Magic Lantern

Magic Lantern is a image projector that was believed to be created by Christian Huygens, Giovanni Fontana and Athanasius Kircher. It was one of the oldest devices that could show still and moving images in the past as entertainment and religious tool and the Magic Lantern was wide used in different classes which satisfied the obsession of new technology and supernatural and it is a huge industry at that time. 

The Magic Lantern only  consists of a few major parts: The body, light source, lantern slides, concave lens and the front lens. The body is there to hold all the parts together onto a projector and the size and shape vary when the amount of information increases.

It is believed to be a small Magic Lantern. It has a camera like body with one front lens.

A triple Magic Lantern that can project more images and effects at the same time

Oil Lamp and candle were the only light source during that time. They were extremely inefficient and reduced the quality of the images since the light was not strong enough to penetrate through the lens onto the wall in order to show a bright image. What is more, it could be dangerous to light up fire inside an apparatus.

The stained glass or the lantern slide is a thin drawn and coloured glass that is put between the light sources and the lens. Multiple lenses could work together so as to produce moving images and other illusions by switching the lenses consistently. Since the new technology had been introduced, people were managed to print photographic images onto glass which was the beginning of mass production of magic lantern.

Here is a video talking about the contribution and the operation of Magic Lantern. After watching, I am more enthusiastic and grateful about the ancient projector devices. Compare to the modern apparatus,  the magic lantern has an advantage of cooperating more closely between the operator and the audience. It takes a huge amount of time in preparing the glass images and the devices which receive more appreciation then the 'instant production' we have today.