What is zoopaxiscope?

Zoopaxiscope is a design device for very short movies and movies. Many historians consider this to be the first real film projector, and although zoopaxiscope has long been a dead device, the basic idea can be seen in many modern projectors and animation techniques. Museums around the world have several examples of equipment used with zoopaxiscopes, with one museum largely intact zoopaxiscope. Muybridge was born in Britain, although he spent most of his life in California, where he dealt with some colorful adventures when he did not burn and invented. Zoopaxiscope exist two basic parts; Housece projector and discs that fit into it. Like modern projectors, Zoopaxiscope had a lamp, a lens and an adjustable shutter that was used to focus the image. Glass discs had a number of images along their edges.

For the use of zoopaxiscope, the disk is mounted on the device and then rotated. As the disk turns, the pictures are printed. WhenThe disc is turned at the right speed, the images seem to move and illustrate the same basic principle that is used to create modern films. The length of the film is, of course, seriously limited by the diameter of the disk, so zoopaxiscope films are very short by nature.

The earliest films were created by painting images directly on the glass. Later films were made with photographs printed on the surface and colored movies were made by hand coloring of glass. Muybridge used his zoopaxiscope to illustrate many of the principles of animal movement, another of his passions. One famous film Zoopaxiscope shows a series of photographs of racing horses in motion. Muybridge used a film to prove that at one point all legs of the racing horse are in reality. These photos are now in the collections of Stanford University.

If you are curious, the first show zoopaxiscope was in the house Leland Stanford in Palo Alto in KaLifornii. If you are considering Zoopaxiscope as the first film projector, it was also the first film show. The 1879 audience probably had no idea that Zoopaxiscope inspired technology that would eventually give birth to a global industry worth more than billions of dollars.