Disc for a phenakistoscope created by Eadweard Muybridge.Simulated mirror view of the above disc.
Reason
A little exercise in animated GIFs. The fixed image of the disc is from the Library of Congress, I just centered the image and tried to remove as much wobble as possible (accepting that this was probably not cut on a high precision machine), and rotated each copy by 360/13 degrees. The mirror simulation is just one variant, check the image page for the others. Proposed extended caption:
The phenakistoscope is one of the first devices to create moving images and a precursor of the zoopraxiscope and, in turn, cinematography. Conceived as a simple disc to be held vertically in front of a mirror and spun around its axis, the subjects appear to be in motion when viewed through the slits of the disc. This disc was created by Eadweard Muybridge in 1893 and differs from the standard format in that the slits are located towards the center of the disc, and not around the perimeter.
Note: The disc belongs to a phenakistoscope, and not to a zoopraxiscope as the description claims, and was probably part of a patent application filed for the zoopraxiscope in 1893, the year he presented his invention at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Neutral Beautiful and well executed and I'd probably support this if I hadn't first seen a bunch of much more bizarre and fascinating phenakistoscope discs (is that what they're called?) in Media Magica which is a video (dvd) of many of these things which was exhibited at ACMI a little while back. I'd love to see more discs scanned and animated like this one. —Pengo16:06, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Strong Support Feantastic; great scan and of course the gifs are wonderful. Pengo - upload it if you can find a better one! Leon21:57, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
SupportComment If this is indeed a phenakistoscope and not a zoopraxiscope disk, then why does the disk itself say "zoopraxiscope"? (On the bottom of the image.) Enuja23:39, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The zoopractiscope, at least what we call a zoopractiscope today, is a precursor to the film projector, which used glass discs with motifs printed on them: [1]. But today's terminology doesn't always work retroactively, for instance the phenakistoscope was also called fantascope (see here for more detail and some nice animations). My guess is that Muybridge did not want to use the word phenakistoscope because it referred to someone else's invention, but instead wanted to draw attention to his own invention. But it's clear that by function this disc here is what we today call a phenakistoscope. ~ trialsanderrors00:15, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Question Will this be a set, then? And if yes, should some or all of the other related images (shown on the image pages) be part of the set? --KFP (talk | contribs) 10:28, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I assume the mirror view is the one to go on the front page. I don't think the others are that relevant. If it were to be promoted as a set then it should contain this one: , but that was never nominated, and the set is incomplete anyway. ~ trialsanderrors18:55, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
, but that was never nominated, and the set is incomplete anyway. ~ trialsanderrors 18:55, 13 April 2007 (UTC)
