310 MOVEMENT 



photography to perfect the zootropic representation 

 of motion. 



From the time when Mr. Muy bridge succeeded in 

 taking a photographic series of the positions assumed 

 by men and animals in motion, he invariably resorted 

 to Plateau's method for synthesizing the movements 

 he had analyzed. 



The apparatus used by Mr. Muybridge was a sort of 

 projection phenakistoscope, in which pictures of horses 

 painted on glass discs, and copied from the author's 

 photographs, were placed in the focus of the projecting 

 lantern and made to rotate. Slits made in the discs 

 admitted light at the required moments. A consider- 

 able audience could thus see upon the screen sil- 

 houettes of horses moving in various directions and at 

 various paces. , 



Zootropes of Muybridge and Anschiitz. — We have 

 already remarked that the figures were painted. Now, 

 one great disadvantage of Muybridge's apparatus, and, 

 indeed, of the zootrope itself, is that the figures are 

 out of proportion, owing to their reduction in the 

 transverse direction, so that the painted horses on the 

 revolving discs have to be made longer than they 

 really are, so as to appear in their true proportions 

 when thrown upon the screen. 



M. Anschiitz prepared for the ordinary zootrope 

 strips of paper covered with photographic prints of 

 men and animals in motion. In this case the figures 

 were distorted ; horses especially showed an appreciable 

 diminution in length. 



Solid Figures in the Zootrope. — We also made use of 

 the zootrope in studying the movements of birds' 

 wings, and for this purpose we resorted to a particular 

 contrivance. Instead of a strip of paper covered with 

 figures, we introduced into the zootrope a series of 

 wax models painted in oils, and representing the bird 



