The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (August 1897)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 127 Beechey’s Trinoptric Lantern. OME few months ago a letter appeared in this journal requesting particulars of a peculiar form of lantern which was to a small extent employed several years ago. This lantern was described as being adapted to produce effects with one light. It was, we find, the invention of Canon Beechey, who invented and registered it somewhere about the year 1846 or 1847, and although at the time it was spoken of as being a patent lantern, we are unable to trace that any patent was granted for it. The design, however, was registered, and in its day it created quite a sensation, as it possessed many good points. We are now enabled to give an illustration of this apparatus, from which it will be seen that it had one body and three nozzles; it possessed one illuminant only, and the discs from the side nozzles were rendered coincident with that froin the front nozzle by means of adjustable reflectors or mirrors placed immediately in front of the two side objectives. The light employed in this lantern was a fountain lamp with circular wick. In the exact centre of the wick, and level with it when raised, was a small tube for supplying oxygen gas with a small cup at the bottom to catch any overflow of oil. This small tube was connected up to a bag containing oxygen, the supply of which was regulated by means of the tap on the bag. Over the centre of the wick and oxygen tube was suspended, by means of fine platina wire, a ball of lime, which greatly increased the brilliancy of the light. The best olive oil was used in the lamp, and the consumption per hour was an ounce and a half of oil and about a cubic foot of oxygen. The uses for this lantern were many, and as the side discs could be regulated as to distance between each other, it was possible to project two discs side by side, as in showing the two hemispheres of the globe on the screen at once. In order to render the discs coincident the front one was first projected in position on the screen, then that from the side nozzles rendered coincident by adjusting the reflectors A. Any or either of the discs could be shut off at will by moving the arms B c D, which controlled shutters placed in front of each objective. This style of lantern fitted with lenses of 33 inches diameter used to sell for £17. A microscopic attachment was also made for this lantern. ives COI Seg an Prominent Men in the Lantery World. No. X.—Mr. C. W. LOCKE. is almost a household word amongst lanternists, for he has been prominently before the public ever since 1874, in which year he was engaged by that celebrated and popular lecturer, Mr. B. J. Malden, but even previous to this he had had considerable magic lantern experience. At the early age of 7or 8, he was taken to his first lantern show, which was an oil-light dissolving view entertainment, which he well recollects; the impression of those views, he informs us, are yet vividly fixed on his mind. He remembers that at this exhibition the views were about 6 or 7 feet in diameter, that the dissolving was most beautifully graduated, the brilliance of the dise remaining the same right through the dissolving, and that the light obtained from the solar argand lamps was very good. Of course at that time the views were all hand-painted. He also remembers that the lanterns were placed only a short distance behind a wetted screen, | and so greatly absorbed was he in the