How people watched the first cartoons (6 photos + 1 video)

August 30, 1877 French inventor, artist and popularizer of science Emil Reynaud patented a praxinoscope - optical device for displaying moving pictures. As the article continues, you learn about the progenitor of animation, as well as why the inventor eventually fell into a depression and drowned almost everything he drew.





This is what one of the first proxinoscopes looked like

Raynaud's invention connected two already existing similar apparatus - zootrope and phenakistiscope. We will not dwell on them, but Let's describe the new device.

It consisted of an open cylinder with a wall height about 10 centimeters. On its inner surface there was a tape with pictures-frames (at first - 8-12 images each). In the center cylinder, a mirror prism with the same number of faces was installed.

The cylinder was rotated by a manual drive and the viewer I saw moving pictures in the mirror of the internal prism. A thanks to precise calculations, the effect of a smooth continuous the movements are very similar to a short cartoon.



Reynaud did not stop at what he had achieved and continued improve your invention. By combining the praxinoscope with the projector, he came up with the "optical theater" - and was able to show "cartoons" without to one viewer, as before, but to many people.

He replaced the cylinder of the apparatus with a soft tape, consisting of 4 x 5 transparent gelatin sheets fastened together cm.

On each individual plate, a frame was drawn in turn future cartoon - to some extent it can be called a prototype filmstrip. The number of frames on such a tape has already reached several hundreds.

The simplest moving pictures have been replaced by narrative narratives - albeit not too long.





It looked like a mobile praxinoscope

In his work, Emil Reynaud showed not only inventive, but also artistic talent: all pictures - you can say, all his "cartoons" - he drew and edited himself.

He was the first to use permanent decorations, which drew separately from the characters and broadcast to the screen with the help of another one projector. This technique began to be considered one of the foundations of the most animation technology.

In addition, Reynaud was the first to add to his moving pictures music. Some sources claim that he wrote her, too, himself, others call the author of the musical accompaniment of his cartoons by the composer Gaston Paulin.



One of the illustrations of the work of Emile Renault's praxinoscope

First wide screening of a "long" animated film Émile Reynaud took place in October 1892 in Paris, at the Musée Grevin.

The programs consisted of several animated scenes, a session lasted 15-20 minutes. The audience was amazed and shocked by the "luminous pantomimes" of an inventive Frenchman. Before March 1900, these projections visited by more than 500 thousand people.

The next two years can probably be called the peak the popularity of Reynaud and his "glowing pantomimes". There are five known pantomimes created between 1888 and 1893. The main masterpiece Emil Reynaud is called the short cartoon "Around the booth", created in 1893-1894.



On both sides of the screen - a praxinoscope with a projector and viewers

Unfortunately, the history of the praxinoscope ended rather sadly.

Progress did not stand still and in 1895 burst into the world cinema. Interest in Reynaud's creations began to decline, to compete with he couldn't make movies. In desperation, the inventor destroyed his apparatus, and tapes with cartoons drowned in the Seine. Survived by incredible chance only two of them - "Poor Pierrot" and "Around the booth."

P.S. The name of the praxinoscope, by the way, is explained simply - it was invented on the basis of two Greek words, meaning "action" and "look".



The first "cartoons" in the world looked like this - looking in the mirror