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Charles-Emile Reynaud :Praxinoscope 1877
Reynaud was a brilliant inventor, entranced with the mission to provide moving picture entertainments - via ‘magic lantern’ projectors (both front and back-projection) in his own theatre. Effectively, Reynaud invented the movies - his Théâtre Optique projection system (1888) - the first to feature moving images transported by film-perforations - was several years ahead of both the Lumiere’s and Edison-Dickson systems. The core of his projector design was demonstrated in the Praxinoscope - this was his patented method of animating a series of painted images, mounted on a revolving drum:
“Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors,[1] placed so that the reflections of the pictures appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, with a brighter and less distorted picture than the zoetrope offered.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxinoscope
By attaching a magic-lantern-style apparatus to the viewing point, Reynaud could project moving images in his Théâtre Optique in the Musée Grévin. The Praxinoscope-Théâtre was introduced in 1879:
“This was basically the same device, but it was hidden inside a box to show only the moving figures within added theatrical scenery. When the set was assembled inside the unfolded box, the viewer looked through a rectangular slot in the front, onto a plate with a transparent mirror surrounded by a printed proscenium. The mirror reflected a background and a floor that were printed on interchangeable cards placed on the inside of the folded lid of the box, below the viewing slot. The animated figures were printed on black strips, so they were all that was visible through the transparent mirror and appeared to be moving within the suggested space that was reflected from the background and floor cards. The set appeared with 20 strips (all based on previous standard praxinoscope strips), 12 backgrounds and a mirror intended for background effects for the swimming figure. This set also sold very well and appeared in slight variations, including a deluxe version made of thuja-wood with ebony inlays.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxinoscope