The Phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer")
The website, Exhibit of Optical Toys, Is a website run by Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman. It is an entire collection of pre-20th century optical and illusionary devices and toys. On the 'home' page, there are links to the gallery, archives, 'about', art, etcetera.
The overall layout of the page is fairly simple and plain. There isn't much colour, or anything much to distract from the white background. However, I do feel that that this does add a certain professional charm... and that without any colour used in the background, my eye was automatically drawn to the few sections of colour that there were; the illusion gallery which the author provided. Though it is not the most professional or effective tactic, it was still somewhat successful in directing my eye.
After looking through the many links of different optical toys, I had finally decided on one that I liked. I chose the phenakistoscope, )also known as the spindle viewer. It was first introduced in 1832, by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons. The phenakistoscope uses the persistence of motion to create the illusion of motion. The phenakistoscope consisted of two discs mounted on the same axis. It was quite successful for two years, until William George Horner invented the zoetrope, which could be viewed by more than one person at a time and did not require a viewing mirror. I chose this toy over the others, because it actually reminded me of a toy I had myself, at one point in time. I thought it would be interesting to read a bit up on it, and to understand the mechanics.
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