1134
distortions apparent in the original model were reduced.
The subjects were fantastic characters designed by the
Belgian artist Jean-Baptiste Madou, extrapolated into
motion sequences by Plateau himself. The result could
now be viewed more comfortably with both eyes, and
by more than one spectator.
Plateau moved to Ghent in 1835, and became a pro-
fessor at the University. Plateau’s experiments relating
to visual perception were wide-ranging, and included
the persistence of luminous impressions on the retina,
accidental colours, the contrast of colours, and coloured
shadows. He observed and commented on many aspects,
including ‘irradiation’—the phenomenon of a bright
object seen against a dark background appearing larger
than it actually is, related to the recurrent mystery of the
apparent size of the moon being larger on the horizon
than when it is high in the sky. He devised an instrument
to study the effect, which is measurable, and his results
were published in 1839. When he was around forty-two
years old, Plateau gradually went blind as a result of
an infl ammation of the eyes. (This was probably not,
as is often suggested, caused by experiments involving
direct viewing of the sun). Undaunted, he continued to
experiment assisted by his colleagues, friends and fam-
ily, including his elder son Félix. For decades Plateau
continued his studies of visual persistence, especially
the varying persistence of different colours. He believed
that this effect was a property of the retina, but it is now
known to be linked to the brain.
As well as undertaking optical research, Plateau also
studied the phenomena of capillarity and surface tension
of liquids, and his important work in that fi eld is still
well known. Many experiments describe the structure
of soap fi lms, illustrating the mathematical problem
of the existence of a minimal surface with a given
boundary—now named Plateau’s Rules. Stereoscopic
photographs of Plateau-type laminar soap fi lms formed
on wire shapes, taken about 1880, are in the J. Plateau
collection, Ghent.
Plateau’s phenakistiscope viewer evolved into the
zoetrope drum-form moving picture device, and was the
spur for many later experiments. In 1843 the obscure
English experimenter T.W. Naylor suggested a machine
for projecting phenakistiscope-disc drawings, and a plan
of the device was published.
Several of Plateau’s correspondents and contem-
poraries soon suggested viewing devices for a more
ambitious idea; the presentation of moving photographs.
Inventor of the stereoscope Charles Wheatstone, da-
guerreotypist Antoine Claudet and others struggled with
the problem over many years. In 1852 the French opti-
cian Jules Duboscq combined Plateau’s phenakistiscope
with Wheatstone’s stereoscope to produce the Bioscope,
a direct viewing instrument for producing a stereosopic
photographic moving image. (The name would later be
used for motion picture fi lm machines). In 1879 Ead-
weard Muybridge devised his successful Zoogyroscope
or Zoopraxiscope projector developed from Plateau’s
phenakistiscope principle, with glass discs bearing
painted fi gures based on his famous American sequence
photographs. Joseph Plateau died in 1883. His colour
vision research was an important contribution to the
subject, and his principle of producing moving images
by rapid succession of a number of progressive poses
would later be a key feature of the invention of motion
pictures on fi lm.
Stephen Herbert
Biography
Born in Brussels on October 14, 1801. His father was
Antoine Plateau (1759–1815), his mother Catherine
Thirion (1771–1814). After his father’s early death, an
uncle supported and encouraged Plateau’s early studies.
Plateau married Fanny Clavareau, August 27, 1840. He
was a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, a
correspondent of the Institute of France, and a member
of many European academies and learned societies.
Joseph Plateau died in Ghent on September 15, 1883,
forty years after he lost his sight. No photographic
portrait was known until the 1990s when an evocative
daguerreotype, taken by photographer Pilizzaro in
1843 just before Plateau went blind, was discovered in
France. It was acquired by the Museum of the History
of Science, University of Ghent, and is now in their
permanent collection.
See also: Duboscq, Louis Jules; Wheatstone, Charles;
and Claudet, Antoine-François-Jean.
Further Reading
Dorikens, Maurice, Joseph Plateau 1801–1883. Living between
Art and Science. Belgium: Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen
2001.
Hecht, Hermann, Ann Hecht (ed)., Pre-Cinema History. An
Encyclopaedia and Annotated Bibliography of the Moving
Image Before 1896. London: British Film Institute / Bowker
Saur 1993.
PLATINOTYPE COMPANY
In 1879, William Willis junior founded the Platinotype
Company in order chiefl y to manufacture and market his
platinum printing papers. Five years of research in his
private laboratory at Bromley, Kent, had followed his
initial patent of 1873—Improvements in Photochemi-
cal Printing—before Willis advanced suffi ciently to
offer his invention, described in his patent of 1878, to
the public. A factory was established at 66 Beckenham
Road, Penge, and the Company’s sales offi ce at 29
Southampton Row, High Holborn, London, which later
PLATEAU, JOSEPH ANTOINE FERDINAND
