Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
Now, let the same subject be treated by Professor Wheatstone's
method, when the cameras would be eighteen feet apart. Situated thus,
if placed on one line, and that parallel to the wall, the extreme end
at the right could not be seen by the camera at the left, and _vice
versa_; so that they {420} must radiate from the centre when the
glass at back of camera would be oblique to the wall, and the plinth,
coping, top and bottom of pedestal, would have _two_ vanishing
points, at opposite sides of the centre, or observer's eye; both
sides of the ass, both the legs of boy, and two heads to the drum
would be visible; whilst the two sides of pedestals would have each a
vanishing point, serving for all lines parallel to them. But these
vanishing points would be so far apart that they could not, in the
stereoscope, flow into one: the result would be, that the buttresses
would be wider at back than in front, as would also the pedestal,
while the stick held by the boy would appear like _two_ sticks united
in front. This would be untrue to nature, false to art,
preposterously absurd, and I pronounce it to be altogether erroneous.
This being the case with a long distance, so must it be with shorter
distances, modified in exact proportion to the diminution of space
between the cameras, &c. For, let the object be a piece of wood three
feet long, four inches wide, and six inches deep, with a small square
piece one inch and six inches high, placed upright exactly on a line
from end to end of the three feet (that is, one at each end) and
midway between the sides. Let this arrangement be placed across
another piece of wood three or four feet long, which will thus be at
right angles to the piece at top. By my method all will be
correct--true to nature and to art, and perfectly stereoscopic:
whilst by the radial method (recommended by MR. SHADBOLT), with two
feet space for cameras, there would be the top piece divided at the
farther end, where there would be two small upright pieces instead of
one; and this because the two vanishing points could not, in
stereoscope, flow into one: whilst the lower piece of wood would have
two vanishing points at opposite sides. This, then, being untrue to
nature, untrue in art, in short, a most absurd misrepresentation, I
pronounce to be utterly wrong. I have made the space two feet between
cameras in order to show how ridiculous those pictures might become
where there is an absence of taste, as, by such a person, two or ten
feet are as likely to be taken as any less offensively incorrect.
As regards range of vision, I apologise to MR. SHADBOLT for having
misconceived his exact meaning, and say that I perfectly agree with
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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