A child prodigy

Google Doodle celebrated what would have been the 218th birthday
of Belgian physicist Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau, inventor of
the phénakistiscope, a device that led to the birth of cinema by
creating the illusion of a moving image.

RELATED: NEW GOOGLE DOODLE
CELEBRATES FATHER OF CORONARY BYPASS SURGERY RENÉ
FAVALORO^[1]

“Inspired by the mesmerizing animated discs, the animated
Doodle art was made to reflect Plateau’s style, with different
imagery and themes in them on different device platforms,”
read^[2]
Google’s description of the Doodle.

A child prodigy

Born in Brussels in 1801, Plateau was the son of an accomplished
artist. At the age of six, the young Plateau was
declared a child prodigy as he was able to read.
In primary school, he was particularly fascinated
by physics.

Unfortunately at the age of fourteen tragedy struck and he
lost both his father and mother. The trauma from this event is said
to have made him fall ill.

Still, he went on to study law and soon became one of the
best-known Belgian scientists of the nineteenth century. He was
best known for his work of physiological optics, in particular, the
effect of light and color on the human retina.

Plateau’s doctoral dissertation explored how images form on the
retina. Using this research, he was able to create a stroboscopic
device in 1832 that created the illusion of a dancer in motion.
This would be the beginning of cinema.

A loss of vision

Later in life, Plateau would lose his vision. He attributed this
misfortune to an experiment he led where he gazed
directly into the sun for 25 seconds.

This may not have been the case and it is suspected that
he suffered from chronic uveitis.

Despite his loss of vision, he continued to have a productive
career in science. He worked as a professor of experimental physics
at Ghent University alongside his son Felix Plateau and his
son-in-law Gustaaf Van der Mensbrugghe who would later become his
biographer.

Today Plateau is known for being one of the first
people to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. Happy 218th
birthday Joseph Plateau!