BRIEF HISTORICAL SUMMARY 68 1 



From 1872 onward there have been three epoch making periods in reaching 

 approximate perfection in moving pictures. 



The first period is represented by the work of Eadweard Muybridge, who 

 first made successful analyses of rapid movement in 1872-1881. In 1879 he 

 arranged the successive stages of a movement on a glass disc and projected the 



FIG. 408. PLATEAU'S MAGIC Disc (PHENAKISTOSCOPE). 

 (From the Correspondance Mathematique et Physique, Tome VII, 1832) 

 Notches were cut around the edge as indicated by the dark terminations of 

 the radii. A pin is put in the center, the figures turned toward a well lighted 

 mirror, and the disc rotated. By the momentary glimpses through the radial 

 slits the figure seems to go through the movements of the dance. The back 

 of the disc should be black, and the figures show better if the outlines are made 

 heavier than in the picture. 



