An anorthoscope is a device that demonstrates an optical illusion that turns an
anamorphic
Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...
picture on a disc into a normal image through fast rotation behind a counter-rotating disk with four radial slits. It was invented in 1829 by
Joseph Plateau
Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (14 October 1801 – 15 September 1883) was a Belgian physicist and mathematician. He was one of the first people to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this, he used counterrotating disks with repea ...
, before further studies into similar principles led to his invention of
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
through the
phénakisticope in 1832.
Anorthoscopes with a black background have a translucent picture and need a luminous slit revolving behind the image disc. To make them translucent, the discs were impregnated with oil on the back and varnished on both sides.
History
![1829 plateau - anorthoscope](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/1829_plateau_-_anorthoscope.jpg)
As a university student, Plateau noticed in some early experiments that when looking from a small distance at two concentric cogwheels, which turned fast in opposite directions, an optical illusion of a motionless wheel appeared. He later read
Peter Mark Roget
Peter Mark Roget ( ; 18 January 1779 – 12 September 1869) was a British physician, natural theologian, lexicographer and founding secretary of The Portico Library. He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the '' Thesaurus of English Words ...
's 1824 article ''Explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures'' that addressed a similar illusion. Plateau decided to investigate the phenomenon further and later published his findings in ''Correspondance Mathématique et Physique'' in 1828
On 9 June 1829, Plateau presented his yet nameless anorthoscope as "une espèce toute nouvelle d'anamorphoses" (a totally new sort of anamorphoses]) in his doctoral thesis ''Sur quelques propriétés des impressions produites par la lumière sur l'organe de la vue'', at the
University of Liège
The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...
. It was later translated and published in the German scientific magazine ''Annalen der Physik und Chemie''. A letter to ''Correspondance Mathématique et Physique'' dated 5 December 1829 included pictures of a disc and the resulting image as an illustration of these "new species of anamorphoses".
Plateau revisited this concept several times in the ''Correspondance Mathématique et Physique'' and by January 1836 he finally decided to have the device itself published. He sent a box with the instrument to
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...
on 8 January 1836 since they both studied these kind of phenomena. Faraday had previously inspired Plateau to use a mirror with revolving discs, which helped Plateau to develop his Fantascope a.k.a.
Phénakisticope. Faraday thought the anorthoscope was a beautiful machine with an exceedingly curious and good effect, and mentioned: "It has wonderfully surprised many to whom I have showed it and they all refuse to believe their own eyes and cannot admit that the forms seen are the things looked at".
The device was marketed starting in 1836 by publishers like Newton & Co in London, Susse in Paris (12 different discs
[) and J. Duboscq in Paris (at least 18 different discs).
Plateau apparently first used the name "anorthoscope" in a letter to his mentor / publisher / friend Quetelet. He decided to send an example of the device to Miss Quetelet as a gift. Soon after, he presented it to the Royal Academy in Brussels in 1836.]
Joseph Plateau created a combination of his Fantascope (or phénakisticope) and the Anorthoscope sometime between 1844 and 1849 resulting in a back-lit transparent disc with a sequence of figures that are animated when it is rotated behind a counter-rotating black disc with four illuminated slits, spinning four times as fast. Unlike the phénakisticope, several people could view the animation at the same time. This system has not been commercialized; the only known two handmade discs are in the Joseph Plateau Collection of the Ghent University. Belgian painter Jean Baptiste Madou
Jean-Baptiste Madou (3 February 1796 – 31 March 1877) was a Belgian painter and lithographer.
Life
Madou was born in Brussels. He studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts and was a pupil of Pierre Joseph Célestin François. While ...
created the first images on these discs and Plateau painted the successive parts.
21st century
A scientific paper on the effects of the anorthoscope was published in 2007.
A rare completed 1836 anorthoscope set by Susse with twelve discs was auctioned for in 2013. The other two known extant sets of this edition are in the Werner Nekes
Werner Nekes (29 April 1944 – 22 January 2017) was a German experimental film director, and a collector of historical optical objects.
Biography
Born in Erfurt, Nekes grew up in Duisburg and went to school in Oberhausen and Mülheim. From 1963 o ...
collection and in the Joseph Plateau Collection in the Science Museum of the Ghent University
Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium.
Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...
.[ ]
References
External links
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{{Precursors of film
Optical illusions
Optical toys
Precursors of film
1820s toys
Audiovisual introductions in 1829