Stereoscopic Binocular Praxinoscope

In 1907 Émile Reynaud registered a patent for ‘an apparatus for continuous sequences and vision without eclipses producing animated stereoscopic images’, which he called the Binocular Praxinoscope. The device creates ‘the animated stereoscopic illusion’ due to its great precision in the succession of images and absence of intermittences in vision. Two series of photographic stereoscopic views, taken successively with a cinematographic camera, are reflected by flat mirrors on two drums opposite one another revolving on the same axis. Looking through the eyepiece, borrowed from the stereoscope, and turning the drums with the crank, both relief and animation effects are perceived. This model, which very probably remained merely a prototype, was donated to the Conservatoire in 1926.