phenakistoscope
(fɛnəˈkɪstəskəʊp)
Also phenakistiscope.
[mod. f. Gr. ϕενακιστ-ής cheat, impostor, f. ϕενακίζ-ειν to cheat, trick + -scope.]
A scientific toy, consisting of a disk with figures upon it arranged radially, representing a moving object in successive positions; on turning it round rapidly, and viewing the figures through a fixed slit (or their reflexions in a mirror through radial slits in the disk itself), the persistence of the successive visual images produces the impression of actual motion. Hence phenakistoˈscopic a., resembling or reminiscent of a phenakistoscope.
| 1834 Edin. Rev. LIX. 160 The ingenious improver of that beautiful instrument called the Phenakistoscope. 1838 Brewster in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XVI. 512/2 The phenakistoscope..was, we believe originally invented by Dr. Roget, and improved by M. Plateau, at Brussels, and Mr. Faraday. 1882 Life J. C. Maxwell ii. 36 A scientific toy..called by the names phenakistoscope, stroboscope or magic disc. 1934 V. M. Yeates Winged Victory 162 It was gone, and beyond a phenakistoscopic veil he saw the flying moons and spheres caught in webs and dragged away. 1955 Times 18 July 3/4 The exhibition takes us back to beyond the origins of the cinema proper, to Plateau's Phénakistiscope, in which pictures, mounted on the inside of a circular revolving drum and viewed through slits, first created the illusion of continuous movement. 1961 Glasgow Herald 13 July 6/4 The thaumatrope, the phenakistiscope, the zoetrope, and the tachyscope..are the steps by which the modern cinema climbed to its present perfection. 1978 Radio Times 4–10 Mar. 4/4 A phenakistoscope and other Victorian toys. |