Magic Lanterns

We live in a world dominated by images television, video and computer graphics. Throughout history people have always sort ways to delight the eye, the magic lantern was one of the earliest  pieces of technology used to achieve this. The device consists of a light source, an image painted on glass and a system of lenses to focus the image onto a screen.

Above the author with a brass and mahogany magic lantern

The origins of the lantern are lost in history but certainly it was around by the mid 17th century however it was in Victorian Britain that the magic lantern was at the forefront of technology being employed for religious, educational, artistic, scientific, topographical, entertainment uses, in fact it fulfilled  almost the same role as that which TV, video and the Internet do today.