Zoetrope Optical Toy

Zoetrope with 12 slots with metal drum on turned wood base with 6 double-sided black and white bands signed GC for Georges Carette. The zoetrope is an optical toy invented simultaneously in 1834 by William George Horner and Simon Stampfer. Based on retinal persistence and the phi effect, the zoetrope gives the illusion of movement of a drawn character. A drum pierced with ten to twelve slots on its upper half houses inside a strip of drawings breaking down a cyclical movement. The drum is fixed on an axle at its lower base, which allows it to rotate. We perceive the movements of the animated sequences in a loop by watching them through the slits during the rotation. Retinal persistence connects each drawing to the other, giving the illusion of continuity, but the obturation caused by the passage of the solid parts of the drum causes the erasure of this retinal persistence, which allows perception one after the other drawn vignettes. These illusions, visual and psychological, are the basis of the invention of cinema. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas named their production company, American Zoetrope (Zoetrope Studios), in homage to this machine which is at the origin of Thomas Edison's research, which led in 1891 to the creation of the first camera

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