Émile Reynaud's Praxinoscope: Secrets of Movement and Light
What is a praxinoscope?
Imagine a spinning drum. Inside, twelve drawings of a horse at full gallop. But instead of looking directly at the images through slits like in a zoetrope , you observe them in mirrors placed in the center of the drum. And there, magic: the horse runs, fluid, without trembling, without shimmering.
That's it, the praxinoscope. The invention that allowed Émile Reynaud , in 1877, to solve a problem that no one had solved before him: how to see a clearer animated sequence.
How does a praxinoscope work?
The basic structure resembles that of its cousin, the zoetrope, but with one modification that changes everything:
- An open drum rotating on an axis.
- An animated strip placed inside the drum.
- A prism of mirrors fixed to the center of the device.
The rotating Praxinoscope: the illusion of movement awakens.
The praxinoscope uses reflection. Each mirror of the central prism is tilted so as to reflect exactly an image of the strip.
As the drum rotates, one image replaces the other in the mirror without the eye perceiving any black break. The result is an animation of unprecedented clarity and brightness.
Total brightness: Since there are no longer any walls to block the light, the image is no longer darkened. It can be viewed in normal ambient light.
The absence of blur: Where the zoetrope required very narrow slits to be sharp, the mirror offers a stable image. The movement is fluid.
Thanks to its open design, the praxinoscope allowed several people to stand around the object and observe the animation simultaneously, without having to press their eyes against a wall. It is the direct ancestor of the movie theater: a collective and luminous spectacle.
Difference between the Zoetrope and the Praxinoscope
Before the praxinoscope, there was William George Horner's zoetrope (1834). A drum pierced with vertical slits that you spun while looking through the openings. Each slit let through a flash of an image. Twelve slits per revolution. Between each slit: blackness.
The zoetrope worked; the illusion of movement was there. But the image remained dark without a powerful light source, fragmented by the slits, and flickered slightly. The images were viewed directly through the openings, which limited brightness and sharpness.
Reynaud started with this observation in 1877. What if, instead of looking through slits, we looked at reflections? Instead of direct vision, reflected vision. The idea is simple: replace the slits with central mirrors that capture the images and reflect them back to the eye.
Technical comparison: the Praxinoscope (left) versus the Zoetrope (right).
The evolution: from toy to theatre
Émile Reynaud didn't stop there. Aware of the narrative potential of his invention, he developed it into several increasingly sophisticated versions:
Contemporary illustration of a collective use of the Praxinoscope-Theater.
The Praxinoscope-Theatre: The device is placed in a box with a fixed cardboard backdrop. The animated characters then appear to move within a real theatre setting.
The Praxinoscope with projection: Using a magic lantern, Reynaud projected images onto a screen, allowing an entire assembly to watch the animation.
Optical Theatre: The ultimate culmination where strips of paper become long hand-painted films, allowing real stories to be told over several minutes.
Émile Reynaud operating the Théâtre Optique at the Musée Grévin. (Screenshot from the film by Joël Farges, Émile Reynaud ou les Pantomimes lumineuses, 1981).
As with the zoetrope, the number of images on the strip determines the complexity of the movement. However, thanks to the precision of the mirrors, the praxinoscope handles complex transitions better.
Reynaud's films generally consisted of 12 frames. This number allowed for a perfect cycle for fluid actions: a child playing with a steering wheel, a clown juggling, or an acrobat mid-jump. The reflection in the mirror creates a kind of natural cross-dissolve that gives the animation an organic, almost poetic softness.
The praxinoscope is much more than an old toy. It's the invention that proved animation could be bright, clear, and spectacular. By removing the visual barrier of slits, Reynaud paved the way for modern cartoons.
Watching a praxinoscope in action today is to rediscover the fascination of the first spectators before "recreated life." It is a bridge between optical physics and pure magic.
While history often remembers the Lumière brothers, Reynaud was projecting his "Luminous Pantomimes" at the Grévin Museum as early as 1892, three years before the first public screening of the Cinematograph.
The praxinoscope remains a fascinating object today, a symbol of an era when science still sought to capture the soul of movement through the art of drawing.
To go further
To grasp the significance of this invention, you have to spin the drum yourself. Watching the movement emerge through the slits is an almost hypnotic experience.
Discover our collection of Praxinoscopes