The praxinoscope held to the idea of a box, cylindrical and lidless, and pivoted in the centre so that it turned. The strip of drawings, and the plan of placing them inside of the box—two features of the zootrope—were both retained. But instead of looking at the drawings through apertures in the box rim, they were observed by their reflections in mirrors placed on an inner section or drum. The mirrors were the same in number as the drawings and turned with the rest of the apparatus. The mirrors were placed on the drum—the all-important point in the construction of the praxinoscope—half-way between the centre and the inner side of the rim of the box. As the drawings were placed here, the eye, looking over the rim of the box, viewed their reflections in the mirrors. But the actual place of a reflection was the same distance back of the surface of a mirror that a drawing was in front of it; namely, at the dead centre of the rotating cylinder. It was here, at this quiet point, that it was possible to see the changing images of the succession of graduated drawings blending to give the illusion of motion.
Reynaud next fixed his praxinoscope with improvements that made the characters in his drawings appear to be going through a performance on a miniature stage. He called his new contrivance the theatre praxinoscope. This new mechanism, was fixed in a box before which was placed a mask-like section to represent a proscenium. Another addition in front of this had a rectangular peep-hole and small cut-out units of stage scenery that were reflected on the surface of a glass inserted into the proscenium opening.
THE THEATRE PRAXINOSCOPE.
Not satisfied with this toy theatre, Reynaud’s next step was to combine with the praxinoscope, condensers, lenses, and an illuminant with which to project the images on a screen, so that spectators in an auditorium could see the illusion. A more intricate mechanism, again, was later devised by Reynaud. This was his optical theatre in which there was used an endless band of graduated drawings depicting a rather long pantomimic story. It, of course, was an enlargement of the idea of the simple early form of praxinoscope with its strip of paper containing the drawings. But this optical theatre had such a complication of mirrors and lenses that the projected light reached the screen somewhat diminished in illuminating power, and the pictures were consequently dimmed.
PROJECTION PRAXINOSCOPE.
(After picture in La Nature, 1882.)
From the time of the invention of the thaumatrope in 1826, and throughout the period when the few typical machines noted above were in use, drawings only in graduated and related series, were applied in the production of the illusion of movement.
