Zoetrop

The Zoetrope is one of seven pre-film animation devices that use illusion as motion, they use a sequence of images of drawing or photographs displaying progressive phases of a motion. The name Zoetrope was composed from the greek root words "Zoe-life tropos-turning"

"The Zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion."

The Zoetrope was originally developed by a Chinese historian of chinese technology called "a variety of Zoetrope", this was created around 100 BC by an inventor called Ding Huan, this was an early example of animation and was highly recognised as a early animation device. The basic like drum-like form of the zoetrope was created in 1830's by a British mathematician William George Horner he was aware of the recently developed and closely related phenakistoscope disc.