Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau 218th Birthday | Google

Google Doodle's for Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (born on 14 October 1801 and died 15 September 1883) was a Belgian physicist and mathematician.

He was one of the first people to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. he used counter-rotating disks with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits in the other. He called this device of 1832 the phenakistiscope.

In 1829 Plateau submitted his doctoral thesis to his mentor Adolphe Quetelet for advice.
It contained the first results of his research into the effect of colours on the retina (duration, intensity and colour), his mathematical research into the intersections of revolving curves (locus), the observation of the distortion of moving images, and the reconstruction of distorted images through counter revolving discs (he dubbed these anorthoscopic discs).

Phenakistiscope

The phenakistiscope was the first widespread animation device that created a fluid illusion of motion. The phenakistiscope is regarded as one of the first forms of moving media entertainment that paved the way for the future motion picture and film industry.

The phénakisticope was invented through scientific research into optical illusions and published as such, but soon the device was marketed very successfully as an entertaining novelty toy. After the novelty wore off it became mostly regarded as a toy for children, but it still proved to be a useful demonstration tool for some scientists.

In later years, the man who created the foundation for modern cinema went blind. According to Google, he didn’t stop working on experimental physics. His son and son-in-law were involved in the research.