The invention aimed to present the illusion of motion.
[1] The patent was filed by Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as an "improvement in exhibiting stereoscopic pictures".
Coleman applied stereoscopy to the existing principle of toy phantasmascopes using rotating discs.
A series of still stereographic images with successive stages of action were mounted on blades of a spinning paddle and viewed through slits.
The pictures were visible within a cabinet, and were not projected onto a screen.