OUAN05 - Understanding - Phenakistoscope (1841)

The Phenakistoscope

The phenakistoscope was an early animation device, invented in the early to mid 19th century following on from the invention of the thaumatrope from several years prior. It consists of a spinning disk that features sequential images that when spun, creates the illusion of motion. Similar to the thaumatrope, this also utilises the idea of the persistence of vision principle.

The idea for the phenakistoscope was first established by a Belgian man named, Joseph Plateau. Plateau planned the invention of the phenakistoscope in 1839 and invented it for real in 1841. However, later in the same year, an Austrian named Simon Von Stampfer invented a similar machine named the stroboscopic disk. Phenakistoscopes work in a much more complex manner compared to that of the thaumatrope. It consists of a disk attached to a vertical handle, around the outside of the disk is a series of sequential images showing the phases of the animation. The scanning of the slits that are equally spaced makes it so the images look like they are blurred together to form one moving image, as oppose to many individual still images. A similar, variant of the phenakistoscope is where there are infact two disks, one with slits and one with images naked the zoetrope.

The advancement made between the thaumatrope and the phenakistoscope was vital in the exploration of moving images. Unlike the thaumatrope the phenakistoscope uses many images to create movement, despite it being a repeating series it displays the illusion of motion nonetheless, something that the thaumatrope didn't quite manage to do, although it was the first step and impressive at the time no doubt.