On 15 January 1847, Austrian magician Ludwig Döbler debuted his Phantaskop at the Josephstadt Theatre in Vienna. On the front, the patented apparatus had 12 lenses with different pictures. Two lenses inside the machine were cranked around to direct limelight through each consecutive image. The eight scenes, mostly depicting circus or vaudeville acts, were designed by Mr. Geyling. He took the show to several other European cities until the spring of 1848. The multi-part optical entertainment could also feature dissolving views enhanced with an additional third image, chromatropes, or raree shows. The spectacle was mostly well-received, but the flickering quality of the stroboscopic images was occasionally criticized.