Zoetrope animation

Pre-cinema animation device

For other uses, see Zoetrope (disambiguation).

A zoetrope is a pre-film animation device that produces the illusion of motion, by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion.

A zoetrope is a cylindrical variant of the phénakisticope, an apparatus suggested after the stroboscopic discs were introduced in 1833. The definitive version of the zoetrope, with replaceable film picture film strips, was introduced as a toy by Milton Bradley in 1866 and became very successful.

Etymology

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The name zoetrope was composed from the Greek root words ζωή zoe, "life" and τρόπος tropos, "turning" as a translation of "wheel of life". The term soetrope was coined by inventor William E.

Lincoln.^[1]

Technology

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The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with cuts vertically in the sides.

When was the zoetrope invented

On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the cuts at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits