In The Forgotten Kaleidoscope Craze in Victorian England, Farman mentions how technologies go through this journey of “early adoption to mass adoption to domestication”. And in many ways, that is what we see happening every day around us. However, Farman also mentions a few other inventions that followed the kaleidoscope, and one of them being the phenakistiscope.
The phenakistoscope showed similarities with the kaleidoscope, not in terms of outcome, material and production, but in the sense of how it was a creation of “new technology” that combined a variety of creations, ideas, theories and previous inventions.
In 1832, Joseph Plateau and his sons launched to the public, what is seen above, the phenakistiscope. This was the very first device that portrayed an illusion of a continues flow of motion. Similarly to any of today’s technological advancements, when one gadget inspires the next, Plateau was able to combine the works of scientists and inventions that were created before his. He was influenced and helped by the primary works of Greek mathematician Euclid on the motion principle, Newton’s work that followed after that and Michael Faraday’s Wheel, which basically gave him the idea behind the construct of his invention, seen below.
The Phenakistisope was consisted of two disks basically aligned one on top of the other or on the same surface. The first disk one saw, was normally blank or as it later appeared with smaller decorations on it, had cuts or slots around its perimeter, and the second disk had small drawings in continuous action (imagine a short film made out of consecutive photos) drawn around the surface each in its own “designated” area. When one would hold the phenakistiscope in the mirror (as is seen in the first picture), he or she would look through the cuts of the first disk, the drawing of the second disc would create an illusion of movement.
Finally, like with the Kaleidoscope, the phenakistiscope became a great success and gained popularity in the market. But of course, like with any other invention and technological advancement, the phenakistiscope was shortly replaced with a newer, better version of it known as the Zoetrope created by William George Horner.
Bibliography
Phenakistoscope, courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit07.htm.Cotterill,
Chris. “Animation Geek.” Early Pioneer: Joseph Plateau, 1 Jan. 1970, animationgeek.blogspot.com/2011/01/early-pioneer-joseph-plateau.html.
“Phenakistiscope.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenakistiscope.
