The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (February 1897)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 29 for any condemnation, but it is surely much to be regretted that in any part of the kingdom such rubbish should be used to illustrate any serious lecture. In particular, I feel I must refer to the extent to which these crude pictures are used to illustrate Scripture subjects. The | lantern has now taken its position as an | important Sunday institution, and all over , England lantern services are very popular ; but it is positively disheartening to those who are endeavouring to raise the status of the average slide, to find in some mission halls large quantities of such gaudy trash in regular use, when it is now possible to procure in a trans| parent form copies of nearly all of those famous paintings which cannot but touch every human heart. These, I know, are much more expensive to buy, but I also know that for nine-tenths of those Sunday exhibitions the slides are only hired, and so, of course, any difference of cost would be very small. (To be continued.) Lantern Lectures. By G. R. BRYCE, Tis a remarkable fact that although so many lantern lectures are held nowadays, there are, comparatively speaking, very few which come up to the standard which this class of entertainment should hold. In my remarks here, I refer of course to that class of entertainment at which the lantern is used to illustrate the lecturer’s discourse, and not to those occasions when it is employed for purely educational or teaching purposes, an exhibition of slides at a photo-club, or a Children’s ‘‘ magic lantern show.” The lectures of which the posters announce ‘‘ to be illustrated by limelight views,” or, ‘“‘by a | I 1 0 : notice on the part of the lecturer, the picture is series of beautiful slides shown by a powerful limelight lantern,” etc., etc., are rather commonplace. Nowadays anyone who has a lantern, and a camera wherewith to make slides, or a few | shillings to buy them, gives a lecture of the | often takes place when a new picture is pro above description. The lantern to all appearances is not declining, but no doubt it would be very much more popular if this inferior kind of exhibition were done away with, and the public had more opportunities of hearing really interesting and pithy lectures. Let me give an example of an exhibition, for I , and as it promised to be rather interesting I resolved to attend. The subject was one which necessitated a comparison, and the lantern was to be used to illustrate the lecture. The comparison part occupied about ten minutes, while the remainder of the lecture (?) was taken up by a show of miscellaneous slides — very good of their kind, except those made by the lecturer—accompanied by no remarks upon the subject, or indeed any at all, to edify an intellectual audience; indeed, as many of the pictures were of a kind to amuse children, the exhibition was one which would -have suited better for a juvenile entertainment. When one attends a lecture, he expects to gain some knowledge, but in cases such as this, the audience can add nothing to what they already know of the subject. A common fault in many lectures is the exhibition of too many slides. When, for instance, : nearly 150 views are shown in about 90 or 100 minutes (which, as a rule, is quite long enough for a lecture alone), how is the audience to have time to | examine each picture, and note the details of which the lecturer speaks? The lecturer may point out anything of interest, but it is most annoying to have the head of that person continually crossing the foreground of the picture. Another fault of which the lecturer is often ; guilty is that he requires to speak across the : hall to the lanternist. When in the audience, I have found this most irritating, as no doubt have also many of my readers. If an efficient lanternist is not to be had, it is better that the lecturer should operate for himself than have to make remarks to the operator that can be heard by the audience. It is a noticeable feature in the best exhibitions—that one of the silent method of slide ' changing, at the necessary moment, neither sooner nor later, without any evident signal or quickly (or in a manner not tiring to the eyes) changed, whilst the discourse is unbroken by that painful hesitation by the lecturer which so jected on the screen. The above is what the lecturer requires to remedy in connection with the lecture. We shall now see what requires attention about the lanternist, lantern, and slides. The lanternist’s faults are mainly owing to carelessness. Improper adjustment of the light cannot call it a lecture, which all good lanternists | or disc, or the insertion of a picture upside down abhor. A lecture was advertised to be upon | or wrong way round, are caused by want of