Holding a phenakistoscope before a mirror and ready to twirl it around.
The phenakistoscope has some rough resemblance in its plan to a motion-picture projector—the cycle of slightly different drawings represents the film with its sequence of tiny pictures; the slots in the disk by which the drawings are viewed in the mirror correspond to the open sections of the revolving shutter; while the solid portions of the disk answer to the opaque parts of the shutter.
As it only was possible in the phenakistoscope that one person at a time could view conveniently the reflected pictures, the attempt was made to arrange it for projection. A lens was added with a light and mirrors so that a number of people could see its operation at the same time. In another form the pictures were placed on a glass disk which was made to rotate back of a magic-lantern objective.
PHENAKISTOSCOPE COMBINED WITH A MAGIC-LANTERN.
When the number of slots in a phenakistoscope correspond to the number of drawings in the cycle, the different figures of the cycle are in action but they do not move from the place where they are depicted. Only their limbs, if it is an action in which these parts are brought into play, are in movement. But if there is one slot more and the disk turned in the proper direction, the row of drawings will appear to be going around a circle. This is particularly adapted to series of running animals.
PHENAKISTOSCOPE WITH A CYCLE OF DRAWINGS TO SHOW A DOG IN MOVEMENT.
Another method of giving the semblance of motion to a series of progressive drawings, soon devised after the invention of the phenakistoscope, was the zootrope, or wheel of life. It embodied the idea, too, of a rapidly moving opaque flat portion with a row of slots passing between the eye and the drawings.