Optical Toy: PHENAKISTOSCOPE 1840s Joseph Plateau

Moving images from the amazing optical toy, the Phenakistoscope, created in Belgium, circa 1841 by Joseph Plateau. Exceptional bizarre and surreal optical illusions created by a device that was a precursor to motion pictures at at the turn-of-the-century. A relatively simple device that employs the spinning of a flat plate covered with a series of similar images, that when spun create "moving pictures" via the connection between the eye and the brain know as

the persistence of vision. Click here for more.

 

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