Phenakistoscope Timepiece.pdf

Angular Momentum
of Switzerland
Phenakistoscope

Phenakistoscope
History
Although this principle had been recognized by the
Greek mathematician Euclid and later in experiments
by Newton, it was not until 1829 that this principle
became firmly established by the Belgian Joseph
Plateau. Plateau planned it in 1829 and invented it
in 1832. Later the same year the Austrian Simon von
Stampfer invented the stroboscopic disk, a similar
machine.
Technology
The phenakistoscope use a spinning disc attached
vertically on a handle. Around the center of the disc a
series of pictures was drawn corresponding to frames
of the animation; around its circumference was a se-
ries of radial slits. The user would spin the disc and
look through the moving slits at the disc‘s reflection
in a mirror.
The scanning of the slits across the reflected images
kept them from simply blurring together, so that the
user would see a rapid succession of images with the
appearance of a motion picture. A variant of it had
two discs, one with slits and one with pictures; this
was slightly more unwieldy but needed no mirror.
Unlike the zoetrope and its successors, the phenakis-
toscope could only practically be used by one person
at a time. The phenakistoscope was only famous for
about two years due to the changing of technology.
Etymology
The first part of the term phenakistoscope comes
from the root Greek language phenakizein, meaning
„to deceive“ or „to cheat“, as it deceives the eye by
making the pictures look like an animation. As tech-
nology along with popularity increased in the early
twentieth century, coin operation was utilized on ma-
chines, coining the term ‚Nickelodeon, which would
be later be used somewhat freely to describe events
charging five cents or a „nickel.“
Phenakistoscope Timepiece
Angular Momentum has created the Phenakistoscope
Timepiece with its Revolving Hour Disk, combined
with a classic animation disk of a phenakistoscope.
As the time runs, the images on the animation disk
change. When the wearer spins the hour disk by
crown, the „motion picture“ will be visible.

Phenakistoscope
„Memento Mori“
Stainless steel, mechanical hand-wound movement, case caliber 40.00 mm.
Phenakistoscope Hour disk with a motion picture of dancing Skeleton with a scythe. Red Breguet numerals
and „Souscription“ indexes

Phenakistoscope
„Litle Devil“
Stainless steel, mechanical hand-wound movement, case caliber 40.00 mm.
Phenakistoscope Hour disk with a motion picture of a grimacing little devil. White Breguet numerals and
„Souscription“ indexes