Chronology of Animation Beginning

From the Beginning ...

Artists, since the days of the caveman, have sought to capture motion in their work. Various artists have been more or less successful in portraying humans, animals, or objects moving but movement itself could not be easily shown until a variety of technical inventions that occured in the Nineteenth Century.

The nineteenth century inventions were at first part of the analysis of movement that has fascinated philosophers and physicists for centuries. The inventions were made to illustrate scientific arguments but were quickly adopted as playthings. At about the same time other scientists who were interested in other optical inventions were creating photography. The combination of these two strains of invention led to the invention of the motion picture camera and projector.

Motion pictures allowed for the development of various forms of animation, especially drawn and puppet types.

1824

December
Peter Mark Roget gives the first explanation of the phenomena of persistance of vision to explain how we see movement in a presentation to the Royal Society. He describes how objects will appear to be moving if there is an interruption between the display of each image.
(P. M. Roget, "Explanation of an Optical Deception in the Appearance of the Spokes of a Wheel Seen through Vertical Apertures", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 115, pp. 131-140. (Great Britain)

1826

no date
John Ayrton Paris (most probably) invents the thaumatrope. This was a disc with separate paintings on each side. One side had a picture of a bird. The second side of a cage. The disc was suspended between two pieces of string. When the disc is revolved rapidly the bird appears to be inside the cage. The thaumatrope has also been attributed to John Herschel, Charles Babbage, and others but Paris was the first to distribute it commercially. (Great Britain)

1832

no date
Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (1801-1883) invents the phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer") (also called a fantoscope or phantasmascope). A large disc with a series of drawings around the circumference is attached on a spindle to another disc made of metal with slots in it. Both are made to rotate. When the drawings are viewed through the slots in the metal disc they appear to move.
J. Plateau, "Sur un nouveau genre d'illusions d'optique", Correspondance mathémathique et physique, vol. VII, pp. 365-369. (Belgium)

1834

no date
The Daedaleum ("daedalum") or Wheel of the Devil is invented by mathematician William George Horner (1786-1837). A strip of paper with drawings is placed inside a rotating drum. The upper edge of the drum has slots through which the drawings are viewed. This device became very popular 30 years later when it was marketed as the zoetrope or Wheel of Life by William F. Lincoln in the United States.
W.G. Horner, "On the Properties of the Daedaleum, A New Instrument of Optical Illusion", Philosophical Magazine, vol. IV, pp.36-41. (Great Britain)

1844

December
Emile Reynaud (director, animator, producer) born in Montreuil-sous-Bois. (France)

1853

no date
Franz von Uchatius develops a method of projecting phenakistoscope images as a series of slides. This is the first form of projected animation. (Austria-Hungary [Austria])

Ludwig Döbler buys von Uchatius' device and demonstrates it throughout Europe. (Austria-Hungary [Austria])

1857

January
Emile Cohl (émile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet) (January 4, 1857–January 20, 1938) (animator, director) born in Paris. (France)

1867

April
William Lincoln applies for a patent for the zoetrope. This was another device that displayed successive images on a length of paper viewed through the slits of a spinning drum.

September
Winsor McCay (Zenis Winsor McKay) (September 26, 1967-July 26, 1934) (animator, director, producer) born near Woodstock, Ontario. (Canada)
There is no definite birth record for McCay. He said he was born as late as 1871 in Spring Lake, Michigan (United States), but this was probably to make him seem less older than his wife.

no date
O'Galop (1867-January 12, 1946) (Marius Rossillon) (director) born in Lyon. (France)

1868

July
Hy Mayer (Henry Mayer) (director, animator, writer, producer) born in Worms-am-Rhein. (Germany)

September
John Barnes Linnett patents the kineograph (also known as a flip book, paper is bound on one side so that images that have been placed on the different leaves can be animated when the pages are flipped). (Great Britain)

1869

July
Walter R. Booth (animator, director) born in Worster. (Great Britain)

1874

January
Raoul Barré (January 29, 1874-May 21, 1932) (director, producer, animator) born in Montreal, Quebec. (Canada)

April
Arthur Melbourne-Cooper (director, animator, producer) born in St. Albans. (Great Britain)

1875

January
James Blackton (James S. Blackton, James Stuart Blackton) (animator, director, producer) born in Sheffield. (Great Britain)

1876

July
Anson Dyer (Ernest John Anson Dyer( (July 18, 1876-February 22, 1962) (director, writer, animator, producer) born in Brighton, West Sussex. (Great Britain)

1877

December
Emile Reynaud patents the praxinoscope. This used mirrors to reflect images from a zoetrope type device so that a larger number of people could view them. (France)

1879

August
John R. Bray (John Randolph Bray) (producer, inventor, animator, director) born in Detroit, Michigan.

Note: Unfortunately I lack the time or resources to help people find copies of animated films and television programs. I have put together a web List of Online Video and Book Stores that will be useful to find copies in the United States. There are other similar stores on the Internet around the world that might be able to supply the DVDs, LDs, or video tapes that are desired. Check my Animation on the World Wide Web pages for links to animation studios and other Internet resources that may have further information. I am not involved in trading materials from my own collection. I am still waiting to see most of the programs in this Chronology and would be happy to find sources for many of them.

Because of these circumstances I will not respond to requests for help to find these types of materials.

Continue to 1880

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