Praxinoscope
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The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. 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.
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.
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[edit] 20th century revival
A 20th century adaptation of the praxinoscope were Red Raven Magic Mirror and records introduced, 1956[1] circa, in the USA. When the special 78 rpm children's picture records are played the animation images printed around the paper label animate. The mirror surfaced carousel sits on the turntable's spindle, reflecting the animation in such a way that while the record plays one gets to see an endlessly repeating animated cartoon. Later, 33⅓ rpm vinyl records with animation on the labels were also produced. In the sixties similar devices were in introduced in Europe with different names (Teddy in France and Netherlands, Mamil Moviton in Italy, etc.).
[edit] Etymology
The word praxinoscope translates roughly as "action viewer", from the Greek roots πραξι- (confer πρᾶξις "action") and scop- (confer σκοπός "watcher").
[edit] See also
- Electrotachyscope
- Episcotister
- Flip book
- Kinetoscope
- Phenakistoscope
- Strobe light
- Tachometer
- Thaumatrope
- Zoetrope
- Zoopraxiscope
