CHAPTER XVIII 



SYNTHETIC RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ELEMENTS 

 OF AN ANALYZED MOVEMENT 



Summary.— Plateau's method; his phcnakistoscope The zootrope ; 

 its applications to the study of horses' paces and their relations to 

 one another— The use of instantaneous photography in con- 

 nection with the zootrope — Muybridge, Anscliutz — Scientific 

 applications of Plateau's method — Points of a good apparatus — 

 Improvements made by different authors — Attempts at construct- 

 ing a chronophotographic projector. 



Although chronophotography represents the suc- 

 cessive attitudes of a moving object, it affords a very 

 different picture from that which is actually seen by 

 the eye when looking at the object itself. 



In each attitude the object appears to be motionless, 

 and movements, which are successively executed, are 

 associated in a series of images, as if they were all 

 being executed at the same moment. 



The images, therefore, appeal rather to the imagina- 

 tion than to the senses. They teach us, it is true, to 

 observe Nature more carefully, and, perhaps, to seek 

 in a moving animal for positions hitherto unnoticed. 



This education of the eye may, however, be rendered 

 still more complete if the impression of the movement 

 be conveyed to the eye under conditions to which it is 

 accustomed. Such is the object of Stroboscopy, a 

 method of immense scientific importance. The princi- 

 ples of this method were discovered by Plateau, and 



