In form the zootrope was like a cylindrical lidless box of cardboard. It was pivoted and balanced on a vertical rod so that it could be made to turn easily and very rapidly. The slots were cut around the upper rim of the box. Long strips of paper holding pictures fitted into the box. When one of these strips was put in place, it was so adjusted that any particular drawing of the series could be viewed through a slot of the opposite side. These drawings appeared to be in motion when the zootrope was made to twirl.
THE ZOOTROPE.
This type of optical curiosity, as a matter of priority, is associated with the name of Desvignes, as he obtained a patent for it in England in 1860. Later in 1867, a United States patent was issued for a similar instrument to William Lincoln, of Providence, R. I. He called his device the zoetrope.
ZOETROPE OF WILLIAM LINCOLN.
U.S. Pat. No. 64117, Apr. 23 1867
This cylindrical synthesizing apparatus was sold as a toy for many years. Bands of paper with cycles of drawings of a variety of humorous and entertaining subjects thereon were prepared for use with it.
But the busy inventors were not satisfied with the simple form in which it was first fabricated. Very soon from the zootrope was evolved another optical curiosity that preserved the general cylindrical plan, but made use of the reflective property of a mirror to aid the illusion. This was the praxinoscope of M. Reynaud, of France. He perfected it and adapted its principles to create other forms of rotating mechanisms harmonizing progressive drawings to show movement.
A. REYNAUD’S PRAXINOSCOPE.
B. PLAN OF THE PRAXINOSCOPE.