Understanding: The Phenakistoscope

The Phenakistoscope was an animation device that employed the principle of persistence of vision to create the illusion of movement through a series of sequential images. The images were drawn onto a disk at certain intervals and at a certain distance from the centre and small cuts are made at the same intervals of the images only closer to the centre. A handle was attached to the disk and held up to mirror. As the wheel spun, the viewer would look through the slots at the images, which would only become visible through the relevant slot giving the illusion of movement.

The Phenakistscope was invented by two different people independent of each other, Plateau of Belgium and Von Stampfer of Austria. The fact that the same invention was created at the same time in two different parts of the world suggests that animation was not only becoming more popular but that the development of animation and the process that people employed was also being developed and stretched and experimented with. 

This was a big step forward for animation, as it gave an insight into how persistence of vision could be used to its full potential to create smoother illusions of movement.