, 1885-03-26
THE sTERE0PTICON.
THE DESCENDANT OF THE oLo7TME
MAGIC LANTERN.
The County sohooI-Houss Exhibition Of
ByTees Days Compared with n
o~z-Hydrossn Lighted Photo Pic
lures of the Present Time.


00DA9 1~RaA@ ~ 49,
school-house several times a year. Tn first
time l saw a magic lantern show / thought
II about the grnndest thing that science and
art could get up The programme generally
consisted OF a lot of Bible illustrations In the
first section. We had tho finding OF Moses,
the sacrifice that Abraham almost com
mitted and different scenes OF that sort
This part OF the show usually secured the in
dorsation OF tho local clergy, and took In the
Sunday school teachers and their flock The
piece that always secured applause was the
animals entering the Ark The animals slid
into the Ark as II they were on roller skates
Another famous thing was the round picture
Of all colors which the lantern man worked
with a crank. when the rings OF colors
seemed to turn In toward each other, or, il
the crank was turned tho other way, the
colors turned outwards.
Ladies' and gentlemen, this represents a
quilt for turning lazy boys out Of bed on
cold mornings" ll I'D.
This patent Joke always brought down the
house and we felt defrauded II a Snowman
came around without giving 1t to US.
This humble instrument with its oil lamp
was the ancestor Of the stereopticon Of the
present day. Then tho pictures were rudely
painted with Transparent colors on slips OF
glass; now the pictures are photographed and
thrown on the canvas with all the b%rilliancy
OF tho lime light
I sometimes think that the oily odor OF the
old magic lantern hangs over the stereopti-
con business. and that people hardly realize
that they are next thing to looking on tho
real objects with every minuteness of do
tail. ngI rr
My old friend Mack works a stereopticon
while the owner. Mr.. Drake, does the lectur-
ing. Neither Drake nor Mack are profess
SIGNALS, but both are-so to ~speak-clean
gone on the ~stereopticon, and like all anna
teurs have devoted much time 10 the devel-
opment and study OF the instrument. Mr..
Drake has bean in correspondence with the
leading photographers in Vienna, Berlin,
Rome, Venice and all other places where suit
able pictures could be found and SO mas col
lscted an enormous quantity Of glasses such
as probably no other man in the country
possesses
I went up in the gallery of a suburban
church the other evening to see Mack work
the combination. The whole affair was
covered in with a big black square-toppsd
tent, with a sort Of round loop-hole in il to
enable Mack to see whether the picture got
on the canvas all right or stuck in the air
half way.
The double-muzzled instrument was con-
nected by rubber tubes with q couple of cop
per Arrangements that looked like the gener-
ators of a soda water fountain.
Yes" said Mack, placing his hand on one
OF the copper holders, there Is now a pres
sure inside OF this about four times greater
than that on the boiler of n lake steamer
with a full head of steam on"
There is oxygen in that one and hydro
gen in this said Mack. @rhe two can be
accurately gagged by this device" Here
he lit the mixed gases, and the flame that
shot against the white stick OF chalk-like
substance was OF an almost invisible blush
tint 1 gave a slight scream and prepared
for flight p
that's because there is a little too much
oxygen" said Mack, as he turned a stop
cock. @This has to be rather carefully done,
because a flip of the lime through moisture
or any cause might break this glass, and
that is SIS gone in a momentn faN
Tho pale flame soon began to tell on the
cylinder of lime. Presently the heated stick
gave out a binding, brilliant light, when
Mack lit the upper ono in the same careful
manner.
The pictures were all arranged in an OBJ
long box as they should be shown, so that all
he had to do was TO pick them up one by one
and place them in either the upper or lower
instrument. First was q Palestine colored
scene. This from the upper instrument In
the lower was placed the first picture of the
lecture Then the cover OF tho lower
nozzle was gradually raised and the
clouds and the picture were intermin-
gled on the canvas Then tho cover of
the upper nozzle was gradually closed and
the clouds as gradually evaporated and left
the picture on the screen Of gigantic size and
Of n startlingly realistic nature. 1t was as
good almost as looking on the object itself.
1t represented a great ocean steamer setting
out for Europe. The instantaneous photo
graph had caught the peculiar dapple OF the
sunlight on the water and 1t seemed as il it
might wet the canvas. The pictures were
by nl odds the best had ever seen. In this
way we wandered through Europe, a most
comfortable and satisfactory journey.
z Sometimes instead of dissolving the pic
lures one into another, the covers were
quickly opened and shut, giving an in
s~tantaneous lightning change. ----