THE
MAGIC LANTERN
WHAT IS
A MAGIC LANTERN?
"Magic Lantern" is the popular term for 19th
and early 20th century slide projectors. They are unrefined versions
of modern-day slide projectors.
WHO
INVENTED THE MAGIC LANTERN?
The principle of projecting light and the use of crude
lenses goes at least as far back as the ancient Greeks. Leonardo da Vinci, in
the 16th century, experimented with projection, but we have no
evidence that he created a working projector. Several 17th century
European scientist/philosophers were developing projection devices at about the
same time: Athanasius Kircher, Thomas Walgenstein, and Christian Huygens.
WHO
FIRST USED THE MAGIC LANTERN?
Magicians and entertainers were probably the first to
find practical uses for projection devices as objects to create fantastic
illusions in their performances. During the late 1700s and the early 1800s
itinerant showmen traveled from town to town giving shows with small tin
lanterns similar to the Lanterne Carrée. For a few pennies per person, these entrepreneurs delighted both
children and adults with the magic of projection. In 1798, a Belgian,
Etienne-Gaspard Robertson, took magic lantern projection to a new level of showmanship.
Robertson created a complex magic lantern “horror show” in a chapel just
outside of Paris. Using multiple projectors, projecting on smoke, and
interjecting spooky sounds to enhance the overall effects, Robertson created a
spectacle that frequently caused his customers to faint. He advertised that
doctors were on hand at all performances of his Phantasmagoria.
HOW
WERE THE SMALL LANTERNS USED? ?
Most small lanterns in this exhibition are children's toy magic lanterns, such as
the Standard, made in Germany or France in the 1880s and shipped to this
country by the hundreds. Toy magic lanterns were sold through many mail order
catalogues such as Sears & Roebuck, even though candle flames and the
combustible oil lamps used as light sources posed a serious fire hazard for
unsupervised children. Thousands of slides were also available in sets of six
to twelve on topics including fairy tales, historic events, geography of the
world, fantasy subjects, and moral tales. Boys and girls could earn a free
magic lantern, such as the Ideal Magic Lantern, by selling magazine
subscriptions.
Toy magic lanterns were designed in many different shapes
and sizes. Children’s lantern sets were generally considered as educational
tools demonstrating the principles of natural physics (light). A special type
of toy lantern slide projector, the Kinematograph, was introduced in the late
1890s. These devices projected both lantern slides and film.
HOW
WERE THE LARGE LANTERNS USED?
Professional showmen and many photographers clamored for
more elaborate devices capable of projecting brighter pictures to larger
crowds. Showmen and lecturers traveled regional circuits presenting images of
scientific miracles and geographic wonders never before seen by their
enthusiastic audiences. Slide sets documenting the evils of liquor were popular
with temperance groups. Clergymen frequently used lantern slides to show the
"wages of sin" to congregations eager for a night of entertaining
education. To 19th century audiences, a magic lantern show was as
entertaining as movies are to today’s audiences.
Between 1850 and 1940 lanterns added many technical
innovations. Projector and lens design improved rapidly, and light sources
brightened significantly. Projectors were equipped with two and sometimes three
lenses, each with a separate light source. Biunnal projectors, with their two
matched lenses, were capable of projecting many special effects, such as
dissolves or superimpositions. Slides with complicated gears and levers
produced new optical effects. Slip slides, with images painted on two movable
pieces of glass, foreshadowed the motion effects soon to become popular in the
animated cartoon features of the early 20th century.
WHAT
HAPPENED TO MAGIC LANTERN PROJECTORS?
Toy magic lanterns and Kinematographs remained popular
through the 1920s, when most toy companies dropped them from their catalogues
because of declining sales. Professional lantern projectors, using glass
slides, remained popular into the 1940s when the smaller, more compact 35mm
slide format replaced them.
Edward Lennart,