I checked out http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit07.htm
and saw an awsome optical toy called a Phenakistoscope. It is an instrument people used to animate with, around 1829, though it was shown to the public in 1832, it was used a couple of years before. I like the Phenakistoscope because it is not something people use these days. It was surprising to see diffrent kinds of animation techniques before computers were created. The phenakistoscope works by 2 discs ontop of each other on the same axis. When you look at the discs through a mirror in the slots, the pictures on the second disc appear to move.