Zoetrope

What is a Zoetrope?

A Zoetrope is a device that produces a constant loop of film as long as you keep spinning it. It is made up of a cylinder with vertical slits cut in the sides and on the inside there are images that wrap around the inner portion of the cylinder and appear visible through the slits.

How does it work?

A Zoetrope works by spinning the wheel around which causes you to see a different image every split second through the slits with makes it seem the image is moving therefore creating a mini-movie.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this pre-film animation:

• The adavantages is its very cheap and easy to do and it cool to watch
• The disadvantge is its difficult to make

The credit of the invention originally goes to Ding Huan, a chinese engineer around 100 BC. However, The basic drum-like form of the zoetrope was created in 1833 or 1834 by British mathematician William George Horn

Two well known examples are displayed below:

The devil jumping in and out of a hat


Man riding a horse


Here's a videos showing how a Zoetrope works:

Here's another video showing how to make a Zoetrope: