Thaumatrope

Thaumatrope

A Thaumatrope is a circular piece of paper with either two pieces of string or a stick through the paper that  when twisted creates an illusion that the two pictures are on either side of the paper are joined together.

An advantage of a Thaumatrope is that it is easy to create because the materials used which makes it a simple Animation.

A disadvantage of a Thaumatrope is the drawing on each piece of paper has to have enough detail to make the animation look convincing to the person using it. The animation is also limited because there only is two drawings which means it will keep repeating its self.

The inventor of the Thaumatrope is rather undecided as the invention is usually credited to John Ayrton Paris, but someone else has claimed that William Henry Fitton invented it by saying he told John Herchel had seen do the same type of animation but with a coin instead.

The Thaumatrope is thought to be invented from 1785 to 1856 from the time period from which John Paris lived from if he did invent it.

One very well know example of a Thaumatrope is the bird in a cage, in this thaumatrope there is a bird on one side of paper and the cage on the other  which gives the illusion that when turned that the bird is the cage.

Another well known example of a thaumatrope is the Fish in the bowl which has a fish on one side and a bowl on the other which gives the illusion of the fish being in the bowl.