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Magic Lantern

1889 Advertisement for Magic Lanterns

In

The Book of the Lantern

published in 1889,

author Thomas Cradock Hepworth attributes the

conception of projecting images to Athanasius

Kircher, a Jesuit of the 17th Century. He notes

―

...

For in one of these books,

Ars Magna Lucis et

Umbre

, we not only find descriptions and

diagrams of numerous optical contrivances, but

several which show that Kircher quite

understood the main principle upon which the optical lantern depends.

‖

Others

attribute the idea to a much earlier time citing the work

Liber Instrumentorum

by

Giovanni de Fontana from the early 15th Century. And in 1589 Giovanni Baptista della

Porta published

Magiae Naturalis Libri Viginti

which outlined his method of projecting

images.

Whoever had the original idea can certainly be recognized as the one who created the

forerunner to the modern slide projector. The early instruments used a glass slide which

could have multiple images. The

―

show

‖

was projected on a wall or screen by sliding

the glass past the light source (oil lamps early on) which illuminates it through the lens.

In this slide, a fellow

struggles to pull a

cork with the bottle

anchored between his

knees. He gives up

and hooks the

cellarman's corkscrew

handle on a coat rack hook. His effort fails when the bottle breaks in the middle.

In this example, a

trader has arrived by

ship and he offers

his wares to the

natives in exchange

for fruit and horns.

He has cellarman's

corkscrews and a

funnel. The deal is done. One native is wearing the funnel as a hat and three natives are

wearing the corkscrews on necklaces and as earrings.