Magic Shadows: The Story of the Origin of Motion PicturesQuigley, Martin
History
Magic Shadows: The Story of the Origin of Motion Pictures
Quigley, Martin
Lantern projection; Motion pictures -- History
Others who perhaps were much more familiar with the Plateau-Stampfer
magic disks than the Langenheims combined their process with the Wheel
of Life. The link nevertheless with the Langenheims is direct and
immediate. All the followers used the photos on glass slides and the
method was popularized by the Langenheim exhibition at the Exposition.
Relatively little was done, however, in combining the glass photo
slides in motion picture sequence with the magic lantern, because at
the time there was no method of obtaining a number of successive photos
of the same action.
Jules Duboscq (1817–1886) in Paris copied the Langenheim process
of glass plates with great success. Duboscq was an exhibitor of
optical instruments at the Exposition of 1851. He had been the
licensee of Daguerre for England, but the method was never popular
there as it was in the United States. On February 16, 1852, Duboscq
received a French patent on an apparatus which combined photos and
the Plateau Phénakisticope or Fantascope. His device was called the
Stereofantascope or Bioscope.
One Duboscq model had two strips of pictures made with a binocular
camera running next to each other on a vertical disk, as the original
Plateau model, and the whole was rapidly revolved before a mirror by a
spectator who wore specially-made glasses. The second and better system
had the pictures mounted on the horizontal Fantascope or Wheel of Life,
as developed by Horner in 1834, with one picture mounted above the
other. There was, however, slight distortion because the pictures were
bent to fit around the inside of the cylinder.
Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875), who also combined photos and
the magic disk, in 1852, had a marked influence on magic picture
development during the middle part of the 19th century. In fact, it
may well be that the efforts expended in trying to combine the third
dimensional effect of his stereoscope with the magic disk retarded
development of screen projection of motion pictures.
Wheatstone was a timid man, though a great scientist, and frequently
had the great Michael Faraday announce his inventions at the Royal
Society meetings. The Stereoscope was invented in 1838. (The reader may
recall that centuries before d’Aguilon had coined the name “Stereo”
for “seeing solid” effects). The Stereoscope achieves its effect by
blending into one image pictures or drawings of an object taken from
slightly different points of view so that the impression of relief is
obtained in our sense of vision. Without our two eyes the stereoscopic
effect would not be possible.
It had been known for a very long time that the two eyes did not
see the identical picture. Wheatstone made an instrument which took
advantage of this fact. He said he conceived the idea in 1835 and
made the first presentation of the Stereoscope in August of 1838 at a
meeting of the British Association held at Newcastle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account