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The Magic Lantern
Circa 1650 The "Magic Lantern" is an early for of the projector. It consisted of a translucent oil painting, a simple lens, and a candle or oil lamp. It was often used to project frightening images to convince people they were witnessing the supernatural. The origin of the magic lantern is debated, but in the 15th century the Venetian inventorGiovanni Fontana published an illustration of a device which projected the image of a demon in his Liber Instrumentorum. The earliest known actual mag -
Thaumatrope
The invention of the Thaumatrope has often been credited to Sir John Herschel. Although, John A. Paris, a well-known London physicist, who made this toy popular. Thaumatropes were the first of many optical toys, simple devices that continued to provide animated entertainment until the development of modern cinema. -
Phenakitsoscope
Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons introduced the phenakistoscope in 1832. It was also known as the "spindle viewer". (The same thing was actually independently invented by Simon Von Stampfer in the same year.) It uses the persistence of motion principle to create an illusion of motion. 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 conc -
Flip Books
First patented in the U.S. by Henry Van Hovenbergh of Elizabeth, New Jersey, on May 16, 1882. Early flip books consisted of simple drawings stacked in sequential stages of movement with a single staple binding. When you flipped the pages quickly, they would create a moving image. Many of these were put in cereals as "the prize inside". -
Zoetrope
The earliest known zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the inventor Ting Huan.Ting Huan's device, driven by convection, hung over a lamp and was called chao hua chich kuan (the pipe which makes fantasies appear).The rising air turned vanes at the top, from which translucent paper ormica panels hung. When the device was spun at the right speed, pictures painted on the panels would appear to move.The praxinoscope was an improvement on the zoetrope that became popular toward
