Phenakistoscope disc of a wriggling green snake. One of three Fantoscope discs by Ackermann and Co (1st series), 1833.

The phenakisticope was invented almost simultaneously by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and the Austrian professor of practical geometry Simon Stampfer. It is held with the printed side of the disc facing a mirror. When the disc is spun the viewer looks at its reflection through the apertures on the disc's circumference and the drawings appear to move.