View source for Magic lantern

{{short description|Type of image projector}}
{{about|the early type of image projector}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
[[File:Magic Lantern.jpg|thumb|19th century magic lantern with printed slide incorrectly inserted (upright, which would be projected by the lantern as an inverted picture<ref name=Morton/>)]]
[[File:Magic lantern slide Carpenter and Westley.jpg|thumb|Magic lantern slide by [[Carpenter and Westley]]]]
The '''magic lantern''', also known by its Latin name '''{{lang|la|lanterna magica}}''', is an early type of [[image projector]] that uses pictures—paintings, prints, or [[photograph]]s—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more [[lens (optics)|lens]]es, and a light source.  Because a single lens inverts an image projected through it (as in the phenomenon which inverts the image of a [[camera obscura]]), slides are inserted upside down in the magic lantern, rendering the projected image correctly oriented.<ref name=Morton>[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0016003267903766 "Erecting the inverted image In the magic lantern", Henry Morton, Ph.D., ''Journal of the Franklin Institute'', Volume 83, Issue 6, June 1867, Pages 406-409; "A lens, as every one knows, inverts the image which it makes of any object; hence, in the magic lantern, we insert the image upside down."]</ref>

It was mostly developed in the 17th century and commonly used for entertainment purposes. It was increasingly used for education during the 19th century. Since the late 19th century, smaller versions were also mass-produced as toys. The magic lantern was in wide use from the 18th century until the mid-20th century when it was superseded by a compact version that could hold many 35&nbsp;mm photographic slides: the [[slide projector]].

==Technology==
[[File:1721? Jacob 's Gravesande - Physices Elementa Mathematica.jpg|thumb|A page of [[Willem 's Gravesande]]'s 1720 book ''Physices Elementa Mathematica'' with Jan van Musschenbroek's magic lantern projecting a monster. The depicted lantern is one of the oldest known preserved examples, and is in the collection of [[Museum Boerhaave]], Leiden]]

===Apparatus===
The magic lantern used a concave mirror behind a light source to direct the light through a small rectangular sheet of glass—a "lantern slide" that bears the image—and onward into a lens at the front of the apparatus. The lens is adjusted to focus the plane of the slide at the distance of the projection screen, which can be simply a white wall, and it forms an enlarged image of the slide on the screen.<ref name="ReferenceA">Pfragner, Julius. "An Optician Looks for Work". The Motion Picture: From Magic Lantern to Sound. Great Britain: Bailey Brothers and Swinfen Ltd. 9-21. Print.</ref> Some lanterns, including those of [[Christiaan Huygens]] and Jan van Musschenbroek, used three lenses for the [[objective (optics)|objective]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=De toverlantaarn in Nederland|first=Daan|last=Buddingh|magazine=Het Photohistorisch Tijdschrift|issue=2|date=2007|trans-title=The Magic Lantern in the Netherlands|url=https://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/nederland1_uk.htm|access-date=2022-09-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Tour of the World by Magic Lantern: Eugene Danguy's Diaphorama|last=Mannoni|first=Laurent|journal=The New Magic Lantern Journal|volume=11|issue=3|date=December 2012|url=https://www.magiclantern.org.uk/new-magic-lantern-journal/item.php?id=4009761|access-date=2022-09-16}}</ref>

Biunial lanterns, with two objectives, became common during the 19th century and enabled a smooth and easy change of pictures. [[Stereopticon]]s added more powerful light sources to optimize the projection of photographic slides.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biunial and Triunial Magic Lanterns |url=https://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/biunial_uk.htm |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=De Luikerwaal}}</ref>

===Slides===
Originally the pictures were hand painted on glass slides. Initially, figures were rendered with black paint but soon transparent colors were also used. Sometimes the painting was done on oiled paper. Usually black paint was used as a background to block superfluous light, so the figures could be projected without distracting borders or frames. Many slides were finished with a layer of transparent lacquer, but in a later period cover glasses were also used to protect the painted layer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.luikerwaal.com/platen1_uk.htm|title=All about lantern slides (1)}}</ref> Most handmade slides were mounted in wood frames with a round or square opening for the picture.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.luikerwaal.com/platen2_uk.htm|title=All about magic lantern slides (2)|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref>

[[File:10 Story about a boy falling in a barrel of honey.JPG|thumb|left|A paper rimmed mass-produced slide]]
After 1820 the manufacturing of hand colored printed slides started, often making use of [[decalcomania]] transfers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.luikerwaal.com/platen1_uk.htm#decal|title=All about lantern slides (1)|website=De Luikerwaal}}</ref> Many manufactured slides were produced on strips of glass with several pictures on them and rimmed with a strip of glued paper.<ref name="Timby2016">{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/23363210|title=Glass Transparencies: Marketing Photography's Luminosity and Precision|last=Timby|first=Kim|author-link=Kim Timby|year=2016|journal=PhotoResearcher|issue=25 }}</ref>

The first photographic lantern slides, called ''hyalotypes'', were invented by the German-born brothers Ernst Wilhelm (William) and [[Frederick Langenheim|Friedrich (Frederick) Langenheim]] in 1848 in [[Philadelphia]] and patented in 1850.<ref name="Timby2016"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US7784A/en|title=Improvement in photographic pictures on glass}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=1799&|title=William and Frederick Langenheim at Historic Camera|website=Historic Camera}}</ref>

===Light sources===
Apart from sunlight, the only light sources available at the time of invention in the 17th century were candles and oil lamps, which were very inefficient and produced very dim projected images. The invention of the [[Argand lamp]] in the 1790s helped to make the images brighter. The invention of [[limelight]] in the 1820s made them even brighter, emitting about 6000-8000 [[Lumen (unit)|lumens]].<ref>[https://www.canon-europe.com/view/laterna-magica/ Laterna Magica – the simple device that changed the way we view the world]</ref> The invention of the intensely bright electric [[arc lamp]] in the 1860s eliminated the need for combustible gases or hazardous chemicals, and eventually the incandescent electric lamp further improved safety and convenience, although not brightness.<ref name="ReferenceB">Waddington, Damer. "Introduction". Panoramas, Magic Lanterns and Cinemas. Channel Islands, NJ: Tocan Books. xiii-xv. Print.</ref>

==Precursors==
{{further|projector}}
Several types of projection systems existed before the invention of the magic lantern. [[Giovanni Fontana (engineer)|Giovanni Fontana]], [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Cornelis Drebbel]] described or drew image projectors that had similarities to the magic lantern.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Evolution of Scientific Instruments|date=April 3, 1925|author=<!--no byline-->|magazine=Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal|volume=CXIX|issue=3092|page=407|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4SIjAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA407|via=Google Books}}</ref> In the 17th century, there was an immense interest in optics. The [[telescope]] and [[microscope]] were invented and apart from being useful to some scientists, such instruments were especially popular as entertaining curiosities to people who could afford them.<ref name="rossell2002">{{Cite book |last=Rossell |first=Deac |title=Ich sehe was, was Du nicht siehst! — Sehmaschinen und Bilderwelten: Die Sammlung Werner Nekes |publisher=Steidl Verlag |year=2002 |isbn=3-88243-856-8 |editor-last=von Dewitz |editor-first=Bodo |location=Göttingen, Germany |trans-title=I Can See What You Cannot See! — Seeing Machines and Worlds of Images: The Collection of Werner Nekes |chapter=The Magic Lantern |oclc=248511845 |editor-last2=Nekes |editor-first2=Werner |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/345943 |via=Academia.edu}}</ref> The magic lantern would prove a natural successor.

===Camera obscura===
The magic lantern can be seen as a further development of [[camera obscura]]. This is a natural phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (for instance a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen as an inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. It was known at least since the 5th century BC and experimented with in darkened rooms at least since {{circa|1000&nbsp;AD}}. The use of a lens in the hole has been traced back to {{circa|1550|lk=no}}. The portable camera obscura box with a lens was developed in the 17th century. Dutch inventor [[Cornelis Drebbel]] is thought to have sold one to Dutch poet, composer and diplomat [[Constantijn Huygens]] in 1622,<ref name="Snyder">{{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=Laura J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQJ-BAAAQBAJ&q=friedrich+risner+camera+obscura&pg=PT110 |title=Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing |publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-393-07746-9 |location=New York City |oclc=892514232}}</ref> while the oldest known clear description of a box-type camera is in German Jesuit scientist [[Gaspar Schott]]'s 1657 book ''Magia universalis naturæ et artis''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vermeir |first=Koen |date=2005 |title=The Magic of the Magic Lantern (1660–1700): On Analogical Demonstration and the Visualization of the Invisible |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4028694 |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=127–159 |doi=10.1017/S0007087405006709 |issn=0007-0874 |jstor=4028694|s2cid=143404000 }}</ref>

===Steganographic mirror===
[[File:1645 kircher - steganographia.jpg|thumb|Illustration of Kircher's Steganographic mirror in his 1645 book ''Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae'']]
The 1645 first edition of German Jesuit scholar [[Athanasius Kircher]]'s book ''[[Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae]]'' included a description of his invention, the "Steganographic Mirror": a primitive projection system with a focusing lens and text or pictures painted on a concave mirror reflecting sunlight, mostly intended for long-distance communication. Kircher saw limitations in the increase of size and diminished clarity over a long distance and expressed his hope that someone would find a method to improve on this.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kircher |first=Athanasius |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_zev001199401_01/_zev001199401_01_0033.php |title=Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae |publisher=Sumptibus Hermanni Scheus |year=1645 |location=Rome, Italy |page=912}}</ref>

In ''Magia universalis'', Schott also relates how many were using Kircher's technique to exhibit wondrous things to enthousiastic audiences. For instance, the Belgian Jesuit mathematician [[André Tacquet]] had shown missionary [[Martino Martini]]'s complete journey from China to Belgium (when Martini was in Leuven in 1654).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Golvers |first=Noël |date=1994 |title=De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: Over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J. |trans-title=The Recruitment Journey of M. Martini, S.J. through the Low Countries in 1654: About geomantic compasses, Chinese collections, light images and R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J. |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_zev001199401_01/index.php |journal=De Zeventiende Eeuw |language=nl |volume=10}}</ref> Some reports say that Martini lectured throughout Europe with a magic lantern, which he might have imported from China, but there's no evidence that it used anything other than Kircher's technique. However, Tacquet was a correspondent and friend of [[Christiaan Huygens]] and may thus have been a very early adapter of the magic lantern technique that Huygens developed around this period.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rossell |first=Deac |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/315395149 |title=Laterna Magica = Magic Lantern |publisher=Füsslin Verlag |year=2008 |isbn=978-3-940769-00-8 |volume=1 |location=Stuttgart, Germany |page=19 |oclc=315395149}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Replicating 18th Century Magic Lantern Practice|first1=Wolfgang|last1=Engels|first2=Klaus|last2=Staubermann|journal=Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society|issue=130|date=2016|page=40|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76946022.pdf|via=CORE}}</ref>

==Invention==
===Christiaan Huygens===
[[File:1664-12-11 Lantern sketch - Huygens a Petit.jpg|thumb|A sketch of the lantern configuration (without a slide) from Huygens' letter to Pierre Petit (11 December 1664)]]
Dutch scientist [[Christiaan Huygens]] is considered as one of the possible inventors of the magic lantern. He knew [[Athanasius Kircher]]'s 1645 edition of ''Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae''<ref>{{cite book|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k778725|title=Oeuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens. Supplémént à la correspondance varia. Biographie de Chr. Huygens. Catalogue de la vente des livres de Chr. Huygens / publ. par la Société hollandaise des sciences|first=Christiaan (1629-1695) Auteur du texte|last=Huygens|publisher=M. Nijhoff|via=gallica.bnf.fr}}</ref> which described a primitive projection system with a focusing lens and text or pictures painted on a concave mirror reflecting sunlight. Christiaan's father Constantijn had been acquainted with Cornelis Drebbel who used some unidentified optical techniques to transform himself and to summon appearances in magical performances. Constantijn Huygens wrote about a camera obscura device that he got from Drebbel in 1622.<ref name="Snyder"/>

The oldest known document concerning the magic lantern is a page on which Christiaan Huygens made ten small sketches of a skeleton taking off its skull, above which he wrote "for representations by means of convex glasses with the lamp" (translated from French). As this page was found between documents dated in 1659, it is believed to have been made in the same year.<ref>{{cite web|first=Christiaan|last=Huygens|title=Pour des representations par le moyen de verres convexes à la lampe|url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv22_01/huyg003oeuv22_01_0093.php|language=fr}}</ref> Huygens soon seemed to regret this invention, as he thought it was too frivolous. In a 1662 letter to his brother [[Lodewijck Huygens|Lodewijk]] he claimed he thought of it as some old "bagatelle" and seemed convinced that it would harm the family's reputation if people found out the lantern came from him. Christiaan had reluctantly sent a lantern to their father, but when he realized that Constantijn intended to show the lantern to the court of King [[Louis XIV of France]] at the Louvre, Christiaan asked Lodewijk to sabotage the lantern.<ref>{{cite web |first=Christiaan |last=Huygens |date=19 April 1662 |title=letter to Lodewijk Huygens |language=fr |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv04_01/huyg003oeuv04_01_0059.php#z1005}}</ref>

Christiaan initially referred to the magic lantern as "la lampe" and "la lanterne", but in the last years of his life he used the then common term "laterna magica" in some notes. In 1694, he drew the principle of a "laterna magica" with two lenses.<ref>{{cite web|first=Christiaan|last=Huygens|date=1694|title=Aanhangsel II bij het eerste Complement van de Dioptrica |language=nl |url=https://adcs.home.xs4all.nl/Huygens/13/compl-v.html}}</ref>

===Walgensten, the Dane===
[[File:1674 Dechales - Cursus seu mundus mathematicus - Laterna Magica.jpg|thumb|left|Walgensten's magic lantern as illustrated in [[Claude Dechales]] {{lang|la|Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus — Tomus secundus}} (1674)]]
{{ill|Thomas Rasmussen Walgensten|da|Thomas Walgensten}} ({{circa|1627}}–1681), a mathematician from [[Gotland]], studied at the [[Leiden University|university of Leiden]] in 1657–58. He possibly met Christiaan Huygens during this time (and/or on several other occasions) and may have learned about the magic lantern from him. Correspondence between them is known from 1667. At least from 1664 until 1670, Walgensten demonstrated the magic lantern in Paris (1664), Lyon (1665), Rome (1665–1666), and Copenhagen (1670).<ref name=rossell2002 /> He "sold such lanterns to different Italian princes in such an amount that they now are almost everyday items in Rome", according to Athanasius Kircher in 1671.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rendel |first=Mats |title=About the Construction of The Magic Lantern, or The Sorcerers Lamp. |url=http://www.phonurgia.se/rendel/mageng.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080118103300/http://www.phonurgia.se/rendel/mageng.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-01-18 |website=A Page About Athanasius Kircher}}</ref> In 1670, Walgensten projected an image of Death at the court of [[King Frederick III of Denmark]]. This scared some courtiers, but the king dismissed their cowardice and requested to repeat the figure three times. The king died a few days later. After Walgensten died, his widow sold his lanterns to the {{ill|Royal Danish Collection|da|Kongernes Samling}}, but they have not been preserved.<ref name=rossell2002/> Walgensten is credited with coining the term ''Laterna Magica'',<ref name="magiclantern">{{Cite web |last1=Auckland |first1=George |last2=Heard |first2=Mervyn |title=An Introduction to Lantern History (Part 4) |url=http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/history/history04.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419053959/http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/history/history04.php |archive-date=19 April 2018 |access-date=28 August 2017 |website=The Magic Lantern Society}}</ref> assuming he communicated this name to [[Claude Dechales]] who, in 1674, published about seeing the machine of the "erudite Dane" in 1665 in Lyon.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus|trans-title=The Course or The Mathematical World|volume=Secundus|language=la|last=Dechales|first=Claude François Milliet|authorlink=Claude Dechales|year=1674|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1w2Zb7NZV0C&pg=PA665}}</ref>

===Possible German origins: Wiesel and Griendel===
[[File:1676 Johann Christoph Sturm - Griendel's lantern.jpg|thumb|Illustration of an early southern German lantern from [[Johann Sturm]], ''[[Collegium Experimentale]]'' (1677)]]
There are many gaps and uncertainties in the magic lantern's recorded history. A separate early magic lantern tradition seems to have been developed in southern Germany and includes lanterns with horizontal cylindrical bodies, while Walgensten's lantern and probably Huygens' both had vertical bodies. This tradition dates at least to 1671, with the arrival of instrument maker Johann Franz Griendel in the city of [[Nuremberg|Nürnberg]], which Johann Zahn identified as one of the centers of magic lantern production in 1686. Griendel was indicated as the inventor of the magic lantern by Johann Christoph Kohlhans in a 1677 publication.<ref name=Rossell2009 /> It has been suggested that this tradition is older and that instrument maker Johann Wiesel (1583–1662) from [[Augsburg]] may have been making magic lanterns earlier on and possibly inspired Griendel and even Huygens. Huygens is known to have studied samples of Wiesel's lens-making and instruments since 1653. Wiesel did make a ship's lantern around 1640 that has much in common with the magic lantern design that Griendel would later apply: a horizontal cylindrical body with a rosette chimney on top, a concave mirror behind a fixture for a candle or lamp inside and a biconvex lens at the front. There is no evidence that Wiesel actually ever made a magic lantern, but in 1674, his successor offered a variety of magic lanterns from the same workshop. This successor is thought to have only continued producing Wiesel's designs after his death in 1662, without adding anything new.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/20378426|title=The Origins of the Magic Lantern in Germany|last=Rossell|first=Deac|year=2004}}</ref>

==Further history==
===Early adopters===
Before 1671, only a small circle of people seemed to have knowledge of the magic lantern, and almost every known report of the device from this period had to do with people that were more or less directly connected to Christiaan Huygens. Despite the rejection expressed in his letters to his brother, Huygens must have familiarized several people with the lantern.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rossell |first=Dean |date=2001 |title=The True Inventor of the Magic Lantern |url=https://www.magiclantern.org.uk/new-magic-lantern-journal/pdfs/4008747a.pdf |journal=The New Magic Lantern Journal |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=8–9}}</ref>

In 1664 Parisian engineer [[Pierre Petit (engineer)|Pierre Petit]] wrote to Huygens to ask for some specifications of the lantern, because he was trying to construct one after seeing the lantern of "the dane" (probably Walgensten). The lantern that Petit was constructing had a concave mirror behind the lamp.<ref name=Petit/> This directed more light through the lens, resulting in a brighter projection, and it would become a standard part of most of the lanterns that were made later. Petit may have copied it from Walgensten, but he expressed that he made a lamp stronger than any he had ever seen.<ref name="rossell2002"/>

Starting in 1661, Huygens corresponded with London optical instrument-maker [[Richard Reeve]].<ref name=rossell2002/> Reeve was soon selling magic lanterns, demonstrated one in his shop on 17 May 1663 to [[Balthasar de Monconys]],<ref name="picturegoing">{{cite web|url=http://picturegoing.com/?p=4885|website=picturegoing.com|title=Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys » Picturegoing|date=6 October 2016 |access-date=28 August 2017}}</ref> and sold one to [[Samuel Pepys]] in August 1666.<ref name="pepysdiary">{{cite web|url=http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/08/19/|website=pepysdiary.com|title=Sunday 19 August 1666 (The Diary of Samuel Pepys)|date=19 August 2009 |access-date=28 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="pepysdiary2">{{cite web|url=http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/08/22/|website=pepysdiary.com|title=Wednesday 22 August 1666 (The Diary of Samuel Pepys)|date=22 August 2009 |access-date=28 August 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Optic Projection fig 404.jpg|thumbnail|left|Illustration from Kircher's 1671 ''Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae'' - projection of hellfire or purgatory]]
[[File:1671 kircheri - ars magna lucis et umbrae - 769.jpg|thumb|left|Illustration from Kircher's 1671 ''Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae'' - projection of Death]]
One of Christiaan Huygens' contacts imagined how [[Athanasius Kircher]] would use the magic lantern: "If he would know about the invention of the Lantern he would surely frighten the cardinals with specters."<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv03_01/huyg003oeuv03_01_0031.php#191T|title=letter from Pierre Guisony to Christiaan Huygens |date=25 March 1660 |language=fr}}</ref> Kircher would eventually learn about the existence of the magic lantern via Thomas Walgensten and introduced it as "Lucerna Magica" in the widespread 1671 second edition of his book ''Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae''.<ref name="ars magna">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gki6ZIbrgQ8C|title=Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae|first=Athanasius|last=Kircher|year=1671|language=la |access-date=19 August 2010 |pages=767–769|publisher=Univ Santiago de Compostela |isbn=9788481218428}}</ref> Kircher claimed that Thomas Walgensten reworked his ideas from the previous edition of this book into a better lantern. Kircher described this improved lantern, but it was illustrated in a confusing manner:<ref name=Rendel /> the pictures seem technically incorrect—with both the projected image and the transparencies (H) shown upright (while the text states that they should be inverted), the hollow mirror is too high in one picture and absent in the other, and the lens (I) is at the wrong side of the slide. However, experiments with a construction as illustrated in Kircher's book proved that it could work as a point light-source projection system.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.luikerwaal.com/kircher_uk.htm|title=Magic lantern - The mistery of the misplaced lens|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref>
The projected image in one of the illustrations shows a person in purgatory or hellfire and the other depicts Death with a scythe and an hourglass. According to legend Kircher secretly used the lantern at night to project the image of Death on windows of apostates to scare them back into church.<ref name=luikerwaal>{{Cite web|url=https://www.luikerwaal.com/wonder1_uk.htm|title=The miracle of the magic lantern.|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref> Kircher did suggest in his book that an audience would be more astonished by the sudden appearance of images if the lantern would be hidden in a separate room, so the audience would be ignorant of the cause of their appearance.<ref name=Rendel>{{cite web|last2=Rendel|first2=Mats|first1=Athanasius|last1=Kircher|title=About the Construction of The Magic Lantern, or The Sorcerers Lamp|url=http://www.phonurgia.se/rendel/mageng.html}}</ref>

===Educational use and other subjects===
[[File:Fotothek df tg 0003764 Optik ^ Lochkamera.jpg|thumb|Illustration of a lantern slide depicting [[Bacchus]] in Sturm's ''Collegium experimentale sive curiosum'' (1677)]]
The earliest reports and illustrations of lantern projections suggest that they were all intended to scare the audience. Pierre Petit called the apparatus "lanterne de peur" (lantern of fear) in his 1664 letter to Huygens.<ref name=Petit>{{cite web|last=Petit|first=Pierre|title=Letter to Christiaan Huygens|date=28 November 1664 |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv04_01/huyg003oeuv04_01_0132.php}}</ref> Surviving lantern plates and descriptions from the next decades prove that the new medium was not just used for horror shows, but that many kinds of subjects were projected. Griendel didn't mention scary pictures when he described the magic lantern to [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] in December 1671: "An optical lantern which presents everything that one desires, figures, paintings, portraits, faces, hunts, even an entire comedy with all its lively colours."<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/346310|chapter=Sense and Nonsense in the use of Technology in Media History|first=Deac|last=Rossell|title=Die Medien und ihre Technik. Theorien, Modelle, Geschichte|date=2004|editor-first=Harro|editor-last=Segeberg|publisher=Schüren|location=Marburg, Germany|via=Academia.edu}}</ref> In 1675, Leibniz saw an important role for the magic lantern in his plan for a kind of world exhibition with projections of "attempts at flight, artistic meteors, optical effects, representations of the sky with the star and comets, and a model of the earth (...), fireworks, water fountains, and ships in rare forms; then mandrakes and other rare plants and exotic animals." In 1685–1686, Johannes Zahn was an early advocate for use of the device for educational purposes: detailed anatomical illustrations were difficult to draw on a chalkboard, but could easily be copied onto glass or mica.<ref name=rossell2002/>

[[File:Études prises dans le bas peuple ou les Cris de Paris - Lorgue de Barberie.jpg|thumb|1737 etching/engraving of an organ grinder with a magic lantern on her back by [[Anne Claude de Caylus]] (after Edme Bouchardon)]]
By the 1730s the use of magic lanterns started to become more widespread when travelling showmen, conjurers and storytellers added them to their repertoire. The travelling lanternists were often called Savoyards (they supposedly came from the [[Savoy]] region in France) and became a common sight in many European cities.<ref name=rossell2002/>

In France in the 1770s [[François Dominique Séraphin]] used magic lanterns to perform his "Ombres Chinoises" (Chinese shadows), a form of [[shadow play]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Castle |first=Terry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cu5kvnn6kTsC |title=The Female Thermometer: Eighteenth-Century Culture and the Invention of the Uncanny |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=1-4237-5848-X |location=Oxford, England |pages=146 |oclc=252550734}}</ref>

Magic lanterns had also become a staple of science lecturing and museum events since Scottish lecturer [[Henry Moyes]]'s tour of America in 1785–86, when he recommended that all college laboratories procure one. French writer and educator [[Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis]] popularized the use of magic lanterns as an educational tool in the late 18th century when using projected images of plants to teach botany. Her educational methods were published in America in English translation during the early 1820s.<ref name="mitpressjournals">{{Cite journal |last=Ganter |first=Granville |date=2014 |title=Mistress of Her Art: Anne Laura Clarke, Traveling Lecturer of the 1820s |url=https://direct.mit.edu/tneq/article/87/4/709-746/16013 |journal=The New England Quarterly |language=en |volume=87 |issue=4 |pages=709–746 |doi=10.1162/TNEQ_a_00418 |issn=0028-4866 |access-date=28 August 2017 |s2cid=57561922|doi-access=free }}</ref>
A type of lantern was constructed by [[Moses Holden]] between 1814 and 1815 for illustrating his astronomical lectures.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Holden, Moses |volume= 27 |last= Sutton |first= Charles William |author-link= Charles William Sutton |page= 121 |year= |short=1}}</ref>

===Mass slide production===
In 1821, Philip Carpenter's London company, which became [[Carpenter and Westley]] after his death, started manufacturing a sturdy but lightweight and transportable "Phantasmagoria lantern" with an Argand style lamp. It produced high quality projections and was suitable for classrooms. Carpenter also developed a "secret" copper plate printing/burning process to mass-produce glass lantern slides with printed outlines, which were then easily and quickly hand painted ready for sale.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.victorianmicroscopeslides.com/pdf/pcarpenter.pdf|title='The Perfectionist Projectionist': Philip Carpenter, 24 Regent Street, London|first=Stuart|last=Talbot|journal=Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society|issue=88|date=2006|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007153815/http://www.victorianmicroscopeslides.com/pdf/pcarpenter.pdf |archive-date=7 October 2011}}</ref> These "copper-plate sliders" contained three or four very detailed 4" circular images mounted in thin hardwood frames. The first known set ''The Elements of Zoology'' became available in 1823, with over 200 images in 56 frames of zoological figures, classified according to the system of the Swedish scientist [[Carl Linnaeus]]. The same year many other slides appeared in the company's catalogue: "The Kings and Queens of England" (9 sliders taken from David Hume's History of England), "Astronomical Diagrams and Constellations" (9 sliders taken from Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel's textbooks), "Views and Buildings", Ancient and Modern Costume (62 sliders from various sources).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Philip |authorlink=Carpenter and Westley |title=A Companion to the Magic Lantern: Part II |year=1823}}</ref> Fifteen sliders of the category "Humorous" provided some entertainment, but the focus on education was obvious and very successful.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Phillip |date=2017 |title=Philip Carpenter and the convergence of science and entertainment in the early-nineteenth century instrument trade |url=http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-07/philip-carpenter-and-the-convergence-of-science/ |journal=Science Museum Group Journal |language=en |volume=7 |issue=7 |doi=10.15180/170707 |s2cid=164263399 |issn=2054-5770|doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Through the mid-19th century, the market for magic lanterns was concentrated in Europe with production focused primarily on Italy, France, and England. In 1848, a New York optician began advertising imported slides and locally produced magic lanterns. By 1860, however, mass production began to make magic lanterns more widely available and affordable, with much of the production in the latter half of the 19th century concentrated in Germany.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A Refersher on German Toy Lanterns|last=Koch|first=Joe|page=26|journal=The Magic Lantern Gazette|volume=21|issue=3|date=2009|issn=1059-1249|url=https://library.sdsu.edu/pdf/scua/ML_Gazette/MLGvol21no03.pdf}}</ref> These smaller lanterns had smaller glass sliders, which instead of wooden frames usually had colorful strips of paper glued around their edges with the images printed directly on the glass.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lantern Slides |url=http://www.magiclanternsociety.org/about-magic-lanterns/lantern-slides/ |access-date=2022-09-22 |website=Magic Lantern Society}}</ref>

===Waning popularity===
The popularity of magic lanterns waned after the introduction of [[film|movies]] in the 1890s, but they remained a common medium until [[slide projector]]s became widespread during the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Chamberlain |first=Amelia |date=2020-02-09 |title=Stillwater History: Magic Lanterns and Technological Obsolescence |url=https://stillwaterliving.com/stillwater-history-magic-lanterns-and-technological-obsolescence/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920131201/https://stillwaterliving.com/stillwater-history-magic-lanterns-and-technological-obsolescence/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=20 September 2020 |magazine=Stillwater Living |language=en-US |access-date=2022-09-20}}</ref>

==Moving images==
[[File:1870 Plaque de lanterne magique a double systeme--c5620.jpg|thumb|Mice jump into the mouth of a sleeping bearded man on a popular mechanical slide from circa 1870.]]
The magic lantern was not only a direct ancestor of the motion picture projector as a means for visual storytelling, but it could itself be used to project moving images. Some suggestion of movement could be achieved by alternating between pictures of different phases of a motion, but most magic lantern "animations" used two glass slides projected together — one with the stationary part of the picture and the other with the part that could be set in motion by hand or by a simple mechanism.<ref name="Rossell2005"/>{{rp|689–699}}

Motion in animated slides was mostly limited to either two phases of a movement or transformation, or a more gradual singular movement (e.g., a train passing through a landscape). These limitations made subjects with repetitive movements popular, like the sails on a windmill turning around or children on a seesaw. Movements could be repeated over and over and could be performed at different speeds. A common technique that is comparable to the effect of a panning camera makes use of a long slide that is simply pulled slowly through the lantern and usually shows a landscape, sometimes with several phases of a story within the continuous backdrop.<ref name="Rossell2005"/>{{rp|689–699}}<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Natural Magic: A Short Cultural History of Moving Images|last=Huhtamo|first=Erkki|editor-first1=William |editor-last1=Guynn |title=The Routledge Companion to Film History|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|location=Milton Park, England|doi=10.4324/9780203841532|isbn=9781136899409 |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203841532-7/natural-magic-short-cultural-history-moving-images-erkki-huhtamo?context=ubx&refId=6205e76c-c119-40d1-8866-ac0438aecb88}}</ref>{{rp|7}}

Movement of projected images was also possible by moving the magic lantern itself. This became a staple technique in [[phantasmagoria]] shows in the late 18th century, often with the lantern sliding on rails or riding on small wheels and hidden from the view of the audience behind the projection screen.<ref name="Rossell2005"/>{{rp|691}}

===History===
In 1645, Kircher had already suggested projecting live insects and shadow puppets from the surface of the mirror in his Steganographic system to perform dramatic scenes.<ref name=Gorman2007>{{cite book|url=https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/Preprints/P333.PDF|page=44|title=Inside the Camera Obscura|first=Michael John|last=Gorman|year=2007}}</ref>

Christiaan Huygens' 1659 sketches (see above) suggest he intended to [[animation|animate]] the skeleton to have it take off its head and place it back on its neck. This can be seen as an indication that the very first magic lantern demonstrations may already have included projections of simple animations.<ref name=Rossell2005/>{{rp|687}}

In 1668, [[Robert Hooke]] wrote about the effects of a type of magic lantern installation: "Spectators not well versed in optics, that should see the various apparitions and disappearances, the motions, changes and actions that may this way be represented, would readily believe them to be supernatural and miraculous."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=92lnIw3oKGMC&q=It+produces+Effects+not+only+very+delightful,+but+to+such+as+know+the+contrivance,+very+wonderful;+so+that+Spectators,+not+well+versed+in+Opticks,&pg=PA269|title=The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, from Their Commencement in 1665 to the Year 1800|date=22 May 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> In the same year, [[Francesco Eschinardi]] published ''Centuriae opticae pars altera seu dialogi optici pars tertia'', which included a detailed description of the construction of the magic lantern.

In 1675, German polymath and philosopher [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] proposed a kind of world exhibition that would show all types of new inventions and spectacles. In a handwritten document he supposed it should open and close with magic lantern shows, including subjects "which can be dismembered, to represent quite extraordinary and grotesque movements, which men would not be capable of making" (translated from French).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/379115|title=Leibniz and the Lantern|first=Deac|last=Rossell|year=2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Dr%C3%B4le_de_Pens%C3%A9e,_touchant_une_nouvelle_sorte_de_repr%C3%A9sentations|year=1675|title=Drôle de Pensée, touchant une nouvelle sorte de représentations|author1=Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz |access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref>

Several reports of early magic lantern screenings possibly described moving pictures, but are not clear enough to conclude whether the viewers saw animated slides or motion depicted in still images.<ref name=Rossell2005/>

In 1698, German engraver and publisher [[Christoph Weigel the Elder|Johann Christoph Weigel]] described several lantern slides with mechanisms that made glass parts move over one fixed glass slide, for instance by the means of a silk thread, or grooves in which the mobile part slides.<ref>{{cite book|title=Light and Movement|last1=Mannoni|last2=Campagnoni|last3=Robinson|year=1995}}</ref>

By 1709 a German optician and glass grinder named Themme (or Temme) made moving lantern slides, including a carriage with rotating wheels, a cupid with a spinning wheel, a shooting gun, and falling bombs. Wheels were cut from the glass plate with a diamond and rotated by a thread that was spun around small brass wheels attached to the glass wheels. A paper slip mask would be quickly pulled away to reveal the red fiery discharge and the bullet from a shooting gun. [[Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach]] visited Themme's shop and liked the effects, but was disappointed about the very simple mechanisms. Nonetheless, he bought seven moving slides, as well as twelve slides with four pictures each, which he thought were delicately painted.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZX5dAAAAcAAJ&q=zauber&pg=PA58|last=Von Uffenbach|title=Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland - Erster Theil|pages=62–63|year=1753|language=de}}</ref>

Several types of mechanical slides were described and illustrated in Dutch professor of mathematics, physics, philosophy, medicine, and astronomy [[Pieter van Musschenbroek]]'s second edition (1739) of ''Beginsels Der Natuurkunde'' (see illustration below).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Js1WAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA627|title=Beginsels Der Natuurkunde|year=1739|last=Van Musschenbroek|first=Pieter|page=617+633}}</ref> Pieter was the brother of Jan van Musschenbroek, the maker of an outstanding magic lantern with excellent lenses and a diaphragm (see illustration above).<ref name=Rossell2005/>{{rp|688}}

In 1770, [[Edmé-Gilles Guyot]] described a method of using two slides for the depiction of a storm at sea, with waves on one slide and ships and a few clouds on another. Lanternists could project the illusion of mild waves turning into a wild sea tossing the ships around by increasing the movement of the separate slides. Guyot also detailed how projection on smoke could be used to create the illusion of ghosts hovering in the air, which would become a technique commonly used in [[phantasmagoria]].<ref name="Rossell2005">{{cite journal|last=Rossell|first=Deac|title=The Magic Lantern and Moving Images before 1800|journal=Barockberichte|date=2005|issue=40/41|url=https://www.salzburgmuseum.at/fileadmin/Salzburg_Museum/06_Service/Publikationen/03_Barockberichte/Pdfs_Barockberichte/BB_40_41/Rossell__Lantern.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|691}}

An especially intricate multiple rackwork mechanism was developed to show the movements of the planets (sometimes accompanied by revolving satellites) revolving around the Sun. In 1795, one M. Dicas offered an early magic lantern system, the Lucernal or Portable Eidouranian, that showed the orbiting planets. From around the 1820s mechanical astronomical slides became quite common.<ref name="The Magic Lantern Society p. 21-22">The Magic Lantern Society. ''Encyclopedia of the Magic Lantern''. p. 21-22</ref>

===Various types of mechanical slides===
[[File:1736 petrus van musschenbroek - mechanical slides.jpg|thumb|Mechanical slides for a magic lantern as illustrated in Petrus van Musschenbroek's ''Beginsels Der Natuurkunde'' (second edition 1739)]]
[[File:Lanterne magique Watson et Sons.jpg|thumb|A stereopticon magic lantern]]
Various types of mechanisms were commonly used to add movement to the projected image:
*'''slipping slides''': a movable glass plate with one or more figures (or any part of a picture for which movement was desired) was slipped over a stationary one, directly by hand or with a small drawbar (see: Fig. 7 on the illustration by Petrus van Musschenbroek: a tightrope walker sliding across the rope). A common example showed a creature that could move the pupils in its eyes, as if looking in all directions. A long piece of glass could show a procession of figures, or a train with several wagons. Quite convincing illusions of moving waves on a sea or lake have also been achieved with this method.<ref name=luikerbew1>{{cite web|title=Luikerwaal - Mechanical Slides |url=http://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/bewegend1_uk.htm|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref>
*'''slipping slides with masking''': black paint on portions of the moving plate would mask parts of the underlying image — with a black background — on the stationary glass. This made it possible to hide and then reveal the previous position of a part, for instance a limb, to suggest repetitious movement. The suggested movement would be rather jerky and usually operated quickly. Masking in slides was also often used to create change rather than movement (see: Fig. 6 on the illustration by Petrus van Musschenbroek: a man, his wig and his hat): for instance a person's head could be replaced with that of an animal. More gradual and natural movement was also possible; for instance to make a nose grow very long by slowly moving a masking glass.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Skylar |date=2020-02-17 |title=Early Animation: the Alexis du Pont Stereoviews and Lantern Slides Collection |url=https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/lex-du-pont-collection |access-date=2022-09-22 |website=Hagley Museum and Library |language=en}}</ref>
*'''lever slides''': the moving part was operated by a lever. These could show a more natural movement than slipping slides and were mostly used for repetitive movements, for instance a woodcutter raising and lowering his axe, or a girl on a swing.<ref name=luikerbew1/> (see: Fig. 5 on the illustration by Petrus van Musschenbroek: a drinking man raising and lowering his glass + Fig. 8: a lady curtsying)
*'''pulley slides''': a pulley rotates the moving part and could for instance be used to turn the sails on a windmill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.luikerwaal.com/wipwaps01_uk.htm|title=Magic lantern - collection of moving magic lantern slides part 1.|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref> (see: fig. 4 on illustration by Van Musschenbroek)
*'''rack and pinion slides''': turning the handle of a rackwork would rotate or lift the moving part and could for instance be used to turn the sails on a windmill or for having a hot air balloon take off and descend. A more complex astronomical rackwork slide showed the planets and their satellites orbiting around the sun.<ref name=luikerbew1/>
*'''fantoccini slides''': jointed figures set in motion by levers, thin rods, or cams and worm wheels. A popular version had a somersaulting monkey with arms attached to mechanism that made it tumble with dangling feet. Named after the Italian word for animated puppets, like marionettes or [[Jumping jack (toy)|jumping jacks]]. Two different British patents for slides with moving jointed figures were granted in 1891.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/fantoccini1_uk.htm|title=Fantoccini Slides|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref>
*a snow effect slide can add snow to another slide (preferably of a winter scene) by moving a flexible loop of material pierced with tiny holes in front of one of the lenses of a double or triple lantern.<ref name="luikerwaal.com"/>

Mechanical slides with abstract special effects include:
[[File:Fantoccini-chromatrope.jpg|thumb|Slide with a fantoccini trapeze artist and a chromatrope border design ({{circa|1880}})]]
*the '''[[Chromatrope]]''': a slide that produces dazzling colorful geometrical patterns by rotating two painted glass discs in opposite directions, originally with a double pulley mechanism but later usually with a rackwork mechanism.<ref name=luikerbew1/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/chromatroop1_uk.htm|title=Chromatropes|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref> It was possibly invented around 1844 by English glass painter and showman [[Henry Langdon Childe]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/special-auction-services/catalogue-id-srspe10161/lot-88a26628-af78-4e4f-87a3-a62c00b896a1|title=A rare and large Henry Langdon Childe Mahogany-Mounted and Brass Hand-Painted Chromatrope, pair o|website=www.the-saleroom.com|date=7 July 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Balzer |first=Richard |title=Dick Balzer's Website: Homepage |url=https://www.dickbalzer.com/index.php |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921101858/https://www.dickbalzer.com/index.php |archive-date=2018-09-21 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=www.dickbalzer.com}}</ref> and soon added as a novelty to the program of the Royal Polytechnic Institution.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=irdHAQAAIAAJ&q=chromatrope&pg=PA1176|title=The Athenæum|date=21 December 1844}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YBZdAAAAcAAJ&q=chromatrope&pg=PA11|title=The Royal Polytechnic Institution ... Catalogue for 1841. New edition|date=29 September 1845|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*the '''Astrometeoroscope''' or Astrometroscope: a large slide that projected a lacework of dots forming constantly changing geometrical line patterns, compared with stars and meteors. It was invented in or before 1858 by the Hungarian engineer S. Pilcher and used a very ingenious mechanism with two metal plates obliquely crossed with slits that moved to and fro in contrary directions. Except for when the only known example was used in a performance, it was kept locked away at the Polytechnic so no one could discover the secret technique. When the Polytechnic auctioned the device, Picher eventually paid an extravagant price for his own invention to keep its workings secret.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924031248051|title=The book of lantern ; being a practical guide to the working of the optical (or magic) lantern ; with full and precise directions for making and colouring lantern pictures|first=Thomas Cradock|last=Hepworth|date=22 May 1888|publisher=London : Wyman & Sons|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xiYynDew1pUC&q=astrometroscope&pg=PA168|title=Popular Educator a Complete Encyclopaedia of Elementary, Advanced, and Technical Education|date=22 May 2018|publisher=Cassell|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*the '''Eidotrope''': counter-rotating discs of perforated metal or card (or wire gauze or lace), producing swirling [[Moiré pattern|Moiré]] patterns of bright white dots. It was invented by English scientist [[Charles Wheatstone]] in 1866.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xk8xAAAAMAAJ&q=wheatstone+eidotrope|title=The Year-book of Facts in Science and Art|year=1867|last=Timbs|first=John}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.kingscollections.org/media/arc_cat/pdf/008739/KCLArchivesWheatstoneK_PP107_4_7.pdf|title=Extracts from the papers of Sir Charles Wheatstone|last=Wheatstone|first=Charles|year=1850–1875}}</ref>
*the '''Kaleidotrope''': a slide with a single perforated metal or cardboard disc suspended on a spiral spring. The holes can be tinted with colored pieces of gelatin. When struck the disc's vibration and rotation sends the colored dots of light swirling around in all sorts of shapes and patterns. The device was demonstrated at the Royal Polytechnic Institution around 1870 and dubbed "Kaleidotrope" when commercial versions were marketed.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TUw3AQAAMAAJ&q=kaleidotrope&pg=PA14|title=The Magic Lantern - Vol. 1. No. 2|date=October 1874}}</ref>
*the '''Cycloidotrope''' (circa 1865): a slide with an adjustable stylus bar for drawing geometric patterns on sooty glass when hand cranked during projection. The patterns are similar to that produced with a [[Spirograph]].<ref name="luikerwaal.com">{{cite web|title=Luikerwaal - Mechanical special effects slides|url=http://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/bijzeffecten1_uk.htm|website=www.luikerwaal.com}}</ref>
*a Newton colour wheel slide that, when spinning fast enough, blends seven colours into a white circle<ref name="luikerwaal.com"/>

===Dissolving views===
{{main|Dissolving views}}
[[File:Magiclantern.jpg|thumb|Advertisement with picture of a triple lantern / dissolving view apparatus (1886)]]
The effect of a gradual transition from one image to another, known as a [[Dissolve (filmmaking)|dissolve]] in modern filmmaking, became the basis of a popular type of magic lantern show in England in the 19th century. Typical dissolving views showed landscapes dissolving from day to night or from summer to winter. This was achieved by aligning the projection of two matching images and slowly diminishing the first image while introducing the second image.<ref name=luikerbew1/> The subject and the effect of magic lantern dissolving views is similar to the popular [[Diorama]] theatre paintings that originated in Paris in 1822. 19th century magic lantern broadsides often used the terms ''dissolving view'', ''dioramic view'', or simply ''diorama'' interchangeably.<ref name=HuhtamoReview/>

The effect was reportedly invented by phantasmagoria pioneer [[Paul de Philipsthal]] while in Ireland in 1803 or 1804. He thought of using two lanterns to make the spirit of Samuel appear out of a mist in his representation of the [[Witch of Endor]]. While working out the desired effect, he got the idea of using the technique with landscapes. An 1812 newspaper about a London performance indicates that De Philipsthal presented what was possibly a relatively early incarnation of a dissolving views show, describing it as "a series of landscapes (in imitation of moonlight), which insensibly change to various scenes producing a very magical effect."<ref name=Mirror1842>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUMFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA98|title=The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction|page=98|year=1842}}</ref><ref name=Heard2006/>

Another possible inventor is [[Henry Langdon Childe]], who purportedly once worked for De Philipsthal.<ref name=Heard2006/> He is said to have invented the dissolving views in 1807, and to have improved and completed the technique in 1818.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvBeAAAAcAAJ&q=%22henry+langdon+childe%22&pg=PA372|title=The Art-journal, New Series, Volume XIII|year=1874}}</ref> The oldest known use of the term "dissolving views" occurs on playbills for Childe's shows at the [[Adelphi Theatre]] in London in 1837.<ref name=HuhtamoReview/> Childe further popularized the dissolving views at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in the early 1840s.<ref name=Mirror1842/>

Despite later reports about the early invention, and apart from De Philipsthal's 1812 performance, no reports of dissolving view shows before the 1820s are known. Some cases may involve confusion with the Diorama or similar media. In 1826, Scottish magician and ventriloquist M. Henry introduced what he described as "beautiful dissolvent scenes", "imperceptibly changing views", "dissolvent views", and "Magic Views"—created "by Machinery invented by M. Henry." In 1827, Henry Langdon Childe presented "Scenic Views, showing the various effects of light and shade," with a series of subjects that became classics for the dissolving views. In December 1827, De Philipsthal returned with a show that included "various splendid views (...) transforming themselves imperceptibly (as if it were by Magic) from one form into another."<ref name=HuhtamoReview/><ref name=Heard2006/>

Biunial lanterns, with two projecting optical sets in one apparatus, were produced to more easily project dissolving views. Possibly the first horizontal biunial lantern, dubbed the "Biscenascope" was made by the optician Mr. Clarke and presented at the Royal Adelaide Gallery in London on 5 December 1840.<ref name=Mirror1842/> The earliest known illustration of a vertical biunial lantern, probably provided by E.G. Wood, appeared in the Horne & Thornthwaite catalogue in 1857.<ref name="The Magic Lantern Society p. 21-22"/> Later on triple lanterns enabled additional effects, for instance the effect of snow falling while a green landscape dissolves into a snowy winter version.<ref name="LivingPictures"/>{{Rp|13}}

A mechanical device could be fitted on the magic lantern, which locked up a diaphragm on the first slide slowly whilst a diaphragm on a second slide opened simultaneously.<ref name=Heard2006/>

Philip Carpenter's copper-plate printing process, introduced in 1823, may have made it much easier to create duplicate slides with printed outlines that could then be colored differently to create dissolving view slides.<ref name=Heard2006/> However, all early dissolving view slides seem to have been hand-painted.<ref name=HuhtamoReview>{{cite journal|title=Ghost Notes: Reading Mervyn Heard's Phantasmagoria. The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern|journal=The Magic Lantern Gazette|volume=18|issue=4|first=Erkki|last=Huhtamo|url=https://library.sdsu.edu/pdf/scua/ML_Gazette/MLGvol18no04.pdf}}</ref>

===Experiments===
There have been many different experiments involving sorts of movement with the magic lantern. These include:
*[[galvanometer]] slide: a flattened coil with a magnetized needle moving from side to side when a battery is connected.
*projection of moving frog legs, with the nerves and muscles of severed frog legs connected to electric wires.
*hour-glass projection: the projection of a flattened hourglass showed the sand flowing upwards. Extreme magnification made the effect extra impressive, with the grains of sand forming a wave-like pattern.
*cohesion figure projection of liquids: different oils and fats create many kinds of moving patterns when manipulated between clear glass plates or a narrow glass box.
Several of these experiments were publicly demonstrated at the [[University of Westminster#1837 to 1881: Royal Polytechnic Institution|Royal Polytechnic Institution]].<ref name=Hepworth1888>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/bookoflanternbei00hepwrich#page/170/mode/2up|last=Hepworth|title=The book of the lantern|first=T.C.|year=1888|pages=171–203}}</ref>

===Choreutoscope and phenakistiscope-type systems===
Versions of the magic lantern were used to project transparent variations of the [[phenakistoscope|phénakisticope]]. These were adapted with a mechanism that spins the disc and a shutter system. Duboscq produced some in the 1850s and Thomas Ross patented a version called "Wheel of life" in 1869 and 1870.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stephenherbert.co.uk/wheelPROJECTINGpart1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505163214/http://www.stephenherbert.co.uk/wheelPROJECTINGpart1.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=5 May 2014 |title=Projection Phenakistoscope 1 |first=Stephen |last=Herbert |website=www.stephenherbert.co.uk |access-date=19 July 2016}}</ref>

The '''[[Choreutoscope]]''' was purportedly invented around 1866 by the [[Greenwich]] engineer John Beale, and demonstrated at the Royal Polytechnic. It projected six pictures and used a hand-cranked mechanism for intermittent movement and synchronized shutter action. The mechanism became a key to the development of the movie camera and projector. The Choreutoscope was used at the first professional public demonstration of the [[Kinetoscope]] to explain its principles.<ref name="LivingPictures">{{Cite book |last=Rossell |first=Deac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVVX4NHS8TwC&q=choreutoscope&pg=PA86 |title=Living Pictures: The Origins of the Movies |date=1998 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=0-585-06234-X |location=Albany, New York |oclc=42636554}}</ref>{{Rp|86}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Liesegang |first=Franz Paul |url=https://archive.org/details/zahlenundquellen00fpau/page/54/mode/1up |title=Zahlen und quellen |date=1926 |publisher=Berlin : G m. b. H. (Hackebeil) |others=Media History Digital Library}}</ref>

An "Optical Instrument" was patented in the U.S. in 1869 by O.B. Brown, using a phenakistiscope-like disc with a technique very close to the later cinematograph; with Maltese Cross motion; a star-wheel and pin being used for intermittent motion, and a two-sector shutter.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US93594 |title=U.S. Patent No. 93,594 |date=10 August 1869}}</ref>

===Life in the lantern - Bio-Phantoscope===
John Arthur Roebuck Rudge built a lantern for [[William Friese-Greene]] with a mechanism to project a sequence of seven photographic slides. Reports say it was made in 1872, but also 1875 and (most likely) 1882. The surviving slides show a man removing his head with his hands and raising the loose head. The photographed body belonged to Rudge and Friese-Greene posed for the head. The slides probably provided the very first trick photography sequence projection. Friese-Greene demonstrated the machine in his shop, until the police ordered him to remove it when it attracted too large a crowd.<ref name="cinematheque">{{cite web|url=http://www.cinematheque.fr/fr/catalogues/appareils/collection/lanterne-de-projectionap-94-33.html|title=Lanterne de projection (AP-94-33) - Collection - Catalogue des appareils cinématographiques - La Cinémathèque française|website=cinematheque.fr|access-date=28 August 2017}}</ref>

==Phantasmagoria==
{{main|Phantasmagoria}}
[[File:1867 interpretation of Robertson's Fantasmagorie.jpg|thumb|Interpretation of Robertson's Fantasmagorie from F. Marion's ''L'Optique'' (1867)]]
Phantasmagoria was a form of horror theater that used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, especially of ghosts. Showmen used rear projection, mobile or portable projectors and a variety of effects to produce convincing [[necromancy|necromantic]] experiences. It was very popular in Europe from the late 18th century to well into the 19th century.<ref name="Heard2006"/>

It is thought that optical devices like concave mirrors and the camera obscura have been used since antiquity to fool spectators into believing they saw real gods and spirits,<ref name="Heard2006">{{cite book|last=Heard|first=Mervyn|title=Phantasmagoria: The Secret History of the Magic Lantern|publisher=The Projection Box|location=Hastings, England|date=2006|isbn=9781903000120}}</ref> but it was the magician [[Paul Philidor|"physicist" Phylidor]] who created what must have been the first true phantasmagoria show. He probably used mobile magic lanterns with the recently invented [[Argand lamp]]<ref name="Grau">{{cite book|authorlink=Oliver Grau|last=Grau|first=Oliver|chapter=Remember the Phantasmagoria!|title=MediaArtHistories|publisher=MIT Press/Leonardo Books|date=2007}}</ref>{{rp|144}} to create his successful {{lang|de|Schröpferischen, und Cagliostoischen Geister-Erscheinungen}} (Schröpfer-esque and Cagiostro-esque Ghost Apparitions)<ref>Phylidor. ''Schröpferischen, und Cagliostoischen Geister-Erscheinungen'' flyer. 1790.</ref> in Vienna from 1790 to 1792. Phylidor stated that his show of perfected apparitions revealed how charlatans like [[Johann Georg Schröpfer]] and [[Cagliostro]] had fooled their audiences. As "Paul Filidort," he presented his ''Phantasmagorie'' in Paris From December 1792 to July 1793, probably using that term for the first time. As "Paul de Philipsthal," he performed ''Phantasmagoria'' shows in Britain beginning in 1801 with great success.<ref name= Rossell2001>{{cite conference|url=https://www.academia.edu/4609248|title=The 19th Century German Origins of the Phantasmagoria Show|last=Rossell|first=Deac|year=2001|conference=The Lantern Projections Colloquium|location=The British Academy, London}}</ref><ref>''Affiches, annonces et avis divers''. 1793-07-23</ref>

One of many showmen who were inspired by Phylidor, [[Etienne-Gaspard Robert]] became very famous with his own ''Fantasmagorie'' show in Paris from 1798 to 1803 (later performing throughout Europe and returning to Paris for a triumphant comeback in Paris in 1814). He patented a mobile "Fantascope" lantern in 1798.<ref name=Heard2006/>

==Royal Polytechnic Institution shows==
When it opened in 1838, The Royal Polytechnic Institution in London became a very popular and influential venue with many kinds of magic lantern shows as an important part of its program. At the main theatre, with 500 seats, lanternists would make good use of a battery of six large lanterns running on tracked tables to project the finely detailed images of extra large slides on the 648 square feet screen. The magic lantern was used to illustrate lectures, concerts, pantomimes and other forms of theatre. Popular magic lantern presentations included Henry Langdon Childe's dissolving views, his chromatrope, phantasmagoria, and mechanical slides.<ref name=Heard2006/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chQiAQAAMAAJ&q=childe+polytechnic&pg=PA410|title=The Magazine of Science, and Schools of Art - Vol. IV|year=1843|page=410}}</ref>

==Utsushi-e==
[[File:Magic Lantern on street of Japan (1915 by Elstner Hilton).jpg|thumb|Street cart with magic lantern. Japan, 1915]]
Utsushi-e is a type of magic lantern show that became popular in Japan in the 19th century. The Dutch probably introduced the magic lantern in Japan before the 1760s. A new style for magic lantern shows was introduced by Kameya Toraku I, who first performed in 1803 in [[Edo (Tokyo)|Edo]]. Possibly the phantasmagoria shows (popular in the west at that moment) inspired the rear projection technique, moving images and ghost stories. Japanese showmen developed lightweight wooden projectors (furo) that were handheld so that several performers could make the projections of different colourful figures move around the screen at the same time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.f.waseda.jp/kusahara/Utsushi-e/What_Is_Utsushi-e.html|title=What is Utsushi-e?|website=www.f.waseda.jp}}</ref> The Western techniques of mechanical slides were combined with traditional Japanese skills—especially from [[Karakuri puppet]]s—to further animate the figures and for special effects.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.f.waseda.jp/kusahara/Utsushi-e/Taneita(Slides).html|title=Taneita(Slides)|website=www.f.waseda.jp}}</ref>

==Today==
Some enthusiasts claim that the brilliant quality of color in lantern slides is unsurpassed by successive projection media. The magic lantern and lantern slides are still popular with collectors and can be found in many museums like, for example, in the [[Museum of Precinema]] in [[Padua]] where 60 magic lanterns and more than 10000 original slides are preserved. However, of the original lanterns from the first 150 years after its invention only 28 are known to still exist (as of 2009).<ref name =Rossell2009>{{citation|periodical=The Magic Lantern Gazette|url=https://library.sdsu.edu/pdf/scua/ML_Gazette/MLGvol21no01.pdf|last=Rossell|first=Deac|title=Early Magic Lantern Illustrations: What Can They Tell Us About Magic Lantern History?|year=2009}}</ref> Because the original slides are fragile, rather than display or project them, museums often digitize the slides for exhibition.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Youlden |first=Mary |date=2018-01-11 |title=Fragile images of Devon on show for the first time in a century {{!}} The Exeter Daily |language=en |work=The Exeter Daily |url=https://www.theexeterdaily.co.uk/news/local-news/fragile-images-devon-show-first-time-century |access-date=2022-09-22}}</ref>

A collaborative research project of several European universities called ''A Million Pictures'' started in June 2015 and lasted until May 2018. It addresses the sustainable preservation of the massive, untapped heritage resource of the tens of thousands of lantern slides in the collections of libraries and museums across Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://a-million-pictures.wp.hum.uu.nl/|title=A Million Pictures {{pipe}} Magic Lantern Slide Heritage|website=A Million Pictures}}</ref><gallery mode="packed-hover" caption="Magic lantern images by Theodore Green, from the [[Royal Albert Memorial Museum]].">
File:Armillaria mellea - Theodore Green - 15 1933 1.jpg|[[Armillaria mellea|Armillaria melea]]
File:Cantharellus cibarius - Theodore Green - 15 1933 4.jpg|[[Cantharellus cibarius]]
File:Cichorium intybus (Chicory or Succory) - Theodore Green - 26 1931 23.jpg|[[Chicory|Chichorium intybus]]
File:Russula drimeia - Theodore Green - 36 1933 13.jpg|Russell [[Drimia|drimeia]]
</gallery>Genuine public lantern shows are relatively rare. Several regular performers claim they are the only one of their kind in their part of the world. These include Pierre Albanese and glass harmonica player [[Thomas Bloch]] live Magic Lantern/Phantasmagoria shows since 2008 in Europe<ref name="thomasbloch">{{cite web|url=http://www.thomasbloch.net/en_performances.html|author=Thomas Bloch|title=THOMAS BLOCH ** ONDES MARTENOT - GLASSHARMONICA - CRISTAL BASCHET --- performances, ensembles...|website=thomasbloch.net|access-date=28 August 2017}}</ref> and The American Magic-Lantern Theater.<ref name="magiclanternshows">{{cite web|url=http://www.magiclanternshows.com/introducing.htm|website=magiclanternshows.com|title=American Magic-Lantern Theater -|access-date=28 August 2017}}</ref> The Magic Lantern Society maintains a list of active lanternists, which contains more than 20 performers in the U.K. and around eight performers in other parts of the world (Europe, U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/lanternists/index.php|title=Lanternists - The Magic Lantern Society|website=www.magiclantern.org.uk}}</ref>

Dutch theatre group Lichtbende produces contemporary magical light spectacles and workshops with magic lanterns.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://logister.home.xs4all.nl/Lichtbende/EDUCATIE/E-EDUCATIE-TOVERLANTAARN.htm|title=LICHTBENDE|website=logister.home.xs4all.nl}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of lantern slide collections]]
* [[Projector (disambiguation)]]
* [[Zoopraxiscope]]
* [[Catadioptric telescope]]
* [[Henry Underhill]] (1855–1920), magic lantern lecturer

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|magic lantern}}
{{Commons category|Magic lanterns}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120103064120/http://www.magic-lantern.eu/ magic-lantern.eu]}} website with more than 8000 lantern slides online
* [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00828 Joseph Boggs Beale Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* [http://research.uchicago.edu/highlights/item.php?id=13 Cinema and its Ancestors: The Magic of Motion] Video interview with Tom Gunning
* [http://www.thomasbloch.net/en_performances.html A live Magic Lantern performance with accompaniment of crystal instruments is proposed here]&nbsp;– feat. Pierre Albanese and [[Thomas Bloch]]
* [http://www.magiclanternshows.com/ Live Magic Lantern Shows] The American Magic Lantern Theater
* [http://www.magiclantern.in/ Magic Lantern&nbsp;– A School of Cinema] Film Institute Chennai
* [http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/collections/lanternslide.html University of Tasmania Library Lantern Slide Collection]
* [http://www.slides.uni-trier.de/ LUCERNA - The Magic Lantern Web Resource]
* [http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/history/ The Magic Lantern Society] An introduction to lantern history featuring images of lanterns, slides, and lantern accessories
* [http://catalog.oscars.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=82706 Joseph Boggs Beale collection of magic lantern illustrations], Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
* [http://collectionsearch.nma.gov.au/ce/bridge%20tasmania#?solrsort=score%20desc&f%5B0%5D=obj_type%3ALantern%20slides&_suid=1432173928910048967192554088506 Images of Lantern Slides from the National Museum of Australia]
* [http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/index.php The Magic Lantern Society, United Kingdom]
* [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/lantern/index.html The Lantern Slide Collection] at the New-York Historical Society
* [https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/view/sub-collections/3727/Robert_Augustus_Henry_L=27Estrange_-_Copies_-_Japanese.html QUT Digital Collections - Historical images of Japan]
* [https://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll16/search/searchterm/lantern%20slides%20--%20specimens/field/subjec/mode/exact/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc Lantern Slide Collection] at [[Cleveland Public Library]]'s Digital Gallery. The lantern slides are part of the library's [https://case.edu/ech/articles/m/marsh-w-ward W. Ward Marsh] Collection.
* {{Gutenberg |no=75890 |title=The Magic Lantern and Its Management}}

{{Precursors of film}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Lantern}}
[[Category:Magic lanterns| ]]
[[Category:Display technology]]
[[Category:History of film]]
[[Category:Italian inventions]]
[[Category:Optical toys]]
[[Category:Precursors of photography]]
[[Category:Projectors]]