The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (February 1893)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 385 nised the probable value of the lantern for educational purposes in these modern times, and some of the arrangements at present in use, had their origin in that city some twenty or thirty years ago. Dr. Morton and Mr. L. Marcey gave much attention to the improvement of the lantern in those times. The twowick paraffin lamp, with the end edges of the wick towards the condenser, was, according to Mr. Lewis Wright, the first advance in petroleum illumination for the lantern, and was soon introduced into England by Mr. Woodbury ; this two-wick lamp was equal to sixty or seventy candles. The present popular three-wick lamp is on the same plan, and gives a light of eighty to ninety candles. Mr. Marcy was against its introduction, stating it to be inferior to a lamp with a double wick. In the present average oil lantern, the greatest loss of light is in the condenser. Frequently much light is lost because the rays projected by the condenser cannot get through the projection combination, by reason of the sinall diameter of the latter, or the too great length of the tubular mount ; the employment of a single achromatic projection lens will facilitate getting rid of any length of mount difficulty. Ina lantern with a tin cone firmly fixed to its front and carrying the projection combination, the construction is sometimes such that it is not easy to find out how much light, if any, cannot get into the projection leus, but is lost against the sides of the cone. A good plan in such case, is to take the lamp and condenser out of the lantern, supposing the cone not to be removable from its front, and to mount them and the projections lens upon a table, at the relative distances apart at which they have been found to work best. Then if the end of the cone of rays cannot get into the projection lens, a piece of white paper placed against the back of the lens to collect them, will give an idea of how much lght is lost. —:0:—— Mr, W. |; Chadwick on Lantern | Experiments. Berore the South Manchester Photographic Society, on December 26th, Mr. Chadwick read a paper and gave a demonstration of the capabilities of the optical lantern. Of the thousands of lanterns possessed by amateurs for private and home use, few were ever used for any other purpose than showing slides on a screen. ‘‘ We may entertain our friends at home with a miscellaneous collection of slides—holiday reminiscences, or wanderings in a foreign land—and when our store of slides has been exhausted there are scores of thousands of others to be obtained by purchase or hire. Indeed, so many are there, of all places and all subjects, that it is not surprising to hear of people becoming confused with the variety when looking through some traders’ catalogues, and in not a few cases people had been known to become quite demorilised in their selection, and to finally decide upon, say, five or siz dozen comic slides. A RAGGED-SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT. “ Not very long ago the superintendent of a ragged-school called upon me, and I promised to give a lantern entertainment at lis school. We had some talk about the class of audience and the nature of the entertainment. ‘Bring plenty of comic slides, something to laugh at,’ said he. But Ihad my own idea about that, and persuaded him to leave the selection to me. When the time arrived I found that my audience consisted of about 300 to 400 boys and girls, from twelve to twenty years of age. I told the superintendent and some of his committee who were present that I intended to test the taste of the boys and girls, and to educate them if possible, to a higher standard, and I started with half an hour at the seaside,’ a popular scientific lecture. (‘HALF AN HOUR AT THE SEASIDE.’ “The slides were very pretty pictures, and I talked to them about the seashore, the clouds, and the sky, the salt water and the seaweeds, the pebbles and the shells, cockles, mussels, the crab and shrimp, and so on; and then we went to sea in a fishing smack, and after landing our fish, we saw it being sold by auction at Grimsby Docks, then packed in boxes, and finally we found ourselves at the Manchester Whoiesale Fish Market. I then told my audience that the next few pictures would speak for themselves. They were of two distinct kinds, and would be shown two of each kind together alternately. The first two were most beautiful photographs of snow and frost, the second two comic pictures, followed by two statuary slides, and then came two more comics, some things to laugh at, but nobody did laugh. I further explained that they could have plenty of either kind, and it was for them to say which they liked -best, the pretty pictures or the comic. They decided by an overwhelming and almost deafening majority in favour of the pretty pictures and ‘ more seaside.’ «(MORE SEASIDE.’ «“ Then I gave ‘ Dick’s Dive in a Duck-pond’ and concluded the exhibition with a few photographs of trotting horses and other animals in motion, shown by a wheel of life adapted to the lantern, and I have every reason to remember