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The Magic Lantern

 

The magic lantern was a precursor to modern slide projectors, but its exact origins are unknown and the identity of its inventor is up for debate among experts. Dahl Clark kindly helps individuals interested in learning more of the magic lantern by explaining parts of the mechanical components. “A lantern consists of seven functional sections: A lamp, reflector, condensing lens, lens tube, body, base and smokestack” (Clark, Magic Lantern). During the time before electricity, different fuels were burned to produce light for the source of the projection; oil, gas, but eventually lime was favored as the light it produced was a brilliant white. The light was then directed through the condensing lens and on to the slides. The slides themselves were made of glass, sometimes were hand-painted, and held together by wood or metal. What makes the slides interesting is that there were more than one type, and oftentimes produced the illusion of movement.

Above is an image of a complete, antique magic lantern. This particular object is part of the Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman Exhibit of Optical Toys.

Above is an image of a magic lantern blueprint. The chimney resides just above the lamp, to vent smoke so the fire won't die. Below the lamp lies the fuel tank, and to the back of the machine (left in the photo) is the reflector.

This is a biurnial magic lantern.  The two projectors allowed for two images to be displayed at once which provided some illusion of depth.

Here are two images meant for a biurnial lantern. The slide to the left would have been stationary, depicting a scene where a man perhaps conjures, or experiences, some form of magic through the smoke. The black void within the smoke was were the second picture was projected. Usually the second slide had a series of images which rotated through the projector. The image to the right has the illusion of depth as one scene seems to rest inside the other.

Breaking It Down

So what's so great about ye olde slide show? For one, as Michael Leja points out in his book Looking Askance, that “the magic lantern provided turn-of-the-century audiences with visual entertainment in vaudeville theaters, dime museums, circuses, and lyceums” (Leja 206). Magic lantern shows often portrayed stories as any illustration in a book would, but the overall design of the machine allows images to be displayed as “detached from any ground, and, consequently, able to move and change” (207). Some lanterns even had two projectors, allowing them to add layers to the images they displayed for audiences. While the majority of the image would be still, a secondary layer could be moving; such as a waterwheel connected to an unmoving watermill.

Skeletons and Spooks

Magic lantern shows had a variety of uses which included educational purposes, but perhaps the most well known involved what most audiences today would consider “horror shows.” Ghosts! Devils! Angels to save poor lost souls! Dancing skeletons! All these and more made appearances with the magic lantern shows of the nineteenth century. According to Leja: “Skeleton imagery was the first recorded subject matter, and ghoulish motifs remained prominent through the late nineteenth century” (Leja, p. 207). The horror genre of art has been around even before the invention of the magic lanterns, particularly in literature, but magic lanterns held a certain appeal in creating horror stories with their ability to provide the illusions of figures seemingly appearing and disappearing out of nothing, magical flight, or other creepy staples of things that go bump in the night.

Above right is one of the many images displayed during a magic lantern show. The skeleton bears down on the scared man to the right. This image would have likely been slowly introduced to increase the dramatic tension the story was meant to convey.

Here is a video of a modern day magic lantern show.  Note that a biurnial lantern was used for this video, and in several of the slides there are images that move such as the water wheel.  There are also the typical skeletons, witches, goblins and other monsters in later slides that rotate into and out of view.

 

--Laura Fox

Work Cited

Clark, Dahl. Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman Exhibit of Optical Toys.         North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Web. 5 April 2014.

 

Leja, Michael. Looking Askance. Los Angeles: University of California Press,         2004. Print.

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