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Joseph
Antoine Ferdinand Plateau
(1801 - 1883) |
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Daguerreotype
portrait depicting Joseph Plateau
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I'm
most thankfull to Professor
Jos Uyttenhove & Professor
Maurice Dorikens
(University
Ghent)
for permission to use images
from the world famous
Joseph
Plateau collection.
The Phenakistiscope is the
most important Kinetic toy
in pre-film history. |
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The
optical items in the Plateau
collection are rare incunabula
of the moving images.In
addition to the Plateau
web site of the Science
Museum, University Ghent,
I hope to help in making
this collection better known. |
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Plateau and Stampfer are the
Grandfathers
of Cinema.
Most cited with this honour is
Joseph Antoine
Ferdinand Plateau.
In "Sur
un nouveau genre d'illusion d'optique",
Plateau describes the working of a
disc with 16 slots and images in between.
This principle is one of the major
techniques wich enabled us to produce
"moving
pictures"
from the end of the 19th. until
today. The first disc illustrating
Plateau's scientific discription is
the Dancer as seen in the black &
white drawing below. This disc is
both an incunabula and precursor of
animation film and cinema. The disc
was often plagiarised and exist in
different versions, non-coloured and
coloured.
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While mentioned as a scientific
device, the Phenakistiscope
became well know and popular
as a toy for children. The
phenakistiscope was not the
first optical amusement able
to conjure-up the illusion
of movement. Many intriguing
devices where invented before
and after the rise of the
Phenakistiscope (round 1833)
The
Phenakistiscope,
invented by Professor
Joseph
Plateau
(1801-1883)
and The
Stampfer Disc,
invented by Professor
Simon
Stampfer
(1792-1864)
are both the same devices,
done indepentently by these
two scientists.
The device was mentioned to
be a scientific
experiment
in creating the illusion of
movement and how our eyes
are able to experience this.
The
daguerreotype portrait (above
right) depicting
Joseph Plateau was discovered
at the home of his descendants
in France only a few years
ago. This historical important
portrait shows one of the
inventors of moving images
shortly before he became blind.
Joseph Pilizzaro, a photographer
working in Ghent from 1821
till 1852, took this image
in 1843.
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Mouve
mouse over to see the Stampfer
disc working
This
Gif animation is kindly offerd
by Jey.
Collection
Visual Media
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The phenakistiscope and Stampfer
discs are able to create the
illusion of live more than
60 years before the invention
of film. However, this early
method of creating live in
static
images
was not the first
succesfull
attempt to show animated images.
(e.g. animated magic lantern
slides, preceding the phenakistiscope
and the
Choreutoscope)
Click the daguerreotype to
see a marble bust of Plateau
and visit the Joseph Plateau
collection in the Science
Museum, University of Ghent.
The
devices on this and many other
Early Visual-Media pages were
known as Philosophical
Toys
in the Victorian Era. These
mostly "table top"
toys demonstrate the principles
of 18th.
& 19th.Century
scientific experiments. These
toys have a scientific value
indeed, since they help us
to understand new ideas, theories
and inventions.
"Philosophical
Toys"
induce experiences that provoke
questions about the world
surrounding us. They
are able in helping us to
understand the nature of reality
and truth, many of them however
are able to mislead by creating
virtual
illusions. |
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Click
to see some phenakistiscopes
in the Plateau collection
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Anorthoscope
- Phénakistiscope Disc
with Monk
Joseph
Plateau collection |
The
Science
Museum of the Ghent
University houses the scientific
instrument collection of Joseph
Plateau. The scope of the
collection is much wider than
the kinetic devices that are
of interest to Early Visual
Media. Other aspects of Plateau’s
scientific researches are
represented.
Click
here
to order the richly illustrated
catalogue
for more information.
Besides
a large collection of early
commercialized phenakistiscope
discs, the science museum
showpieces are the daguerreotype
portrait of Plateau (see
top of page) and the hand
painted (by
Plateau & Madou)
"combined
Anorthoscope - Phenakistiscope"
discs which were
never commercialized.
For both "Anorthoscope
- Phenakistiscope"
discs of "The
Monk" and "The
Devil", Madou
painted the basic image
after which Plateau calculated
the subsequent “stills”.
These "stills"
are seen with the illusion
of movement through the
slots of a turning disc
placed in front of the translucent
Monk and devil discs.
Indeed,
both discs are made transparent
by the aid of waxed paper
and coloured from behind.
For this, the effect is
comparable with peepshow
views and stereo tissues
as seen in the diableries,
two other main themes on
Visual media. Mouve
mouse over the image to
see the devil appear!
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See
some replica Phenakistiscope
discs and other newly
made Optical Toys
Click
to see some Anorthoscope
discs in the Plateau
collection
The transparent discs
are mounted and lit
from behind on the anorthoscope
apparatus as seen on
the right. The combined
Monk & Devil discs
may not be confused
with the Anamorphic
Anorthoscope
discs
altough both devices
uses the same kind of
apparatus to make them
work. (An
anamorphic disc is seen
here, mounted on the
apparatus)
Opposite to the real
anorthoscope, the images
of the combined discs
have no anamorphic distortion
that needs to be reconstructed.
The Anorthoscope apparatus
is responsible for creating
the illusion of movement.
In the real
Anorthoscope
the apparatus is responsible
to reconstruct an anamorphic
distorted image into
his normal proportions.
In he latter case, there
is no mouvement at all.
Both the Anorthoscope
and combined
discs (the
latter illustrated above)
are placed on the apparatus
behind a black opaque
disc with 4 openings.
The discs turn rapidly
in opposite directions
and the result can be
seen by several people
at the same time.
When
the torch of the Monk
appears from behind
a pillar the torch
illuminates the the
scene. |
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Devils
playing with an anorthoscope
Joseph
Plateau collection
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The harder the Devil blows,
the more his face lights
up due to the fire.
The described and illustrated
disc are late examples
of an early tradition
of transparant painting
techniques, this time
ameliorated with the illusion
of mouvement.
Both discs also have in
common the theme of the
Phantasmagoria
where death, devils and
the bleeding nun are the
leading characters.
Other showpieces are the
anamorphic
Anorthoscope
discs
& apparatus collection,
the Duboscq
Bioscope
and the rest of the Phenakistiscope
Collection.
The
image on the left shows
a Painting by Madou depicting
Devils playing with
an anorthoscope.
The resemblance with Plateau
and the Devil in the foreground
is obvious when looking
at the Plateau Daguerreotype. |
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The
Scientific 'Thin Films'
Stereo's
A most interesting set
of Scientific
stereo images
depicts the formation
of laminar films
on metal frames. These
certainly deserve our
attention, and more
especially further research
both for their scientific
value and almost abstract
beauty.
This set of 188 images
was made by the photographer
Adolph Neyt to register
an other aspect of Plateau's
scientific
research
into "Liquide
glycérique"
Hopefully a future researcher
will use a large selection
of these images in a
publication of interest
both to scientists and
the and the collector
of rare stereo images.
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Read
more information on Soap Bubbles
in the Network Journal
Visit also scientific photographs
by Agence M. Rol to celebrate
the "25
Anniversaire de l' Institut
Pasteur" sic.
November 1913 |
The
Anorthoscope discs
Joseph
Plateau collection |
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Allthough the phenakistiscope
is a real forerunner of moving
pictures, the persistence
of vision does not
explain it's illusion of mouvement
as conceived by Joseph Plateau
and read in most film histories,
even today. This however does
not diminish the importance
of the phenakistiscope / stroboscope
as a scientific device.
As read in Laurent Mannoni's
new important history of the
pre-cinema era, The
Great Art of Light
and
Shadow
"two other
phenomena
allow us to see the thousands
of different images which
pass over the screen without
interference: the phi
effect, explained by
Wertheimer in 1912, and visual
masking, which frees
us from retinal
persistence or persistence
of vision"
However, the persistence
of vision helps
in reconstruction the illusion
of a normal "still"
image during the fast spinning
in opposite directions of
an Anorthoscopic
image and the slotted disc.
On the Anorthoscope page of
the science museum, U-Ghent,
more information and reconstructions
of working discs, as illustrated
on the left, can be seen.
The
phi effect
is caused by the interrelationship
between the brain and the
optic nerve. The illusory
movement perceived by an onlooker
regarding an object's movement
from one place to another
in a consecutive series of
events. In actuality, no motion
has occurred. |
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Twohundred
years after Plateau's birthday,
The University in Ghent organised
a Joseph Plateau exhibition based
on research by professor Maurice
Dorikens, and accompanied by a richly
illustrated catalogue in three languages.
Click here to open a PDF file with
press information about this 2001
exhibition.
The catalogue: "Joseph Plateau,
Leven tussen Kunst en Wetenschap"
written by professor Maurice Dorikens,
Laurent Mannoni, David Robinson
and G. Pisano-Basile is still available.
The information on the Joseph Plateau
pages, both text and images, is
mainly based on the above extensive
catalogue.
Read
more a translation of Plateau's
book |
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The
Duboscq
Bioscope
Perhaps the most challenging
device for research in the
Joseph Plateau collection
is the Duboscq Bioscope
or albumin
stereo phenakistiscope disc.
Unfortunately, only the
disc is preserved and no
apparatus is known.
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Painting
in Complementary colours Quetelet's
portrait |
Adolphe Quetelet (1796
- 1874) and
his good friend Wheatstone
(1802
- 1875) who
invented the stereoscope
have a regular scientific
correspondance.
The portrait on the right,
presumable depicting Adolphe
Quetelet is painted on a
black sheet using complementary
colours, opposite
to the natural colours of
the sitter. Plateau talks
about "accidental
colours".
If staring at the image
for a short period (one
minute), followed by staring
at a white wall, the drawing
will appear in colours,
complementary to those used
to draw the portrait. By
this at it may, the portrait
is seen in it's "natural
colours".
Mouve mouse over the image
or just follow the above
instruction to see the optical
illusion.
Quetelet was lecturer at
the Atheneum in Brussel
and teacher of Joseph Plateau.
From 1819 till 1822 Plateau
was one of Quetelet's students.
During their live, both
scientists stay friends.
In 1825 Quetelet set up
a magazine, "Correspondance
Mathématique et Physique"
From then until the disappearance
of the publication, many
of Plateau's important articles
where published in the magazine
of his former teacher and
friend. In 1827, Plateau
start lecturing in the Atheneum
in Luik.
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Galilei type "soapsud"
telescope
Joseph
Plateau collection
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Joseph Plateau was a versatile scientist
who also researched the formation
of laminar
films. Two rings immersed
in his "Liquide glycérique"
produced a simple positive and negative
lens and transfom the object into
a cumbersome, but working, Galilei
type "soapsuds"
telescope. The fragile apparatus
produces an optical enlargment of
two with an acceptable good image.
During his live, Joseph Plateau
became blind round 1844. Thanks
to the help of colleges and family,
Plateau was able to follow-up his
optical and other scientific experimets.
It's needless to say that Joseph
Plateau became one of the important
researchers in the field of optical
applications, judging only partly
some aspekts of his work relevant
to the history of visual media.
His invention of the Phenakistiscope
establish Plateau in media history
as an early grandfather of moving
pictures and showpiece
of the Ghent
Film festival. |
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