The Zoetrope is an early motion picture machine. Spin the drum and look through the slits to see a series of still pictures leap into action.

This popular 19th century optical toy was invented twice: first in 1834 by an Englishman, Willian Horner, and later in 1860 by a Frenchman, Pierre Desvigns. The English called their machine the "wheel of the devil," but Desvigns named his device the Zoetrope (from the Greek words zoion meaning "living being" and tropos meaning "turn") and called it the "wheel of life".

In 1878, the British-born American photographer Eadweard Muybridge used the Zoetrope to perform an experiment and help win a bet. The best was made by Leland Standord, then Govenor of California, who wagered $25,000 that a galloping horse, at some point in its gallop, has all four feet off the ground. Muybridge set up his cameras along a race track to produce a series of still photos which proved that Stanford was right - at one point in its gallop, a horse does have all four feet off the ground. Muybridge then placed his pictures of a galloping horse in a Zoetrope and spun it, thus producing the first motion picture of real photographs.