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The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger.
Prominent Men in the Lantern World,
No. XIIl.—Mr. JOHN ANDERTON.
R. JOHN ANDERTON was born in Birmingham, and has made that town his home, where he is well known and greatly respected. He is prominent among athletes, scientists, journalists, etc.
As a scholar he was greatly envied,
for at the Midland Institute he was
the winner of every prize obtainable in experimental physics, chemistry, and animal physiology. He also obtained first class places at the South Kensington Science and
Art examinations, and was marked as first
class in acoustics, light and heat, magnetism,
electricity, etc. Professor Tyndall, who was the examiner, placed him first among firsts and he became the proud possessor of the National
Gold Medal.
While his mind was being thus trained, his body was by no means neglected; in fact, he became a conspicuous athlete and gained the gold medal as the best all-round gymnast. Separate prizes and medals were also won in connection with boxing, running, jumping, etc., and he has also filled the position of President of the Amateur Athletic Association.
Many of the London magazines have from time to time published communications from the pen of Mr. Anderton, who is a constant writer to his local periodicals.
Mr. Anderton is the proprietor of the firm of R. Field & Co., of 142, Suffolk Street, Birmingham, the well-known house of opticians and makers of scientific instruments ; he devotes a large proportion of his time to research. The ingenious method of showing stereoscopic pictures on the lantern screen by means of polarised light, as described in the back numbers of this journal, is his invention, and in connection with this he has been eulogised in the press of this country and also in America to a large extent, all of which he well deserves.
Our readers will know of the silver-faced screens for lantern work which have been commented upon in our columns and which yield results of about one hundred per cent. better than any screen hitherto employed. These are due to the research of Mr. Anderton and also Mr. Lewis Wright, and is an appliance which in the future will be in great demand.
Many other scientific novelties are due to the subject of our sketch—such as a pebble tester which shows a bright coloured cross of mica when looked through. Ifa pebble be held in a slot of the little instrument the colour of the cross changes or disappears, whereas, on the contrary, if a glass be introduced no change in the cross takes place.
He is also the inventor of an optical toy termed the caricaturist, wherein extravagant distortions are produced in objects by means of prisms. Hundreds of grosses of this toy have been sold in this country alone. Some of our
Photo by
Draycott, Birmingham.
readers may know it under the name of the ‘‘ Grinograph.”
Another great achievement of Mr. Anderton’s was that he succeeded in making Colonel F. ‘Weddon’s Range Finder, which consists of three prisms, each of which reflects a different angle. The objection raised against the instrument was the stated impossibility of grinding and polishing prisms of the required mathematica] accuracy. Further, that one out of many