Lithograph from "Spielzeug, eine Bunte Fibel"

Perhaps the most fascinating amusements, both for children and adults are the Philosophical toys in other words, Optical Toys, Kinetic Toys & Jouet Séditieux. Many of these toys, dating especially from 18^th. & 19^th. Century, where firstly made as scientific amusements for adults and subsequently as toys for children & grown-ups.

The best example, the Phenakistiscope, was invented both by Professor Joseph Plateau (1801 - 1883) & Professor Simon Stampfer (1792 - 1864), independent at almost the same time! Click to see a portrait of Plateau.
The device was mentioned to be a scientific experiment in ophthalmologic research to explain the working of the eye, and how we are able to see the illusion of movement.

For this reason, 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 19^th. until today.

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, many intriguing devices where invented before and after the rise of the Phenakistiscope (round 1833)

This pages will give an insight in the almost endless variety of optical & kinetic devices but will never be complete due to rarity & limited availability of suchlike toys. Of course, I hope to receive permissions from other collectors & museums to show their treasures here on my pages in an effort to approach completeness.

The image above depicts a few examples of optical & kinetic toys seen in a late German book "Spielzeug, eine Bunte Fibel" by , Hans-Friedrich von Geist (text) & Alfred Mahlau (lithographs), 1938.
In the image, we see a Peepshow, a Camera obscura, a Zootrope, a Stereoscope, a Kaleidoscope, a Magic lantern and a filmstrip.
Collecting these marvels is a real challange because most of these devices are rare, but bargains still do exist as proved by this book, found only two hours before starting in compiling this optical toy introduction page. Indeed, ephemera items are a most important source for information.

Pre-Cinema, is a name often used to describe this "group" of items. Unfortunately, the name is in the first place misleading since not all pre-cinema items have their place in film pre-history unless you start to limit this group strongly.
A more problematic effect of this name is a vast teleological point of view, suggesting that these inventions where made with the ultimate result, cinema, allready in mind. The truth is that all these inventions where mostly "stand alone" experiments that where, partly, later used by the pioneers of cinema. Emiel Reynaud, Muybridge, Marey, Demenÿ, Meliés, Skladanowsky, the Lumiere brothers and many others.
This short & incomplete selection of names, preceding the Lumiere brothers, illustrate that the latter where certainly NOT the true inventors of cinema.

The story is far more complex as read in most film history books. To read the best historical research about the latter subject I would advice Laurent Mannoni's:
"The Great Art of Light and Shadow" (Exeter Press, 2000) translated by Richard Crangle. ISBN: 0 85989 567 X

Because it's not possible to show photographs of many optical toys, several devices will be illustrated by engravings depicted in old dictionaries and Physique Amusante books.

The image on the right comes from an old unknown source.
Unfortunately, many antique dealers and even collectors still destroy important books to get maximum financial results by selling these engravings as single prints. The important text information is mostly lost! See Pre-Cinema Ephemera


Here we see a solar microscope, a cone & cylinder anamorphose, a cylinder mirror, a magic lantern, a peepshow box, a camera obscura, etc. Detailed scans of these & other images will be used on the subsequent optical toy pages.

The aim is not to give a complete and chronolgical overview of optical toys but rather a personal selection of intriguing devices, at random, following a personal choice. Where posible and within my knowledge, explanation will also be provided.