The stereoscope : $b its history, theory, and construction, with its application to the fine and useful arts and to educationBrewster, David
History
The stereoscope : $b its history, theory, and construction, with its application to the fine and useful arts and to education
Brewster, David
Stereoscope
Very interesting and amusing effects are produced by interchanging
the right and the left eye pictures in the stereoscope. In general,
what was formerly convex is now concave, what was round is hollow, and
what was near is distant. The effect of this interchange is finely
seen in the symmetrical diagrams, consisting of white lines upon black
ground, such as Nos. 1, 5, 9, 12, 18 and 27 of the Parisian set; but
when the diagrams are not symmetrical, that is, when the one half is
not the reflected image of the other, such as Nos. 26, &c., which are
transparent polygonal solids, formed as it were by white threads or
wires, no effect, beyond a slight fluttering, is perceived. As the
right and left eye pictures are inseparable when on glass or silver
plate, the experiments must be made by cutting in two the slides on
Bristol board. This, however, is unnecessary when we have the power
of uniting the two pictures by the convergency of the optic axes to
a nearer point, as we obtain, in this case, the same effect as if we
had interchanged the pictures. The following are some of the results
obtained in this manner from well-known slides:—
In single portraits no effect is produced by the interchange of the
right and left eye pictures. If any loose part of the dress is in the
foreground it may be carried into the distance, and _vice versa_. In
one portrait, the end of the hat-band, which hung down loosely behind
the party, was made to hang in front of it.
In pictures of streets or valleys, and other objects in which the
foreground is connected with the middle-ground, and the middle-ground
with the distance, without any break, no effect is produced by the
interchange. Sometimes there is a little bulging out of the middle
distance, injurious to the monocular effect.
In the binocular picture of the Bridge of Handeck, the Chalet in the
foreground retires, and the middle distance above it advances.
In the picture of the sacristy of Notre Dame, the sacristy retires
within the cathedral.
In the Maison des Chapiteaux at Pompeii, the picture is completely
inverted, the objects in the distance coming into the foreground.
In the Daguerreotype of the Crystal Palace, the water in the
foreground, with the floating plants, retires and takes an inclined
position below a horizontal plane.
In the binocular picture of the lower glacier of Rosenlaui, the roof of
the ice-cave becomes hollow, and the whole foreground is thrown into a
disordered perspective.
In Copeland’s Venus, the arm holding the bunch of grapes is curiously
bent and thrown behind the head, while the left arm advances before the
child.
In the picture of the Greek Court in the Crystal Palace, the wall
behind the statues and columns advances in front of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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