from Michael Faraday's invention, he was the one who actually turned it into what it was, which was a toy and this is the reason why he is the one whom can own the title and be named the inventor of the phenakistoscope.
When was it invented
Plateau called this device of 1832 the Phenakistiscope.
The Invention in Society
In the 18th century, religion was central to the majority of people's lives. People married young and had many children, and the vast majority of women stayed at home while men worked; children were also considered to be a lot more well behaved.
Upon the invention and release of the Phenakistoscope in 1841, the toy was one of the most successful illusion toys out there.
The difference between the two types of Phenakistoscope
Phenakistoscopes which used disks:
The phenakistoscope consisted of two discs mounted on the same axis. The first disc had slots around the edge, and the second contained drawings of successive action, drawn around the disc in concentric circles. Unlike Faraday's Wheel, whose pair of discs spun in opposite directions, a phenakistoscope's discs spin together in the same direction. When viewed in a mirror through the first disc's slots, the pictures on the second disc will appear to move.
Phenakistoscopes which used mirrors:
Faraday's Wheel
The disks on his phenakistoscope span in two different directions unlike the phenakistoscope's disks span together, in the same direction.
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