Magic lantern

The magic lantern is the ancestor of the apparatuses of projection and particularly of the Projecteur of slides. It appears at the 17th century, but its paternity remains hypothetical. It constitutes the typical example of the instruments optical known as objectives.

Description

The magic lantern is made of three elements: a source of light, a glass plate painted and a convergent lens. It functions on the principle of the Camera will obscura, where the source of light (sun) and the projected images (landscapes) are replaced by artificial elements (glass lamp and plate painted). The light passes by the glass plate, then by the lens, to project the reversed image (haut-bas) painted on the plate.

One finds many alternatives of them: addition of a concave mirror and other lenses for to condense the light; source of light of various natures (candle, oil lamp, bulb); lantern with double objective allowing the dissolve between two glass plates for two images. The glass plates are sometimes provided with small mechanisms making it possible to animate the image partially.

Applications

Spectacles

  • itinerant spectacles of Thomas Walgenstein (1664)
  • transparencies of Carmontelle (1765-1805)
  • the phantasmagorias of Robertson (1778)
  • the luminous Mimes of Emile Reynaud (1892)

Proselytism

Educational tools

Quotations

  • In Faust, a magic lantern reveals hero of Troy and monsters of mythology, trying to devour, before disappearing, some terrified students.

External bonds

  • Magic lanterns, “animated stories”: Intervention of Yves Rifaux to the congress of Valencians in 2001
  • Sité dedicated to the magic lantern
  • Of the camera will obscura with the magic lantern: File “special Effects with the cinema” (historical approach)
  • the magic lantern: Virtual exposure

See too

  • Optical

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