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.