The Projection-Praxinoscope
By Christelle Odoux on Saturday, November 6 2010, 08:55 - Inventions - Permalink
An optical toy invented by Emile Reynaud in 1880, the Projection-Praxinoscope can project moving characters against a fixed background on a screen.
Often confused with the Optical Theater, the Projection-Praxinoscope is the latest evolution towards the Optical Theatre but it still offers to the viewer only the vision of a cyclical movement.
The projection is obtained by a slightly modified magic lantern since it uses one light source in a housing in which are mounted two optical systems. The first one for the projection of the fixed decor, lithographed on paper, and the second one for the projection of the animated characters by the cylinder of mirrors. The characters are lithographed on 12 glass plates connected together by pieces of cloth. An opaque black contour surrounding the characters so that they stand out perfectly against the projected background.
The characters are arranged upside down into the openwork drum. Finally, the strips of glass and the mirrors are tilted to guide the light beam to the screen.
