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The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 45
Stereopticon Cyclorama.
By Cuarues A. CHase.*
Wuen I was a boy the toy magic lantern was to me a most wonderful instrument, and I was not happy until I possessed one, It was the greatest wonder to me how the small slides could produce such large pictures on a screen. As I grew older the interest in magic lanterns and stereopticons did not leave me. Whenever the opportunity presented to attend stereopticon entertainments I would go. Several years ago while at a stereopticon entertainment the thought occurred, ‘“‘ Why is it not possible to show something more than the scope of the ordinary picture. Why not widen so as to get a better idea of the topography of the country, especially in a scene where a deep ravine or high mountain is shown? Why could not two or more stereopticons be used and join two or more pictures side by side, the same as photographs are joined?” I tried it with success, and that was the stepping-stone to the evolution of the instrument illustrated herewith, which I have called “Ths Chase Stereopticon Cyclorama,” a concentrated battery of stereopticons, which not only joins two pictures, but enough to form the complete horizon.
In the meantime I gave to photography some attention, and found to my discouragement that the ordinary camera was not the instrument to produce suitable pictures for the best cycloramic effects, and therefore the development of my instrument was delayed a good while; but the idea was captivating, and after many further attempts to secure a cycloramic photograph, using the ordinary camera, I tried first the Cylindrograph, manufactured in france, and afterward the very ingenious camera invented by Percy S. Marcellus (photographing the complete cyclorama in one sweep). Mr. Marcellus very kindly loaned me the negative of the Court of Honour, and from that I made the stereopticon slides used in public demonstrations of August 24th and 27th, 1894, of “‘ The New Cyclorama Idea”’ given at the Chicago Fire Cyclorama Building.
The screen is cylindrical in form, although I intend using a spherical-shaped wall in large permanent buildings for especially grand effects, for showing bird’s-eye views, which will bring the foreground closer to the spectators.
The screen for the pictures can be almost any size; from 20 to 50 feet high, and 50 to 100 feet in diameter. Perhaps practical stereopticon
* « Wilson’s Photographic Magazine."
men may limit me as to size of pictures to 30 feet, but I can produce double the size with my blending attachment.
The instrument is hung from the ceiling like a chandelier, and fastened rigid by the use of iron pipe and cable stay wires. It weighs about 600 pounds, occupies a space about 6 by 6 by 8
Interior View.
feet, and is quite an intricate piece of mechanism, with its dissolvers arranged on a disk, and each working independent of its neighbour, but all movements from and radially around the centre. It necessarily has to be very accurate, as @ movement of a hair’s breath might be three inches on the screen.
EA . PE biin
7
Sectional View.
All movements of the dissolvers are made with thumb screws, and when adjusted, are set solid with set-screws before the performance commences. There are blending attachments