Replica of Eadweard Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope

Made:
1880 (original), 1948 in Kingston-upon-Thames
maker:
Science Museum, Workshops
designer:
Eadweard James Muybridge

Replica of Eadweard Muybridge's zoopraxiscope, 1880. Constructed in the Museum Workshops from original in Kingston-upon-Thames Museum.

Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) designed the Zoopraxiscope in 1879 to project upon a screen a cycle of natural human and animal movements from a series of still photographs. Based on the principle of the Phenakistoscope, the Zoopraxiscope had a counter-rotating shutter which briefly flashed each image onto the screen as the disc rotated. Muybridge was the first photographer to carry out the analysis of movement by sequence photography, an important stage in the invention of cinematography. The replica was constructed in the Science Museum workshops from the original in the Kingston-upon-Thames Museum.

Details

Category:
Cinematography
Object Number:
1948-273
Materials:
brass (copper, zinc alloy), wood (unidentified), tin (metal), steel (metal), glass and paper (fibre product)
Measurements:
overall: 750 mm x 545 mm x 570 mm,
stand extension: 30 mm x 180 mm x 260 mm,
Main mechanism: 480 mm x 200 mm x 455 mm,
lamphouse: 730 mm x 275 mm x 575 mm,
lens: 554 mm x 280 mm x 243 mm,
type:
replica and zoopraxiscope
credit:
The National Media Museum, Bradford