The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so that the reflections of the pictures appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, with a brighter and less distorted picture than the zoetrope offered.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When we decided to make a praxinoscope, we had very little information about how to make it. All we had was some articles from the books on the history of cinema and some pictures found from internet, and none of them provided us practical information such as how to determine diameters of inner mirror house and outer drum etc...

However, one day, mariko found a very important document from the internet which seemed to give us all necessary figures to make a praxinoscope. I say "seemed" because the document was written in Hungarian which neither mariko nor dokko could understand. Then we struggled hard with online dictionaries and finally were able to figure out all necessary size information for our praxinoscope.

Now let's start the photo tour of Making a Praxinoscope!

Drilling holes! ... a basic skill

Attaching the bearing unit to the bottom of the outer drum.

The drum is now set on the base. It goes round and round! You can also see the base board of inner mirror house placed inside the drum to determine exact location.

Applying mirrors around the inner house. It takes 12 narrow strips of mirror which means our praxinoscope requires 12-frame film.

Well, it works perfect as a praxinoscope now. However, as Reynaud did, we want to watch it under the dim glow of the lamp. So let's give it a finishing touch.

Look at the neatly finished shade! It's our hand made work, too. Wires and a tart pan soldered together to make the frame and a piece of thick cloth with a reflective backing stitched around it.

Voilà!

In the YouTube video on the left, you can watch a popular classic animation film A Girl With A Jumping Rope played on our praxinoscope. Both of us are now preparing to start making our original 12-frame animation films for the praxinoscope and we'll upload the videos one by one as developes. Of course, if you're interested in making one with us, feel free to contact us!

After taking a close look at the praxinoscope, dokko stepped back a little trying to look at it from a short distance. Then he was surprised to find a ring of dim light on the ceiling. It was the light reflected by the polished bottom of the drum and projected a beautiful ring on the ceiling. It was really charming!

Yes, so beautiful that words can never express. We are afraid even the photo doesn't fully represent the heavenly atmosphere which filled the room.