William Horner

William Horner created the zoetrope in the year 1834 which was based on Joseph Plateau's phenakistoscope but was more convenient as it did not require a viewing mirror and allowed more than one person to use it at the same time.

The zoetrope was originally called the 'Daedalum' which meant "the wheel of the Devil". It's the third major optical toy after the thaumatrope and phenakistoscope which use the principle of persistence of vision to produce a motion.


The zoetrope has a drum with an open top which is supported on a central axis. A series of hand drawn pictures are drawn on strips of paper that are stuck on the inside of the drum and slots are cut at equal distances around the outer surface of the drum, just above the pictures. The drum is spun to create the illusion of motion. The faster the drum spins, the smoother the progression of the images. A small animation can be seen through the gaps of the zoetrope and because of the way it's made, more than one person can view it at the same time.



The slits in the zoetrope are all within equal distance of each other which cuts of vision for around a fraction of a second. The images that are drawn on the inside of the drum are slightly different from the one drawn before it. When the drum spins, there is an illusion that the images are moving due to persistence of vision and the little slits act as small pauses between the pictures to show that it is moving.



In present times, the zoetrope has inspired people to create 3 dimensional zoetropes which use strobe lighting as substitutes for viewing slits as they act as a shutter that synchronises with the spinning platform.




Source(s):
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit10.htm
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/modern_zoetropes.html