122 



SCIENTIFIC RECREATIONS. 



spectator can see the designs upon a band of paper adapted to the interior of 

 the apparatus in rotation. The designs are so executed that they represent 

 the different times of a movement between two extremes ; and in consequence 

 of the impressions upon the retina the successive phases are mingled, so the 

 spectator believes he sees, without transition, the entire movement. We 

 give a few specimens of the pictures for the Zootrope (fig. 1 2 7). We have 

 here an ape leaping over a hedge, a dancing " Punch," a gendarme pursuing 

 a thief, a person holding the devil by the tail, a robber coming out of a box, 

 and a sportsman firing at a bird. The extremes of the movement are right 

 and left ; the intermediary figures make the transitions, and they are usually 

 equal in number to the slits in the Zootrope. It is not difficult to construct 



Fig. 124. Appearance of the Thaunfatrope in rotation. 



such an instrument, and better drawings could be made than the specimens 

 taken at random from a model. The earth might be represented turning in 

 space, or a fire-engine pumping water could be given, and thus the Zootrope 

 might be quite a vehicle of instruction as well as of amusement. This instru- 

 ment is certainly one of the most curious in the range of optics, and never 

 fails to excite interest. The ingenious contrivances which have up to the 

 present time reproduced it, all consist in the employment of narrow slits, 

 which besides reducing the light to a great extent, and consequently the 

 light and clearness of the object, require the instrument to be set in rapid 

 rotation, which greatly exaggerates the rapidity of the movements repre- 

 sented, and without which the intermissions of the spectacle could not unite 

 in a continuous sensation. 



We present here an apparatus based on a very different optical 



