Arkansas true Democrat., 1859-01-19
The StereOscope.

A new articie has been introduced into the commerce of art. The sereoscope, although au invention no longer new is yet now Tor the first time brought to New York in manufacture, and the exquisite representations of nature and art which have been made by it for few years past in Paris, London and Philadelphia, are just beginning to find among us appres a,ion and customers. Those who have seen the marvel ous fidelity with which it repeats to Us the tri- umphs of man and the wouderworks of God, the weird trick by which Niagara and the Pyra- mids are brought before us in all the sublinity of reality, will hardly be able to understand why an art so generally diffilSed in London that al- | ready there are there circulating libraries of stereoscopes, has hitherto found so little encour- agement in this country. Yet We are informe ed | by MT. BeckeI, one ofthe largest importers, that l he kept his first invoices for long tme and was obliged to sell them then far below cost and In fact that the whole amount sold in this | country so far, does not amount to much more than S50OOO at retail, or about half that sum at | wholesale.
 But now that we have New York stereo- scopc company, and the Paris and London made | pictures are becoming well known that single | persons, among them the preacher of Brooklyn, | buy them by the hundred dollars worth, we l should be very unlike ourselves did not New York soon assume the same position with regard | to the rest of mankind in the manufacture of the stereoscope that she now occupies in that of the daguerreotype and photograph.
 Wheatstone long ago invented the stereo- scope-two pictures of the same object. taken from the different points of view of the two eyes and then united by prism-s spectacIes so as to give to the combined picture that solid appearance which we see in all nature, but in no single pie ture. The first stereoscopes made for sale were statues; they were double daguerreotvpes on silver plates, and were far inferior to the trans. parent pictures on glass which have since SUD- planted them. Dubosq Soei commenced the manufacture of stereoscopes of landscapes on i glass. He sold them for three dollars piece. but has been unable to maintain his fame against some of the artists who have since entered the field
 | At the head of these stands Terrier. who has made fortune of S2OOO0O since 1854 from the sales of his pictures lis stereoscopes on glass are in such demand that he has recently inform ed his customers that he can fill no more orders for stereoscopes on paper. His catalogue com prises an immense number of views ill Europe. Asia and Africa. He has l5O of Paris; as many more of the provinces of France; considerable number of the Pyrcnees Belgium and the Black l of Italy and 250 of Switzerland; 40 of Athens: 100 of Constantinople, and lately he has added to these 100 of Egypt, from Cairo to the cata- racts, from negatives taken by Firth
 | NM Clousard and Souier, who took the medal at the Exposition Universelle for their maiden attempts in stereoscopy, have acculnmu- lated large stock of pictures; 122 of Paris: 25O of Germany, 15O of Spain and Algiers During the simmer they have been taking new pictures in Saxon Switzerland; last year they added to their stock from the Tyrol To illustrate the care which they bestowed on their stereoscopes. Mir. Bekel, in whose employ they are, tells us that Mir. Clousard spent three weeks together on the Tyro without being able to take single picture, waiting for extraordinary clearness in the atmosphere
 Among other makers in Paris is NJ. Croupier | who has taken some good views of Russian scenery principally in St. Petersburg, Moscow aud Warsaw.
 The London stereoscopic company makes more than half the stereoscopes that are made | in London A single section of its establish ment has facilities for turning of 1000 every day. Mr. Williams, one of its principal artists. we met the other day at High Bridge taking views of that noble structure and its beautiful surroundings He has been through the coun- try during the past summer. He spent the summer of 1847 in Ireland. The English groups are widely renowned; groups illustrating any striking thing, from play at cards to the impediments thrown in the way of lovers by a too extensive crinoline. These groups, it is we'll to see, are giving place, in the estimation of the public to scenery for the representation of which the stereoscope has no equal.
 Mir. Langenheim of Philadelphia has patent ed an improvement on the early French stereo- copes on glass. It consists of plate of ground glass behind the picture which renders the | ground glass in the instrument for holding the picture unnecessary, and so, by dispensing with one glass. secures better picture. The French makers use the invention, and say that it was used in France before he patented it. MT. Lan- genheim has number of views taken in this country; IA summer views and winter views of Niagara; of Quebec; 5 of the White Noun