Early Pioneer: Joseph Plateau

Who is Joseph Plateau?

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau was a Belgian Physicist (a scientist who is trained in physics). Plateau attended the University of Liege where he went on as a doctor of physical and mathematical scientist in 1829. He did research about the human eye and how it works. He focused on the retina because it lets the eye see colour.

What is Joseph Plateau Famous for?

In 1832, Plateau and his sons introduced the Phenakistoscope which is a spindle viewer. It was also invented independently in the same year by Simon von Stampfer who called his invention a stroboscope. As a famous Pioneer, Plateau had inspirations from other inventor’s work from Michael Faraday and Peter Mark Roget. The invention consisted of two disks that spun in opposite directions from each other. At first it was a toy which was called the Faraday’s wheel until later he named it the Phenakistoscope.

  What is the Phenakistoscope?


 



The Phenikistoscope

The Phenakistoscope is uses the persistence of vision to create an illusion of motion. Although this theory had been recognized by the Greek mathematician Euclid, it wasn’t until 1829 that this principle became firmly established by Plateau. The Phenakistoscope used two discs mounted on the same axis. The first disc had slots around the edge, and the second had drawings of action, drawn around the disc in circles. Unlike Faraday’s wheel, whose pair of discs spun in opposite directions, a Phenakistoscope discs spun together in the same direction.  When viewed in a mirror through the disc’s slots, the pictures on the second disc will appear to move.

The Factors that affected the Phenakistoscope

The factors that affected the Phenakistoscope was that only one person could view at a time, if it was spun to fast the image would become blurry, if it was spun backwards you wouldn’t see a correct moving image, it was only a very basic animation like a couple waltzing and you would have to rely on a mirror. This technology was only popular for 2 years as new technologies were arising which were influenced by the Phenakistoscope but gave a superior result.



How has this information helped me?

This information has helped me to understand the key points of Joseph Plateau and how he and his sons created the Phenakistoscope. I feel that I understand in a clear way how the Phenakistoscope works and how it was made. This pioneer has made a massive impact towards moving image because if he and his sons didn’t make this way of moving image then we may not have developed film and animation the way we have today.

Early Pioneer: William George Horner

Who is William Horner?

William George Horner was a famous pioneer. He was a British Mathematician and published a mode of solving numerical equations of any degree now known as Horner’s degree. 
 

What is William Horner famous for?



The Zoetrope

William Horner invented the Zoetrope in 1834 and he originally called it a Daedalum (wheel of the Devil).  The Zoetrope was based on another pioneers invention which was Plateau's phenakistoscope. Horner's invention strangely became forgotten for nearly thirty years until 1867, when it became patented in England by M. Bradley, and in America by William F. Lincoln.  Lincoln renamed the Daedalum, giving it the name of zoetrope, or wheel of life.

How does the Zoetrope work?

The zoetrope uses the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion.  It works from a simple drum with an open top, supported on a central axis.  A sequence of pictures on strips of paper are placed around the inner bottom of the drum.  Slots are cut at equal distances around the outer surface of the drum, just above where the picture strips were positioned.

To create an illusion of motion, the drum is spun; the faster the rate of spin, the smoother the progression of images.  A viewer can look through the wall of the zoetrope from any point around it, and see a rapid progression of images.  Because of its design, more than one person could use the zoetrope at the same time.  

What are the factors that affected the Zoetrope?

The main factors that affected the Zoetrope from working successfully is if the drum was spun too fast, the viewer would not be able to see the moving image because it would just look like a blur, If the drum was spun backwards, it would not work because it was only made to spin one direction and when spun backwards it would just look rubbish, the image that was shown only lasted about 5 seconds of moving image and the slits were quite hard to look through because they were very thin.

How this information has helped me

Through the whole of my research, this information has helped me to understand the basic Knowledge and understanding of William George Horner.  The information that interests me the most is that how he invented the zoetrope and how you can see a picture moving just through looking in a little slit. In modern days they still use this method of motion picture.