zoopraxiscope

See also: zoöpraxiscope

English

Black-and-white picture of a coloured zoopraxiscope disc

Alternative forms

• zoöpraxiscope
• zoopraxinoscope

Etymology

From zoo +‎ praxis +‎ scope.

Noun

zoopraxiscope (plural zoopraxiscopes)

1. (photography, historical) An instrument developed by Eadweard Muybridge in the 1870's, similar to the phenakistoscope. The instrument involves a disc that includes serial pictures being rotated in front of a light source, projecting them upon a screen, to exhibit the natural movements of animals and the like.
   • 2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 12:

     A few years before, he bought his youngest girl a zoopraxiscope for her birthday, though he alone kept playing with it, after she grew bored. Now those squadrons of flapping geese and parades of bucking broncos that come alive when the glass drum spins animate his brain.

Synonyms

• zoogyroscope