THE ZOETROPE. 



305 



The lower figure is called the Zoetrope, or Wheel of Life. 

 As the reader may see, it consists of a hollow cylinder, revolving 

 on a centre, and having within it a series of figures. When the 

 wheel revolves, and the figures are viewed through the slits, 

 each figure seems to be in lifelike motion, whence the name 

 of Zoetrope. In the present case the figures are those of boys 

 jumping over posts. 



The mode in which this effect is produced is as follows : — 

 Suppose that a boy were really to jump over a post, he would 

 go through a series of motions, and his body be placed in a 

 certain series of positions, before he cleared the post. Suppos- 

 ing, then, that several points were chosen in his course, and his 



WHEEL ANIMALCULE. 



PHANTASMASCOPE. CHROMATROPE. 



ZOETROPE. 



body drawn as it would appear at these points, and the drawings 

 placed in their proper order in the Zoetrope, it is evident that 

 the figures must appear in movement. Before the retina loses 

 the image of the boy standing in front of the post, it takes in that 

 of the boy stooping, with his hands on the top of the post, and 

 so on until he has reached the ground on the opposite side. 



Another mode of producing the same effect, called the 



Phantasmascope, is seen above the zoetrope. In this case the 



images are placed on the inside of the disc, which is held 



opposite a mirror, and the figures viewed through the slits. 



The last of these figures is the rather complicated one, like 



