The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (December 1889)

50 The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographio Enlarger. The Magic Lantern : Its Construction, Illumination, Optics & Uses. CHAPTER VII.—CARRIERS. AFTER the introduction of photography, slides made by its agency began to displace the finer of those which were hand-painted, and it was soon found to be convenient to keep them in an unmounted form so as to save the bulk and expense of separate mounts for each, adopting instead a carrier which, when fixed in the lantern, permitted the slides to be passed through it in rotation. The first registering carrier of this nature of which there is any record is one described by Mr. J. Traill Taylor'in the British Journal of Photography more than twenty years ago. This has been several times re-invented and registered by others. It consists of a frame which is placed in the lantern and allowed to remain there. Tt has a slit passing from end to end of sufficient dimensions to allow one of the transparencies to pass easily through, and has an opening in the centre of such a size and shape as to permit the picture being seen. The adapter is just three times the length of an ordinary lantern transparency. When the first slide is inserted in this carrier nothing is seen upon the screen, but upon the second slide being pushed in until it is flush with the end of the frame, the first will be found to be inits place properly centred, and there cannot possibly be any danger of a view being pushed past the opening, or not quite opposite to it. The mouth of the aperture through which the slides are introduced is chamfered off a little to facilitate the entrance of the slides. This form of carrier, which is now well known, is shown at Fig, 26, although in the original one the slides were covered up to the ends. Fic. 26. This carrier, both as originally constructed and as subsequently improved, is to be obtained from all dealers in lantern appliances, and although it was the first for separate slides, it is of such an efficient nature as still to be preferred by many lantern manipulators. A novel addition to the foregoing carrier was to place two small wheels at either end of the base, one of the wheels being provided with a crank as a handle, and an india-rubber band sprung over the rollers. By this means (Fig. 27) the slides can be brought slowly and with-a uniform motion into their place in front of the condenser, but Fic. 2. it is not an unfrequent occurrence to wind the previously-exhibited slide entirely out, when it may fall upon the floor, perhaps on a pile of slides. This winding form, although not preferable for ordinary slides, is particularly well adapted for a long panoramic slide. A transparency made from a large ‘suitable negative, and then cut to the proper height, may be projected upon the screen in a very effective manner, and by the slow and uniform motion imparted to it, its apparent length is very deceptive ; in fact one would at a guess put it down at several feet in length, whereas. it may have been a portion of a contact transparency from a 12 by 10 negative. Mr. A. Pumphrey, taking this form of carrier as a basis, has made several improvements upon it. He adopts a band of non-elastic character, which is kept tight by means of a spring keeping the drums distended. The pictures are, when centred, held in position bya clip B, Fig, 28, which presses against the slide at C. The slides are introduced at D and withdrawnyat A. Ifa carrier of the nature of that described at Fig. 26 be made a little higher and wider, with the. upper arms much shurter, it will admit of a duplex