Thaumatrope

Manufacturer	Unknown
Place	Great Britain
Date	ca. 1840
Register	00932

The thaumatrope was an optical toy that was invented by the English doctor John Ayrton Paris around 1824, based on the ideas of the astronomer John Herschel and the geologist William Henry Fitton. It was a very simple visual game, which used the effect of persistence of vision or retinal persistence. It consisted of a cardboard disk or rectangle, which had a drawing painted on one side and another different, but complementary, drawing on the other side (for example: a cage and a bird). By rapidly rotating this disk on its axis, the illusion of seeing the two images in one was obtained (for example: the bird in the cage). The explanation is none other than when rapidly rotating the cardboard, the two images overlap in our brain, due to the effect of the persistence of vision. This toy was marketed with some success during the Victorian era.

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