Early Optical Toys

Zoetrope-

A Zoetrope is made up of a sequence of drawings or pictures spinning in a continuous circle drum to give the illusion that the pictures are one moving image. When I did my own zoetrope, it worked well and we can see that the images look like they are moving.  

Praxinoscope- 

A praxinoscope is made up of a strip of paper with separate images drawn on each section that, like a Zoetrope, gives the illusion that the images are moving when the device is spun. In mine, you can see that the image looks as if it is changing colour, but in reality, it is different images passing through as it spins. 

Thaumatrope- 

A Thaumatrope is made up of a disk with different pictures on each side that relate to each other and two pieces of string. Spinning the string makes the disk spin, giving the illusion that the two pictures are one. Such as the people and the desk in mine, when spun fast enough, it looks as if the people are sitting at the desk rather than separate images.