The choreutoscope is the first pre-cinema device which employed a system similar to early film projectors. It was the first projection device to use an intermittent movement, which became the basis of many cine cameras and projectors. It was formed by a sheet of glass on which different drawings were made, and the sheet was mounted on a type of Maltese cross mechanism, which made the image move suddenly. The most common drawing was the 'dancing skeleton' in which six sequential images of a skeleton were animated in the viewing pane.
History
In 1869, O.B. Brown received a U.S. patent for an optical instrument that used a Maltese cross mechanism for the intermittent projection of sequential images from a rotating disc.
In 1870, "The Popular Educator" featured an article about a very similar instrument (with an "intermittent motion-piece") that was produced by Greenwich engineer John Beale. It was called "The Dancing Skeleton" and projected a skeleton in various positions. An earlier article described Beale's related "Automated Picture" or "automatic face apparatus". This had a bust of a young lady painted on a screen, with a hole in place of the face filled in with a mechanically randomised succession of 16 different facial expressions painted on a rotating disc. A rotating "interceptor" (shutter disc) with 8 apertures in front of a lantern produced a stroboscopic effect that made the apparent movement of eyes, mouth and tongue look natural. Early British film historian Will Day claimed that Beale's choreutoscope had already been invented in 1866.
William C. Hughes created his own choreutoscope in 1884.
References
External links
- Dancing skeleton (animated) from the Alexis du Pont stereoviews and lantern slides collection at Hagley Museum and Library
