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Webster 1913 Edition
Thaumatrope
Thau′ma-trope
(tha̤′mȧ-trōp)
, Noun.
[Gr.
θαῦμα
a wonder + τρέπειν
to turn.] (Opt.)
An optical instrument or toy for showing the persistence of an impression upon the eyes after the luminous object is withdrawn.
☞ It consists of a card having on its opposite faces figures of two different objects, or halves of the same object, as a bird and a cage, which, when the card is whirled rapidly round a diameter by the strings that hold it, appear to the eye combined in a single picture, as of a bird in its cage.