What is a zoopraxiscope?
Question: What is a Zoopraxiscope?
Answer:The first machine patented in the United States that showed animated pictures or movies was a device called the zoopraxiscope. Patented in 1867 by William Lincoln, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit in the zoopraxiscope and is a far cry from motion pictures as we know it today. A zoopraxiscope is an early device for displaying motion pictures created by photographic pioneer, Eadweard Muybridge (April 1830-May1904), an English photographer who spent most of his time in the United States. He is primarily known for his important pioneering work in animal locomotion.
The stop motion images were initially printed on glass, as silhouettes. A second series of discs, made 1892-1894 used outlined drawings printed onto the discs photographically, then colored by hand. The device appears to have been one of the primary inspirations for Thomas Edison and WIlliam Dickinson’s kinetoscope, the first commercial film exhibition system.
The principle of "persistance of Vision" maintains that a visual imprint remains on the brain for a short period after the object is withdrawn from view. Still photography and optical toys were the first tools to fully exploit the potential for creating motion pictures following this principle.
The zoopraxiscope is not quite the simple device that it has been described to be. Firstly, there are potential complexities of the projected image. Normal images would appear squashed up on the screen, requiring the pictures used to be stretched out in width to compensate.
Then there is the fact that Muybridge used differing numbers of sequences in his discs, and the original black and white 16 inch discs were shown with a series of separate slotted shutter discs, several of which have survived.
In 1892, Muybridge simplified the zoopraxiscope so that it operated with a single shutter, and in 1893 opened the Zoopraxigraphical Hall on the Midway of the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago for presentations using the zoopraxiscope. However, the machine was never a commercial success.
On May 1904, Edweard Muybridge died leaving his zoopraxiscope, glass pgotographs and plates to the Mayor, Burgesses and Corporation of Kingston Upon Thames on trust until Kingston’s planned new museum was finished.
A zoopraxiscope is a projection device for very short films and movies. Many historians consider it the first true movie projector, and although the zoopraxiscope is a long-dead device, the basic idea can be seen in many modern projectors and animation techniques. Several examples of the equipment used with zoopraxiscopes are on display at museums around the world, with one museum having a largely intact zoopraxiscope. The device was invented in 1879 by Eadweard Muybridge, one of the early pioneers of photography. Muybridge was born in Britain, although he spent much of his life in California, where he engaged in some colorful adventures when he was not photographing and inventing. There are two basic parts to a zoopraxiscope; the projector housing and the discs which fit into it. Much like modern projectors, the zoopraxiscope had a lamp, a lens, and an adjustable shutter which was used to focus the picture. The glass discs had a series of frames printed along their margins. To use a z
