Phantascopes
    The Phantascope is sometimes called a Phenakistoscope; today we call a spinning disk with a a series of equally-spaced slots a stroboscope. The form shown at the left was invented in 1832 by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau (1801-1883). 

   The wheel containing the pictures is placed on the reverse side of the spinning disk, and are observed in a mirror facing the experimenter.  They are observed, one at a time, through the slots. 

   The pictures below are stored in the folder  marked "Phantascope/by T.T. Bury", published by Ackermann of London. A clue to the date can be obtained from the pictures of the man riding the Draisienne or hobby horse type of bicycle that appeared in the eighteen twenties.

   These optical recreations are in the Wileman Collection at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham.

REF: Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr., "Nineteenth Century Textbook Illustrations LII: Stroboscopic Effects", Phys. Teach., 30, 123-125 (1992)

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