Praxinoscope



Praxinoscope


What is a Praxinoscope?

The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. The Praxinoscope is a typical optical toy from the 19th century. 
A Praxinoscope has mirrors in the middle with frames at the side that’s been placed inside a shallow outer cylinder, to see the movement of the animation you have to spin it and look at the mirrors. The number of mirrors are actually equal to the number of pictures so the images of pictures are viewed in the mirrors.
The reflected pictures gives an illusion of moving pictures, when the outer cylinder rotates.

 Below shows how the mirror is placed.



How does it work?
It consists of a cylinder and a strip of paper showing twelve frames for animation. As the cylinder rotates, stationary mirrors in the centre reveal a ‘single image’ in motion.

Who invented it and when?
The Praxinoscope was invented in 1876 by Charles-Émile Reynaud (1844-1918), a Paris science teacher, who marked all his examples ‘E.R.’. The toy became a great commercial success and won recognition at the great exhibitions of the period.

Why was this better than the Zoetrope?
The Praxinoscope improved on the Zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so that the reflections of the pictures appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, with a brighter and less distorted picture than the Zoetrope offered.

 How was it developed into the Théâtre Optique?
In 1889 Reynaud developed the Théâtre Optique, an improved version capable of projecting images on a screen from a longer roll of pictures. This allowed him to show hand-drawn animated cartoons to larger audiences, but it was soon eclipsed in popularity by the photographic film projector of the Lumière brothers.

 What is the Théâtre Optique? 
The Théâtre Optique (Optical Theatre) was an animated moving picture system invented by Émile Reynaud and patented in 1888.



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