Traceability - Fenach Mirror

In 1832, Belgian Joseph Prato and Austrian Simon von Stauffenfel almost simultaneously created the "Fenach Mirror", which can be regarded as a pioneer of silent film. It consists of two disks divided into 16 sectors, each sector depicting a sequence of dance movements, with radial cracks left at the edges. When two disks rotate coaxially, visitors can see the coherent dance animation reflected by the mirror through the crack. The invention of the Fenach mirror laid the foundation for the development of early film technology.

The unit is designed for unsupervised public use: controls are recessed or shielded, moving parts are enclosed, and the interface is operable by a child of about six with no instruction. Where a screen is used, the language can be switched without changing the hardware, and the content can be replaced on site.

The Fenach mirror was invented in 1832 by Belgian Joseph Prato and Austrian Simon von Stauffenfel, and can play continuous animation. It is a prototype of early silent films. One of the variants of the Fenach mirror is a disc vertically mounted on a handle. A series of images are drawn around the center on the disc, corresponding to the frames of the animation, with a series of slits around the edges of the images. The user rotates the disc and observes the reflection of the disc in the mirror through the moving slit. In this way, when the user sees images appearing consecutively, due to visual persistence, they achieve a continuous playback effect. Another variant has two discs, one with a slit and the other with an image, so that the animation can be seen without the reflection of a mirror. Unlike Western mirrors and subsequent inventions, the Fenach mirror can only be used by one person at a time. The Fibonacci mirror only existed for two years before being replaced by other technologies. The Fibonacci mirror is based on the phenomenon of visual retention, although this phenomenon was studied by Greek mathematician Euclid and.