Phenakistoscope

Manufacturer	Alphonse Girou
Name	Phenakisticope
Place	France
Date	after 1834
Registre	00969

Invented in 1832 by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau to calculate the persistence of human vision, the phenakistoscope, from drawings placed on the perimeter of a cardboard disk that represent a movement broken down, allowed recompose this movement.The key element was the obturator disk, that is, a disk with small holes around the perimeter, as many as there were images. By holding the disk by the handle and spinning it at high speed in front of a mirror, the moving images were observed through the holes in the shutter. Thanks to the persistence of human vision, when the shutter covers the view of the drawings, our brain keeps the observed image dormant until we can see the next drawing. This gadget, initially created for a scientific purpose, was sold and marketed with great success. One of the first to do so was Alphonse Giroux, who in 1833 applied for a licence for Le Phénakisticope and a set of twelve disks.

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