ABSTRACT
Prior to the invention of film, animation was a curiosity. During the nineteenth century, a number of people in the United States, England, France, and Germany experimented with optical toys that created the illusion of movement. One of the earliest (and simplest) of these devices is the Thaumatrope. The Thaumatrope consists of a disc attached to two strings. An empty cage is drawn on one side of the disc; on the other side is drawn a bird. When the strings are pulled, the disc spins, and the bird appears to be in the cage. Another of these devices is called the Phenakistiscope (Figure 3-1). This device consists of a disc that spins freely around its center on a pencil or a stick. One side of the Phenakistiscope is painted black. A series of images are drawn on the other side of the disc, each image represent-
ing a stage in a movement. There is no beginning and no end to the movement; the disc can be spun endlessly with no break in the movement. Each image is separated from its neighboring image by a slit cut out of the disc at regular intervals. To operate the Phenakistiscope, the viewer holds the disc up to a mirror with the drawings facing the mirror. By spinning the disc and looking through the slits, the drawings appear as a continuous motion rather than as a series of individual pictures.
