Phenakistoscope

The phénakisticope (better known by the later misspelling "phenakistoscope") was the first widespread animation device that created a fluent illusion of motion. The phenakistoscope is regarded as one of the first forms of moving media entertainment that paved the way for the future motion picture and film industry. It can be compared to a GIF animation as it has a short duration and plays as a loop until the viewer stops it.

The term 'phénakisticope' was explained in its introduction in Le Figaro in June 1833 to be from the root Greek word 'phenakisticos' (or rather - phenakizein), meaning "to deceive" or "to cheat", and - óps, meaning "eye" or "face", so it was probably intended as a transliteration of 'optical deception' or 'optical illusion'.

The term phénakisticope was possibly first used by the French company Alphonse Giroux et Compagnie in their application for an import license (29 May 1833) and this name was used on their box sets. Fellow Parisian publishers Junin & Lazard used the term 'phenakisticope' without the accent.

Inventor Joseph Plateau did not give a name for the device when he first published about it in January 1833, but used 'phénakisticope' later that year in another article to refer to the published versions he was not involved with. By then, he had an authorized set published as "Fantascope". An earlier edition of this set was called "Phantasmascope".

The spelling 'phenakistiscope' was possibly introduced by lithographers Forrester & Nichol in collaboration with optician John Dunn; they used the title "The Phenakistiscope, or, Magic Disc" for their box sets, as advertised in September 1833. The corrupted part of the word, 'scope', was understood to be derived from Greek 'skopos', meaning "aim", "target", "object of attention" or "watcher", "one who watches" and was quite common in the naming of optical devices (e.g. Telescope, Microscope, Kaleidoscope, Fantascope, Bioscope).

Currently the misspelling 'phenakistoscope' seems to be most commonly used.

The phénakisticope used a spinning cardboard disc attached vertically to a handle. Arrayed around the disc's center was a series of pictures showing phases of the animation, and cut through it was a series of equally spaced radial slits. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the disc's reflection in a mirror. The scanning of the slits across the reflected images kept them from simply blurring together, so that the user would see a rapid succession of images that appeared to be a single moving picture.

When there is the same number of images as slots, the images will animate in a fixed position, but will not drift across the disc. Fewer images than slots, and the images will drift in the opposite direction to that of the spinning disc. More images than slots, and the images will drift in the same direction as the spinning disc.

...
Wikipedia