Zoopraxiscope

The grandfather of the movie projector, the Zoopraxiscope was an early device for viewing moving pictures adapted by photographic genius (and murderer) Eadweard Muybridge from the simpler phenakistiscope, the stroboscopic discs that provide an illusion of simple animation. A Zoopraxiscope holds 16” glass disks, which have small, sequential images (frames) printed then hand-colored around the edges. Light is projected through these images while the disk is spun via a hand crank, and a shutter rapidly opens and closes to give the impression of a fluid moving image.