History of Animation and Film

Motion Pictures and technology have come a long way in the past 150 years. These two industries may seem to have nothing in common, but if you look at any movie or television show out there today you will soon realize that there is a lot of science that goes into its creation. Film and technology have been working hand in hand since the middle of the 1800’s. It’s hard to say what the world would be like today without some of the discoveries and inventions that came about through this peculiar union.

The 19th century is considered the century of science. In the field of physics and optics the scientific leaders found time to study the persistence of images on the retina. In 1824 Peter Mark Roget (Examiner Physiology, University of London) discovered that images were retained by the retina of the human eye for fractions of a second before being replaced by the succeeding ones. Because of this discovery the first inklings of animation or moving pictures had begun. Only one year later John A. Paris created the thaumatrope; a disk with a complimentary image on each side and strings attached at each end of its horizontal axis. When spun the two complimentary images appear to merge. For example on one side there would be a picture of a bird, and on the other a picture of a cage. When the disk was spun your eyes would be tricked into seeing a bird in a cage.

On January 14 1889 a man by the name of Reynaud received a patent for his invention he called theatre optik (optical theatre).

With the use of a projector and mirrors images were brought to a screen. The pictures were painted on a long ribbon. This was a true film with a canvas support that unwound from one spool and rewound on another. This was the first incarnation of the projectors we enjoy every time we go to a movie theatre.