ZOETROPE
or, the Wheel of Life: turn briskly and look through the slits
Flick the drum sideways with mouse or finger, or wind the brass crank and let go for a steady turn. ← → add spin, Space brakes.
Twelve blank frames. Scribble a figure in the first, then move it a little in each of the next; the ghost of the frame before shows through to guide the hand. The slits will squeeze it to half its width, so draw wide.
Why it lives
The slits are shutters: each one shows the eye the far wall for an instant and then hides it again. That instant is too brief for the moving drawing to smear, so every glimpse arrives sharp and standing still. Twelve such glimpses pass in each turn, and the eye, which keeps a picture for about a tenth of a second, joins them into one living figure.
Described by William George Horner in 1834 as the Dædaleum; sold to parlours from 1867 as the Zoetrope. Lift the lid, and the shutters go with it.