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The praxinoscope was an animation
Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of Motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways....
 device, the successor to the zoetrope
Zoetrope

A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides....
. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud
Charles-Émile Reynaud

Charles-?mile Reynaud was a France science teacher, responsible for the first animation films.Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Th??tre Optique in December 1888, and on October 28 1892 he projected the first animated film, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Mus?e Gr?vin in Paris....
. 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.






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The praxinoscope was an animation
Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of Motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways....
 device, the successor to the zoetrope
Zoetrope

A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides....
. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud
Charles-Émile Reynaud

Charles-?mile Reynaud was a France science teacher, responsible for the first animation films.Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Th??tre Optique in December 1888, and on October 28 1892 he projected the first animated film, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Mus?e Gr?vin in Paris....
. 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
Théâtre Optique

The Th??tre Optique was a moving picture show presented by Charles-?mile Reynaud in 1892. It was the first presentation of projected moving images to an audience, predating Auguste and Louis Lumi?re's first public performance by three years....
, an improved version capable of projecting images on a screen from a longer roll of pictures. This allowed him to show hand-drawn animated cartoon
Cartoon

The word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time.The original meaning was in fine art, and there cartoon meant a preparatory drawing for a piece of art such as a painting or tapestry....
s to larger audiences, but it was soon eclipsed in popularity by the photographic film projector of the Lumière brothers.

A 20th century adaptation of the praxinoscope were Red Raven Magic Mirror and records. The mirror surfaced carousel sits on a spindle in the center of a record player. When the special 78 rpm picture records are played the images printed around the paper label animate. (See Unusual types of gramophone records
Unusual types of gramophone records

The overwhelming majority of records manufactured have been of certain sizes , playback speeds , and appearance . However, since the commercial adoption of the gramophone record, a wide variety of records have also been produced that do not fall into these categories, and they have served a variety of purposes....
)

The word "praxinoscope" comes from Greek roots meaning "action viewer".

See also

  • Electrotachyscope
    Electrotachyscope

    The ?lectrotachyscope is an 1887 invention of Ottomar Ansch?tz of Germany which presents the illusion of motion with transparent serial photographs, chronophotography, arranged on a spinning The Wheel of Fortune or mandala-like glass disc, significant as a technology development in the history of cinema....
  • Episcotister
  • Flip book
    Flip book

    A flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change....
  • Kinetoscope
    Kinetoscope

    The Kinetoscope is an early film exhibition device. Though not a movie projector?it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components?the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it creates the illusi...
  • Phenakistoscope
    Phenakistoscope

    The phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the predecessor of the zoetrope. It was invented in 1831 simultaneously by the Belgium Joseph Plateau and the Austrian Simon von Stampfer....
  • Strobe light
    Strobe light

    Strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope....
  • Tachometer
    Tachometer

    A tachometer is an instrument that measures the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the revolutions per minute on a calibrated analog dial, but digital displays are increasingly common....
  • Thaumatrope
    Thaumatrope

    A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in Victorian era.A disk or card with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image due to persistence of vision....
  • Zoetrope
    Zoetrope

    A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides....
  • Zoopraxiscope
    Zoopraxiscope

    Image:Zoopraxiscope 16485d.gifThe device appears to have been one of the primary inspirations for Thomas Edison and William Kennedy Dickson's Kinetoscope, the first commercial film exhibition system....


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