Definition: The zoetrope was the successor to the phenakistoscope, invented a few years later as yet another early animation device - although the concept of the zoetrope has existed since the second century, developed in China.
The zoetrope is constructed as a cylinder with evenly spaced vertical slits cut in the sides. Inside the cylinder, drawings or photographs are arranged in succession, wrapping around the inner circumference below the slits. Viewers would spin the zoetrope, and then look through the slits to view the drawings. The images would "flow" from one to the next to create the crude illusion of motion.
