Building a miniature working Vitascope

I got this model kit from a company called Rokr. It’s a miniature working Vitascope. It comes with a film reel and a small dynamo that powers a flashing light when cranked. The light projects an animation of Charlie Chaplin dancing on the wall.

It took about 6 hours to assemble. I worked slowly and triple checked everything because I tend to be terrible at building stuff. I was impressed with the intricacy of some of the pieces which were so small I could barely pick them up.

I didn’t know how a Vitascope worked prior to building this model, but I have an ok idea now that I put this together. A film reel is loaded into the camera, and there is a crank that moves the film through the camera. As the film is moving, there is a light that flashes in alignment with each individual frame of the film reel. That is why on old movies they have that flashing look to them. The light projects each frame in quick sequence which makes it appear to be a “moving picture”