It is a small contraption patented by Henry William Short in England in 1898. It was manufactured under license by the company British Mutoscope & Biograph The Cº. Ltd. The filoscopio is an ancestor of animation as we know it today, because it is a small booklet with images that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that the passing them quickly simulate movement ... very similar to frames that make a movie, and like other inventions like motuscopio. The predecessor of the filoscopio was patented in 1868 by John Barnes Linnett, under the name of Kineograph. The mechanism used by the filoscopio is very simple: a metal lever the lower leaves begin to roll, through a flap protrusion and allows the brakes go past one to one before our eyes. In this way it manages to create an illusion of movement. The booklet is the filoscopio in our collection consists of 158 successive photographic views on paper, which appears a funny scene of a couple reconciled after a small dispute. The booklet is protected by a metal part with a fine lithography. The creator of the filoscopio, Henry William Short, is a key player in the birth of cinema in the UK. In 1896 he came to Spain and Portugal and filmed scenes like a bullfight or a sea cave near Lisbon, from the latter to be one of the most famous of the first British films.
