One of the most remarkable facts about the history of the Phenakistoscope [FANTASCOPE]is that it was invented simultaneously by two different people.
In 1832, a Belgian physicist called Joseph Plateau was the first person credited to have created what would become known as the Phenakistoscope. Plateau actually had a background in art and designer – his father was a painter and illustrator who was keen for his son to follow in his footsteps. Plateau senior enrolled his son in the Academy of Design in Brussels, but Joseph Plateau took a different path and eventually became a scientist. However, his artistic skills proved very useful, as he actually hand-painted the original designs on the first Phenakistoscopes.
At the same time as Joseph Plateau was developing his creation, the Austrian mathematician and inventor, Simon von Stampfer, was working with optical illusions in a similarly experimental way.
It turns out that both Plateau and Stampfer were inspired by the work of the English scientist Michael Faraday, who had published a paper on optical illusions that are found in rotating wheels.
While the Phenakistoscope might have only really burned brightly for two years or so, it can be said that it is the forerunner of modern cinema and animation.
[Text credit: Wikipedia]
20 October 1833, Atlas:
22 October 1833, Kentish Gazette:
11 November 1833, Sussex Advertiser:
18 November 1833, Reading Mecury:
29 November 1973: Country Life: 
