The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (July 1895)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 117 fessional, lecturers or readers—our chief aim should be to make the lantern popular among all classes and thus benefit all alike. Many competent lanternists complain, and with good reason, of the miserable shows given by those who hire slides (as wanted), and only receive them the same day that they are to be used ; these forget that for another half hire they could be had the day before, while the reading could be procured any time in advance by paying for it, generally 6d. There are others who buy a lantern (often cheap) and sets of slides, or more frequently a lot of miscellaneous ones, with little possibility —eyen if they had the capacity—of making anything like a passable, let alone an interesting lecture ; these people being generally philanthropists (2) push their services, gratis, wherever they can get them accepted, and one such entertainment is quite sufficient to make even the well-known Mr. Malden a failure in that place afterwards. Again, thereis the inferior professional who only leaves a&miserable impression of utter dulness behind him wherever he goes. One might mention others, but we must face the fact, for fact it undoubtedly is, that quite 90 per cent. of the lantern shows are given by one or other of the classes above named and no amount of argument or ridicule will materially diminish the number. But cannot something be done to raise the status of these very amateur operators and lecturers? many of whom are in total ignorance as to the why and wherefore of the instruments they manipulate. I thinka good deal is possible, and I would suggest that a copy of this Journal might be sent to everyone known to commence to dabble in lantern work; it could easily be done if each reader in every town or village would either send a copy to those in the neighbourhood or drop a card to the Editor, giving names and addresses. I am quite certain that no one could read this useful Journal for long without having their interest aroused, and sufficient intelligence awakened to shame him out of the ‘‘ muddler stage” of lanterning, with which so many are at present content. But probably the remedy lies more with the trade than with anyone else, and it is also more to their interest to move in the matter, for if the decline in patronage of lantern shows goes on, people will simply leave off buying apparatus and slides, and their business must in consequence fall off. While there are many really good slides on the market, especially recent productions, a very large proportion, whether offered for sale or hire, are by no means as good and clear as they might be. I have seen a good mary trade sets, but none came up to an amateur set (150) of North Wales, taken by and belonging to a Llandudno tradesman. I once showed this set with an ordinary 4-wick W oil lamp in a lantern, with 6 in. equivalent focus lens, getting a picture 11 ft. 6 in. or so, with better results as to clearness and brightness of pictures than I recently obtained with a trade set of Norway, using a 5 in. equivalent focus lens, a blowthrough jet and a 9 ft. screen, the style of scenery in both cases being somewhat similar. Further, as a rule these trade sets are so incomplete, generally some of the most important (through being probably most difficult to obtain) features are absent, fancy a set of Norway, nearly all inland views, and not even one slide of the beautiful rock bound fjords; imagine Treland without the jaunting car, shillelagh or Donnybrook Fair, and not even a peasant’s cottage with the inevitable pig; or Jersey minus the chars-a-banc with their elaborately dressed conductors, the beautiful Janes arched completely over with trees or even a zig-zag road down the face of some cliff or hill. Look again at the life model sets, there are dozens of them which have important pictures omitted, probably because they would entail gome trouble or expense to procure. I will just mention two, Horner’s popular and telling ‘© Wops the waif,” both the theatre scenes are left out, and also one or two other situations equally missed, while the popular temperance service of song, ‘Which side wins,” is made almost unintelligible by at least half-a-dozen such omissions; in short, I scarcely know of a set that could not be immensely improved by the addition of one or more slides. Then the readings, well, the least one can say is, that they are dry, “orfully dry,” I heard it expressed last week at a lecture on Norway, where we got the reading pure and simple. The Rev. gentleman who was announced to “deliver a lecture on the beauties of Norway,” had evidently not even read it over before he came into the room ; he was, hcwever, a fair reader and had there been a good description, very different opinions might have been expressed, but there was absolutely no life whatever in it, it was a case of ‘This is the —glacier, so many feet wide, so high, so long, etc., etc.,” it is a most wonderful sight, etc., and so on; nothing about the people, not even an anecdote, real or invented, of the writer