The Victorians invented a number of toys that demonstrated apparent motion. A famous one was the phenakistoscope (spindle viewer) invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau. A disc rotated at speed facing towards a mirror. The viewer looked through the slit

Here is the disc rotating and we gradually increase the speed. Hopefully when it is in sync with your device's frame rate, you should see the stationary image.

In this example, we show the image through the slit with and without the need for persistence of vision.

New Image Displayed every 0.15 sec for 0.1 sec New Image Displayed every 0.15 sec for 0.15 sec Relies on: persistence of vision persistence of vision apparent motion apparent motion

Some other examples can be found at Science Museum in Gent.

Between 1876 and 1892, Charles-Émile Reynaud improved the basic concept via a sequence of more sophisticated devices resulting in the ability to show moving images with backgrounds to a large audience via projection, called the Théâtre Optique.