Zoetrope

A zoetrope is a fun and interesting animation device that makes things look like they are moving. It shows a series of drawings or pictures that change a little bit from one to the next, and when you look through the zoetrope, it looks like the pictures are moving.

The zoetrope is a special kind of cylinder, which is like a round tube, and it works in a similar way to another old device called the phénakisticope. People started making these kinds of devices after stroboscopic discs were created in 1833.

In 1866, a company owned by Milton Bradley made a version of the zoetrope that you could play with as a toy, and it became very popular. People loved how it could make drawings come to life by showing them moving!

Etymology

The word zoetrope comes from ancient Greek. It is made from two words: ζωή (zoe), meaning "life," and τρόπος (tropos), meaning "turning." Together, they create the idea of a "wheel of life." The term was first used by an inventor named William E. Lincoln from Providence, Rhode Island.

Technology

The zoetrope is a fun cylinder with cuts along its sides. Inside the cylinder, there is a strip of pictures showing something moving step by step. When you spin the cylinder and look through the cuts, you see the pictures one after another very quickly. This makes it look like the pictures are moving!

The zoetrope works like an earlier invention called the phenakistoscope, but it is easier to use and more people can watch the animation at the same time. Instead of pictures on a disc, the zoetrope uses a paper strip with the pictures placed inside a drum. When you spin the drum fast, the animation looks smoother.

Earlier rotating devices with images

A very old bowl from Iran, more than 5,000 years old, might be thought of as an early version of the zoetrope. The bowl shows pictures of a goat jumping toward a tree and eating its leaves. Even though the pictures follow each other, it is not certain that the bowl was meant to show moving pictures, because it would need to spin very fast and in a special way to make the pictures look like they are moving.

Long ago in China, a craftsman named Ding Huan made a lamp with pictures of animals and birds on a round band that moved when the lamp was lit. It is not clear if this really made the pictures look like they were moving or if it just made the pictures spin around. Some people think this might be an early kind of zoetrope. There were also other lamps in China that made pictures move when lit, but they were more like toys that spin around rather than true moving pictures.

In 1634, a writer named John Bate described a simple toy in his book. It had pictures on a card that was attached to the spokes of a wheel. When the wheel turned, it looked like the pictures were moving. Around the year 1900, a company in Paris sold a similar toy called L'Animateur (or The Animator), but the early version by Bate may not have truly made the pictures look like they were moving.

Invention

Simon Stampfer created an early idea for an animation device in 1833. He suggested that instead of flat discs, the pictures could be placed on a cylinder or a loop of paper.

Soon after, in 1834, a British mathematician named William George Horner thought of a similar cylindrical device. He called it the Dædaleum, inspired by an ancient Greek story.

In the following years, several inventors tried different ways to show moving pictures. Some used photographs to create a sense of depth.

In 1865, a young student named William Ensign Lincoln invented the zoetrope. He designed it so that the pictures could be easily changed by using strips with viewing slits above the images. He worked with the company Milton Bradley and Co., and they began selling the zoetrope as a toy in 1866. It became very popular.

Later, the famous scientist James Clerk Maxwell improved the zoetrope by using lenses instead of slits, making the images clearer. However, his version was never sold to the public.

Linear zoetropes

A linear zoetrope is like a special screen with thin vertical lines. Behind each line is a picture, and when you move past the screen, it looks like the pictures are moving. This is different from the round zoetrope because the pictures can be very long and can look wider.

In Japan, people used something like a linear zoetrope for ads in the early 1990s, especially between Narita airport and Tokyo. In the United States, an artist named Bill Brand put a zoetrope called the Masstransiscope in a subway station in New York City in 1980. It had many painted panels that looked like a moving picture to people on passing trains. After some time, it was fixed up again in 2008. Since then, many artists and advertisers have used subway walls to create moving pictures for people on trains.

A student named Joshua Spodek made a long zoetrope that showed an ad in the Atlanta subway in 2001. His design was used in many places around the world. In 2006, zoetrope ads were put up in Washington Metro, New Jersey’s PATH train, and San Francisco’s BART system. New York City also had digital zoetropes in its subway stations, made by Spodek and students from universities.

Other places like the Kyiv Metro in Ukraine, Mexico City, and Zurich Airport also had linear zoetropes for ads or art. LAIKA animation studios even made one with moving faces for a talk by Brian McLean.

3D zoetropes

3D zoetropes work like regular zoetropes but use three-dimensional models instead of drawings. In 1887, a scientist named Étienne-Jules Marey used a large zoetrope to show birds flying by using plaster models and photographs. Today, these zoetropes often use a fast flashing strobe light to make the models appear as one moving object. By changing the speed of the models and the light, the animation can seem to move forward or backward.

The Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, Japan, has a 3D zoetrope with characters from the movie My Neighbor Totoro. Pixar also made a 3D zoetrope for its exhibitions, first shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, featuring characters from Toy Story 2. These zoetropes have traveled to many museums around the world.

Giant zoetropes

A physics textbook from 1857 described a very early zoetrope that was 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide, shown in Frankfurt.

A huge zoetrope, called the "Great Zoetrope; or: Wheel of Life," was placed in the Concert Hall of the Crystal Palace in London. It was 50 feet (15 meters) around and showed several animations from the year 1867 to 1868.

In 2008, a company in the UK built a zoetrope 10 meters wide to show off new technology for Sony. It held 64 pictures of a famous football player, Kaká, and is the largest zoetrope in the world according to Guinness World Records.

In 2010, an artist named Yishay Garbasz made a zoetrope showing changes in her appearance over two years.

In 2014, two artists called OSGEMEOS created a large zoetrope with their yellow characters. It is part of an exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from 2024 to 2025.

Successors

Émile Reynaud’s 1877 praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope and became popular by the late 1800s. Instead of narrow slits, it used mirrors to show the pictures.

The flip book started in 1868 and stayed popular because it’s simple and easy to carry. Unlike the zoetrope, the flip book’s pictures stop after a short time.

Eadweard Muybridge shared his picture series in 1878. People used these pictures in zoetropes, helping lead to the creation of cinematography. Muybridge also made the zoopraxiscope in 1879, an early machine for showing moving images.

In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière worked on the Kinora at the same time as they developed cinema. While cinema became very popular, the Kinora was enjoyed at home for watching movies.

Today, film, TV, and video are considered the main successors of the zoetrope in creating moving pictures. Digital GIF animations are similar because they also loop pictures.

In 2016, a new version called the Silhouette Zoetrope was created by Dr. Christine Veras. It won a contest for its clever use of optical illusions.

In 2023, Mike Ando invented the Andotrope, a digital version that uses smartphones to show images from every angle.

Contemporary media uses

Since the late 20th century, zoetropes have been used in artwork, entertainment, marketing, and other media. They appear as linear zoetropes and 3D zoetropes.

Making a zoetrope has become a common arts and crafts project. It also helps explain some of the basic ideas behind how film and motion work in schools.

In popular culture

• Blue Man Group uses a zoetrope in their shows in Las Vegas and at the Sharp Aquos Theater in Universal Studios (in Orlando, Florida).

• The 1999 film House on Haunted Hill includes a large zoetrope chamber as part of its scary theme.

• In 2007, BBC Two introduced a new look that showed a futuristic city with flying cars seen through the shape of the number two.

• In 2011, Scott Blake created a special zoetrope showing a continuous replay of an airplane flying into a building.

• In 2012, animation studio Sehsucht in Berlin made the opening for the MTV Europe Music Awards. The CGI animation used a 3D zoetrope to tell a story about achieving success.

• In 2013, director Jeff Zwart made a short film to promote a car game. The film used still images placed around a race track and filmed from a moving car.

• The 2016 horror film The Conjuring 2 includes a zoetrope in one of its scenes.

• In 2019, the second season of the anime Mob Psycho 100 features a 3D zoetrope in its opening sequence.

• In 2022, the music video for Pharrell Williams’s song "Cash In Cash Out" used a computer-animated 3D zoetrope. The video shows animated characters moving through a luxurious setting.

• Also in 2022, the vinyl release for Deltarune Chapter 2 included a zoetrope animation on the record.

• In 2025, Lee Mendelson Film Productions released a special edition soundtrack for Peanuts. The record features zoetrope animations that spin when played.