Optical Toys- The Magic Lantern

Optical toys- The Magic Lantern

History:
The Magic Lantern was created in the 1600's and ever since then, it has played an important role in the history of entertainment. Magic Lantern's are basically old versions of slide projectors, but with a couple of strong differences.
 Magic Lantern's used fire to illuminate the slides, whereas slide projectors used electricity. The shape of the slides are different too. Magic Lanterns had slides that were big, bulky pieces of glass that were held together with wood or metal. Today's slides are the exact opposite, since they are lightweight, thin, and came in single frames. Magic Lanterns also have mechanical features that had limited movement of one or more slides within a projector, which is something that modern slide projectors don't have. Lastly, lots of Magic Lanterns could display images that were more complex than more modern day slide projectors.
                                                        "Magic Lantern"

Here's the link to the website that I found the information on:
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit02.htm

How it works:
A Magic Lantern has seven working areas: The lamp, reflector, condensing lens, lens tube, body, base, and smokestack.
 The lamp is the only source of light, which usually came from burning oil or gas, or calcium, or eventually, electricity. The job of the reflector is to reflect the light from the lamp toward the condensing lens, which concentrates light onto a slide that is being projected. The lens tube magnifies the illuminated slide so the image from six to twelve feet wide is allowed to be obtained. The body is usually made out of complete metal, and is a shell for all of the areas said earlier except for the lens tube. The base elevates the Magic Lantern when it's atop a table. This part is used to make sure that the table doesn't get burned, since the lantern heats up and gets very hot at times. Lastly, the smokestack vents out the smoke coming from the lamp, so that way the smoke doesn't get trapped inside of the lamp and causes the lamp to be caught on fire.
 Hand-painted or photographic slides are inserted horizontally between the condensing lens and lens tube, through metal runners at the top and bottom.
 Someone who is skilled in using a Magic Lantern can flip through the images quickly and make them appear to be moving, creating the illusion of movement. Some slides create detailed, fast moving displays, which says that The Magic Lantern isn't just a still image displayer.

The site:
The site that I had found the information about the optical devices on had a neat and orderly layout, and the information on the optical devices was easy to access and understand as well.

What I find interesting about The Magic Lantern:
What I find interesting about The Magic Lantern is the process of how it creates an animated display and the history of it.
 I've heard a little bit about Magic Lanterns before, but I've never heard the whole history about it in this way. It has an interesting and complex history and process on how it creates visual displays, and it has a very alluring appearance.
 In conclusion, I feel that The Magic Lantern is an important part of the history of animation since it influenced the making of the modern day slide projector, and it helped to revolutionize the evolution of animation, and I personally think that Magic Lanterns are intriguing and amazing.