JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
This short article in the November 16, 1882 issue of Nature reports on the invention of the “lampascope” by Emile Reynaud. Reynaud (1844-1918) builds on his own invention of the praxinoscope (1878) which in turn had continued earlier ideas of the zoetrope and phenakistiscope–all of which are very early animation devices and considered a part of prehistoric film history–allowing a projection of the moving images, and turning the personal viewing experience into a shared one. Reynaud worked on the invention through the decade, making adjustments and improvements, leading to his first public demonstration of the device in his Theatre Optique in 1892, which is just at the beginning of the filmed motion picture history. It was an elegant idea, and certainly for the time it would have been a major attraction and popular “philosophical toy”.
