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A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in Victorian times
Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
. 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
Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which even nanoseconds of exposure to an image result in milliseconds of reaction from the retina to the optic nerves....
.

The invention of the thaumatrope is usually credited to Peter Mark Roget, who used one to demonstrate persistence of vision to the Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians of London was the first medical institution in England to receive a Royal Charter. It was founded in 1518 and is one of the most active of all medical professional organisations....
 in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 in 1824.






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A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in Victorian times
Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
. 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
Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which even nanoseconds of exposure to an image result in milliseconds of reaction from the retina to the optic nerves....
.

The invention of the thaumatrope is usually credited to Peter Mark Roget, who used one to demonstrate persistence of vision to the Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians of London was the first medical institution in England to receive a Royal Charter. It was founded in 1518 and is one of the most active of all medical professional organisations....
 in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 in 1824. He based his invention on ideas of the astronomer
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 John Herschel
John Herschel

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet Royal Guelphic Order, Fellow of the Royal Society was an England mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work....
 and the geologist
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
 William Henry Fitton
William Henry Fitton

William Henry Fitton was an Ireland geologyFitton was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Dublin in that city. He gained the senior scholarship in 1798, and graduated in the following year....
, and some sources attribute the actual invention to Fitton rather than Paris. Others claim that Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage, Royal Society was an England mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer....
 was the inventor.

Examples of common thaumatrope pictures include a bare tree on one side of the disk, and its leaves on the other, or a bird on one side and a cage on the other. They often also included riddles or short poems, with one line on each side.

Thaumatropes were one of a number of simple, mechanical optical toys that used persistence of vision. They are recognised as important antecedents of cinematography
Cinematography

Cinematography , is the making of Stage lighting and camera choices when recording photographic s for the film. It is closely related to the art of photography....
 and in particular of 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....
.

The coined name translates roughly as "wonder turner" in modern Greek.

Thaumatropes in Popular Culture


In the Tim Burton
Tim Burton

Tim Burton is an award-winning Film Director and Film Producer. Burton was born in Burbank, California, the first of two sons to Bill Burton and Jean Erickson....
 film Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow (film)

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 in film period piece horror film directed by Tim Burton, interpreting the legend of The Headless Horseman and based upon the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow....
, the thaumatrope is on a necklace which Johnny Depp's
Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp is an American actor known for his portrayals of offbeat, eccentric characters such as Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and Edward Scissorhands....
 character Ichabod Crane
Ichabod Crane

Ichabod Crane is a fictional character in Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, first published in 1820. According to a notation by Irving, the character of Ichabod Crane was based on a schoolteacher named Jesse Merwin, whom Irving befriended in Kinderhook, New York in 1809....
 carries with him.

In the film The Prestige
The Prestige (film)

The Prestige is a 2006 in film period piece film directed by Christopher Nolan, with a screenplay adapted from Christopher Priest 's 1995 in literature World Fantasy Award for Best Novel-winning The Prestige....
, Michael Caine
Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine Order of the British Empire , is a two-time Academy Award and multiple BAFTA Award and Golden Globe winning England film actor who has appeared in more than one hundred films....
's character repeatedly uses a thaumatrope as a way of explaining persistence of vision
Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which even nanoseconds of exposure to an image result in milliseconds of reaction from the retina to the optic nerves....
.

Louis XIV's
Louis XIV (band)

History...
 music video for "Guilt by Association" was inspired by thaumatrope. The video is edited in a way that even if only one member is on the screen, the other can be seen by persistence of vision.

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....
  • 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....
  • Praxinoscope
    Praxinoscope

    The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-?mile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder....
  • 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....
  • 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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