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Magic
Lantern
History
| How it works | Types of
lantern slides | What became of it
Sources | More
Lanterns | Back
to Optical Toys
History:
Since scientists began experimenting with the
magic lantern in the 1600s, this device continued to play an
important role in early entertainment.
Magic lanterns are an early equivalent of
today's slide projectors, with a few important
differences. First, magic lanterns used fire instead of
electric bulbs to illuminate the slides. A second
difference was the shape of the slides. Today's slides are
often made of lightweight, thin plastic or glass, and come in
single frames. Magic lantern slides came in strips of
large, bulky pieces of glass held together with metal or
wood. They often contained mechanical features that
allowed limited movement of one or more slides within the
projector, a feature no longer found on modern slide
projectors. Lastly, many magic lanterns could display
images of greater complexity than today's slide
projectors.
How it works:
A magic lantern consists of seven functional
sections: the lamp, reflector, condensing lens, lens tube, body,
base, and smokestack. The lamp is the sole source
of illumination, which often came from burning oil or gas, a
burning piece of calcium, or later, electricity. The reflector
reflects the light from the lamp toward the condensing lens,
which focuses the light onto the slide being projected.
The lens tube serves to magnify the illuminated slide, so
that projected images from 6 to 12 feet wide can be
obtained. The body is often made completely of
metal, and houses all of the previous components except the lens
tube. The base lifts the magic lantern above the
surface of a table. This is important because the body
will become intensely hot from the illuminating lamp, and the
base helps to prevent table burns. Finally, the smokestack
serves to vent the smoke coming from the lamp, so that the smoke
doesn't accumulate inside the lantern and put out the fire.
Hand-painted or photographic glass slides are
inserted horizontally between the condensing lens and lens tube,
through metal runners at top and bottom. A skilled
projectionist can move them quickly, and if the slides contain
images of progressive motion, the projected image will appear to
move. Some slides can create complex, constantly moving
displays, demonstrating that the magic lantern is not simply a
still image projector.
Types of lantern slides:
Lantern slides came in several sizes. Peck
and Snyder, a company with great influence in the magic lantern
industry, sold slides measuring 4.5 by 7 inches. "English
pattern" slides were 3.5 by 3.5 inches, "French
pattern" slides were 3.25 by 4 inches, and the "standard
European size" was 3.25 by 3.25 inches. Specialized
slides were over a foot long at times, containing gears, cranks,
cogs, and even belts and pulleys. Obviously, there was very
little standardization of slide sizes, but apparently this had
little impact on the magic lantern's popularity. Although
such a wide variety of magic lanterns and slides were made, the
different types were so widespread that people could still find
slides to fit their particular magic lanterns.
What became of it:
Due to the high demand at the time, the magic
lantern industry was almost the equivalent of today's computer
industry. Peck and Snyder sold at least 47 different
varieties of magic lantern; the varieties mainly arose from
slight changes in the seven lantern sections.
Sources:
http://photo2.si.edu/cinema/cinema.html
A replete source of information on magic
lanterns:
http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/index-cat.html#la
A detailed story of a magic lantern show,
demonstrating how this device caught the fanciful attention of
audiences:
http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/15/150.html
A modern Magic Lantern Society, and sources for
more reading:
http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/12/123.html
Here are a few
examples of the variety of magic lanterns that existed before
the turn of the century.
Click on any
thumbnail for a larger photo and a description
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