Praxinoscope

This is by far the most complicated animation device we have yet looked at. Continuing with the trend of first explaining the etymology of the name, the praxinoscope means “action viewer” in greek. It was invented in France by Charles-Emile Reynaud in 1877 nearly 50 years after the zoetrope. The general design is similar to the Zoetrope, it has an outside drum with the animation frames drawn on the inside. The difference is that instead of slits, the praxinoscope has a series of mirrors in the middle in the shape of a box with a plus sign. It worked the same ways as all the previous animation devices we’ve looked at, the mirrors reflect image and the configuration of the mirrors prevents the blurring of the image. Two years later Reynaud created a projecting  praxinoscope by having the outer barrel transparent and shining a light through that reflected off the mirror and on to a projection screen. This was our last in the series of animation devices, maybe one day we will take a look at Edison’s kinetoscope. Click on the picture below to see a praxinoscope in action, in is quite impressive.