So much for what concerns Mr. Stampfer. One sees that the patent above mentioned was not obtained until May 7, 1833. The professor has not been able to place his first publication prior to that time. But, on the other hand, the letter which gives first description of my Fantascope is dated January 20, 1832. Thus my first publication is over a year before that of Mr. Stampfer. As for the time when I first got the idea for this instrument, the idea to which I was also led by the paper of Mr. Faraday, it is difficult for me to be precise; however, the drawing which accompanies that letter proved that I had already at that time finished the first disk and when I recall my labor, the difficulties which I encountered in the first construction and the extreme care which I had given to it, I believe that I can place the invention at about the same time, that is to say, as Mr. Stampfer, in the month of December, 1832.
Roget also may be considered a pioneer in this field. In 1834 he wrote that Faraday’s writing had called again to his attention wheel devices and that in the Spring of 1831 he had constructed several “which I showed to many of my friends,” he wrote, “but in consequence of occupations and cares of a more serious kind I did not publish any account of this invention which was last year reproduced on the continent.”
From 1835 until 1843 Plateau continued his work and teaching at the University of Liége in his capacity of professor of experimental physics, taking time off to be married in 1840 to Fanny Clavareau. But all the while the man who had helped to bring visual education and entertainment to millions who were to come after him was gradually going blind. He was a popular teacher, despite his handicap.
From 1844, when his vision was entirely gone, Plateau worked continually at home, having set up there a laboratory in which friends and relatives acted as his assistants. Plateau himself gave all the instructions to his aids; they reported to him every detail of the results of the experiments and he then dictated the notes covering the work, relying on a remarkable memory. Later the notes would be revised for publication. Plateau supplied the imagination and piercing intelligence; his helpers supplied the eyes and were the reporters. Plateau was the editor. Scientific critics have held that he not only overcame his handicap but actually did better work.
In 1849 Plateau published in the Bulletin of the Royal Academy of Belgium further studies on revolving disks and the use of a shutter. This time he also treated the effects when colored, and vari-colored disks are used. The system was similar to the Anorthoscope. Sixteen images were mounted on the margin of a glass disk. Another disk with four slots was revolved four times as swiftly. A number of spectators could see the effect at the same time. The chief illusion was a devil blowing up a fire. Edison’s peep-show film machine of 1891 also had a revolving disk with four slots.
The last time Plateau wrote for publication directly on the motion picture machine was in 1852, 20 years after his invention. Once more he had to lash back at critics, this time at those who said he stole not from another of his own time but from the ancient Romans.
In the May 30, 1852 issue of Cosmos, a French weekly review of science, edited by Abbé Moigno, comments were made about an article written by one Dr. Sinsteden in the German science review, Annalen der Physik und Chemie, which asserted that Lucretius in the fourth book of De Rerum Natura described the Fantascope or Phénakisticope invented by Plateau “with such exactitude that, if it were not for the long series of theoretical considerations and practical experiments that led the Belgian scientist to arrive at the construction of the apparatus one would suppose that he took the idea from the Roman philosopher.”
To back up the position, the text from Lucretius was quoted in Latin and French and Abbé Moigno made another comment, “What is the effect of that but the Phénakisticope—could Lucretius have described it in terms more precise or more clear?”
Plateau replied in the issue of July 25 of the same year and answered for all time the assertion that Lucretius had invented the first motion picture machine many hundreds of years before.
Moigno realized his mistake and prefaced Plateau’s words with an apology, “We are always ready to retract the errors which we print. Our learned friend, Plateau, has written us today about a translation written from a preconceived idea. He has a hundred reasons for complaint.”