Historical and Contemporary Animation 5 - The Zoetrope

The Zoetrope is another Pre-film device used for animation. The traditional zoetrope consists of a large cylindrical drum with slits in the side. This version was invented by William George Horner. The earliest form of projected moving images was used with a magic lantern zoetrope. Since its creation the Zoetrope has been used mostly for entertainment purposes. Nowadays however there are many kinds of zoetrope devices that are used in advertising. Surprisingly a lot of these advertising stunts involve a train moving in front of fast moving slits with paintings behind them, since a train can produce the kind of speeds needed to make a zoetrope animation move. The Zoetrope animation is what I believe was the zenith of the pre-film animation techniques. It allowed for multiple people to view them, it created a smooth form of repeated animation that was entertaining, and its still being used today in some forms of media, documentation, and advertising.