United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
IrelandZack D. Films drops a penny into an 1800s movie machine
The animated Short opens up a hand-cranked Mutoscope, where the coin itself helps start the show.
Zack D. Films
Story of No. 12 on the daily chartNo. 1 on the Science chart
Why this story? One of the most watched videos since yesterday, with 3,947,040 views.
How This 1800s Movie Machine Worked 🤔
The penny is not just the ticket. In "How This 1800s Movie Machine Worked 🤔", the coin becomes a working part of the machine, and the Short follows it all the way in.
The animation takes a red Mutoscope apart. The coin drops between two plates. A turn of the side crank swings a metal arm into it, pushing the rear plate, releasing a stop gear and setting a wheel of hundreds of photo cards spinning. "The cards spun against the metal bar, which bent them backward, causing them to snap," the narrator explains, and that same pressure switches on a lamp that lights each picture as it flips past the peephole. It is a flipbook with gears.
It is the kind of how-it-works explainer behind the channel's most watched Short, "How Stitches Work 😯", and this one drew nearly four million views since yesterday.
Machines like this lasted for decades: on British seaside piers they became known as "What the Butler Saw" machines.
The comments mostly look at the cards. Many viewers recognize the furry monster starring in the tiny film as Bork, a character they have seen before, and suggest new adventures for him. Others work out what one penny bought back then and set it beside a streaming bill.
Published on Trari
Where next?
What viewers say
Dropping a single penny into an 1800s clockwork box just to watch a 6-second fuzzy monster movie is still cheaper than modern Netflix 😭
@siskaalyinSee it on YouTubeRealizing how people in the 1800s engineered a fully mechanical moving picture machine using just gears, a coin slot, and a hand crank is genuinely mind-blowing
@Erliana-h3tSee it on YouTubeBorkzilla hits different
@pongarrasSee it on YouTube
6 more comments
Wild how people were already making moving pictures before electricity was common. The amount of manual work just to get a few seconds of motion is kinda impressive 🤔
@ThynteraSee it on YouTubeBork just wanted to eat something 🥹
@Borkthedinosaur-l7jSee it on YouTubeBork was just hungry man
@Borkthedinosaur-l7jSee it on YouTubeGodzilla❌️
Borkzilla✅️@AndreaTheProSee it on YouTubeFor those who don't understand, this video shows how an old-fashioned coin-operated picture machine works. When someone inserts a penny, it activates a series of gears that spin picture cards rapidly, creating the illusion of a moving image when viewed through a peephole.
@hislegacy-i3eSee it on YouTubeBro needs his own Netflix series
@pongarrasSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
Is this your channel?For the channel's owners and team: a ready picture and text for your audience
Share the story with your audience. Everything is ready:
For an Instagram story or a WhatsApp status
For a community post or your channel's description
- Channel
- Zack D. Films
- Subscribers
- 29,600,000 ▲ 200,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 811,750,919
- Channel views, pace per day
- 92,872,753 (on a normal day: 117,211,661)
- Video published
- November 4, 2026
- Video views so far
- 8,408,356 (2 days online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 3,948,821 (on a normal day: 7,717,745)
The numbers
A Short about a coin-operated picture machine, and one of the most watched new videos since yesterday.
💡 Test your knowledge
Who patented the Mutoscope in the 1890s?
Herman Casler patented the Mutoscope in the mid-1890s, and it was marketed by the American Mutoscope Company, later known as Biograph.