The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (November 1897)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 179 -Lecturers and Lanternists. AMERICAN ENTERPRISE. N this country it is the custom, for the most part, of lecturers of note to negotiate their own lecturing engagements ; and when they are in the habit of employing the lantern to illustrate their remarks, either engage their own operator or call in the aid of a dealer in apparatus to supply apparatus, slides, and operator, in part or in whole. The lecturer it will thus be seen ‘bosses the show,” and the operator is merely a subservient and silent adjunct, while the whole of the credit goes to the former. In the United States matters are taking quite a different turn, and the lanternist is in many cases taking his fair share of credit in connection with illustrated lectures. While he was on a visit to this country a short time ago, we had a long talk with Mr. Gould W. Hart, of 849, Monroe Street, Brooklyn, U.S.A., who may be considered as the, pioneer in the matter of taking lecturers in hand. Mr. Hart, it may be said, is an up-todate lanternist in every sense of the word; and is also a strong believer in printers’ ink in the form of pamphlets, etc., which begin with an announcement after the following style :— “The attention of Pastors, Sunday School Superintendents, Teachers, Entertainment Committees, Societies, and others is called to the partial List of Men and Topics herewith presented. ‘« Many of the men are well known and have been long in the lecture field. The topics cover a wide range, and all of them are illustrated with beautiful lantern pictures. ‘A lecture to be popular must be illustrated ; and it is wise to employ the best apparatus and manipulation in order that the illustrations may be presented to the public in all their beauty. This Ican do, and I am also prepared to bring you in contact with these people, and to aid you in finding a speaker and topic suitable for your purpose.” Among the list of lecturers mentioned, or we might say controlled, we find such names as Alexander Black, James Bowie, P. 8S. Curtiss, William Danmar, Rev. H. A. Monroe, D.D., Arthur Collins Maclay, Dr. George W. Powell, Alice D. le Plungeon, Cyrus H. Taylor, William EK. Platt, Gould H. Hart, Prof. W. C. Peckham, Prof. Chas. Sprague Smith, and many other well-known popular lecturers. Each lecturer has, of course, several subjects upon which he or she is prepared to lecture, and these are set out with much detail in the pamphlets, from one of which, headed colour and polarised light, ‘we shall quote: ‘‘Modes of obtaining colour, dispersion, absorption, and interference ; the glories of Nature’s robe ; the setting sun and the rainbow; the qualities of colour; polarisation, its cause, modes, effects ; most beautiful objects in polarised light; crystals glowing with exquisite tints formed on the screen before the ‘eye; the most gorgeous effects science can produce; it is an evening in an enchanted land.” When slides are sent out by Mr, Hart, he always places at one end of the box of slides a card the size of a lantern slide bearing the following notice :— NOTICE. The Lantern Operator will find the first Slide to be used in the end of the box. TITLE op LECTURE A special point is made of supplying printed pamphlets to each lecturer on the list for his own use, commencing with the title of the subject, and then the name of the lecturer, together with a synopsis of the lecture itself. The fact of the management of the lantern being in the hands of is not omitted, and testirionials and extracts from daily papers are by no means neglected in these pamphlets. The subject of the lantern, or stereopticon as it is usually termed in America, is brought prominently before those likely to be interested in the following neat and impressive manner :— A word for the Stereopticon. ‘The constantly increasing uses of the stereopticon in our churches, schools, colleges, public halls, and even private houses, is mani: st to all, and its popularity is well deserved, for it enables the speaker to present not an imaginary representation, but a picture of the thing or place itself.