Optical toys

Optical toys form a group of devices with some entertainment value combined with a scientific, optical nature. Many of these were also known as "philosophical toys" when they were developed in the 19th century.

People must have experimented with optical phenomena since prehistoric times and played with objects that influenced the experience of light, color and shadow. In the 16th century some experimental optical entertainment - for instance camera obscura demonstrations - were part of the cabinets of curiosities that emerged at royal courts. Since the 17th century optical tabletop instruments such as the compound microscope and telescope were used for parlour entertainment in richer households .

Other, larger devices - such as peep shows - were usually exhibited by travelling showmen at fairs.

The phenakistiscope, zoetrope, praxinoscope and flip book a.o. are often seen as precursors of film, leading to the invention of cinema at the end of the 19th century. In the 21st century this narrow teleological vision was questioned and the individual qualities of these media gained renewed attention of researchers in the fields of the history of film, science, technology and art. The new digital media raised questions about our knowledge of media history. The tactile qualities of optical toys that allow viewers to study and play with the moving image in their own hands, seem more attractive in a time when digitalisation makes the moving image less tangible.

Several philosophical toys were developed through scientific experimentation, then turned into scientific amusements that demonstrated new ideas and theories in the fields of optics, physics, electricity, mechanics, etc. and ended up as toys for children.

List of optical toys

date name inventor(s) type/function note
n/a Camera obscura n/a projection a natural phenomenon, applied with lens since around 1550, portable box since early 17th century
730 BCE (circa) Lens n/a burning glass? the function of the oldest known lens, the Nimrud lens, is unclear (it may only have been used for decoration), lenses were probably seldom used as a magnifying glass or as glasses before the 13th century
100 BCE (circa) Chinese magic mirror n/a projection probably introduced centuries or thousands of years before they became popular during the Han dynasty
0 (circa) Prism n/a dispersion Seneca noted that a prism could form the same colors as the rainbow
150 (circa) Newton disc / color-top (chameleon top) Ptolemy additive optical color mixing first known description by Ptolemy, later falsely attributed to Isaac Newton
850 (circa) reading stone Abbas ibn Firnas? magnification not regularly used before circa 1000
1437? Peep box / raree show Leon Battista Alberti? especially popular from the 17th to the 19th century
1485 (circa)? Perspective anamorphosis Leonardo da Vinci? anamorphosis
1500s Tabula scalata n/a extant copies from late 16th century, also referred to in literature of the time (including works by Shakespeare)
1600s Mirror anamorphosis n/a anamorphosis reached Europe around 1620, possibly from China via Constantinople
1608 Telescope Hans Lippershey? Zacharias Janssen? Jacob Metius?
1620s? Compound microscope Cornelis Drebbel?
1620s? Pleasurable spectacles (faceted lenses) described in Jean Leurechon's Récréations Mathématiques (1623)
>1630s Mirrored room multiplication a room lined with 200 mirrors in the palace of the king of Armenia was described in 1647 by Adam Olearius
1638 Perspective glass Jean François Niceron? hidden image a viewing tube with a faceted lens that brings together selective parts of a picture into one composite image
1650s Perspective box viewing box with a lens, false perspective painted on multiple planes in the interior of the box
1659 Magic lantern Christiaan Huygens projection
1730? Zograscope perspective views n/a 3D known in France since 1730 as "optique", it became known as the "zograscope" in England since 1745
1736 Solar microscope Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit projection
1770s? Chinese fireworks or Feux pyriques n/a animated light effects
1817 Kaleidoscope David Brewster
1822 Polyorama Panoptique Pierre Seguin?
1825 Thaumatrope William Henry Fitton? introduced by John Ayrton Paris
1827 Kaleidophone Charles Wheatstone
1829 Anorthoscope Joseph Plateau anamorphosis marketed shortly since 1836
1833-01 Phénakisticope Joseph Plateau, Simon Stampfer animation
1833 Stereoscope Sir Charles Wheatstone 3D mirror version developed by Wheatstone around 1832, presented/published in 1838, prismatic version probably developed simultaneously by Wheatstone, prismatic/lenticular version introduced in 1849 by David Brewster and popularized with production by Jules Duboscq since 1850
1852 Anaglyph 3D Wilhelm Rollmann 3D
1858-04 Kaleidoscopic colour-top John Gorham
1860 Alethoscope Carlo Ponti 3D further developed into the Megalethoscope
1864 Spectropia J. H. Brown afterimage
1866-12 Zoetrope William Ensign Lincoln animation similar devices suggested and exhibited since 1833, now with exchangeable strips
1868 (circa) The Optic Wonder or Creator of Form John Gorham 3D a small metal strip or crystal shape forming the half of a contour image is spun around fast to appear as a full solid 3D object, marketed by Stereoscopic Company (London Stereoscopic & Photographic Co.)
1868 Flip book John Barnes Linnett animation
1877 Praxinoscope Charles-Émile Reynaud animation
1894 Mutoscope William Kennedy Dickson, Herman Casler moving pictures
1896 Kinora Auguste and Louis Lumière moving pictures
1906 Scanimation Alexander S. Spiegel animation originally marketed as magical moving pictures, adapted as scanimation since 2006
1921 Ombro-Cinéma Saussine animation
1939 View-Master William Gruber 3D
1952 Lenticular pictures Victor Anderson animation originally invented in 1898 as autostereogram, now popularized as changing/moving pictures
1980 Mandelbrot set visualizations Benoit Mandelbrot
1991 Magic Eye Tom Baccei, Cheri Smith 3D / hidden image Christopher Tyler developed a black and white version in 1979

This page was last updated at 2022-09-18 06:05 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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