The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-05-15
THE STEREOPTICON.
THE DESCENDANT OF THE oLD-TIME
MAGIC LANTERN.
The County Schoof-House Exhibition Of
Bygone Days Compared with the
Ox-Hydrogen Lighted Photo Pic
lures Of the Present Time.
Detroit Free Press.l

detroit Free Press
Every one who has lived in the country in
his youth remembers the magic lantern
SHOWS that used to come around to the
school-house several times year. The first
time saw magic lantern show thought
1t about the grandest thing that science and
art could get up. The programme generally
consisted Of a lot of Bible illustrations in the
first section. We had the finding of Moses.
the sacrifice that Abraham almost COM
mitted and different scenes of that sort
This part of the show usually secured the
aof f'ation OF ths local clergy, and took In the
Sunday scho1i teachers and their flock The
| piece that always secured applause was the
animals entering the Ark. The animals slid
into the Ark as If they were on roller skates.
Another famous thing was the round picture
OF all colors which the lantern man worked
with crank, when the rings of colors
seemed TO turn in toward each other, or. il
the crank was turned the other way, the
colorS turned outwaris.
Ladies and gentlemen, this represents a
quilt for turning lazy boys out of bed on
cold mornings"
This patent joke always brought down the
house and we felt defrauded IL Snowman
came around without giving it to us.
This humble instrument with its oil lamp
present day. Then the pictures were rudely
painted with transparent colors on slips Of
glass; now the pictures are photographed and
thrown on the canvas with all the brllliancy
of the lime light
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 the
real objects with every minuteness of de-
tail
Ny old friend Mack works stereopticon
while the owner. Mr.. Drake does the lectur-
ing. Neither Drake nor Mack are profess
sionals, but both are-so to speak-clean
gone on the stereopticon, and like all anna
teurs have devoted much time to the devel-
opment and study Of the instrument Mr.
Drake has been 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
lectsd an enormous quantity of glasses such
as probably no other man in the country
possesses.
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 it to
on the canvas all right or stuck in the air
half way.
The double muzzied instrument was con-
nected by rubber tubes with a 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 pres
sure inside of this about four times greater
than that on the boiler of lake steamer
with full head of steam on"
There is oxygen in that one and hydro
gen in this" said Mack "The two can be
accurately gagged by this device" Here
he lit the mixed gases, and the fame that
shot against the white stick OF chalk-like
substance was Of an almost invisible BLUSH
tint. gave "A slight scream and prepared
for flight
That's because there is little too much
oxygen" said Mack as he turned a stop
cock. This has to be rather carefully done,
because flip of the lime through moisture
or any cause might break this glass, and
that is SIS gone in a moment"
The pale flame soon began to tell ON the
cylinder Of lime. Presently the heated stick
gave out binding, brilliant light, when
Mack lit the upper ono in the same careful
manner
ibe 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 a Palestine colored
scene. This from the upper instrument. In
tho lower was placed tn first picture of the
lecture Then the cover of the lower
nozzle was gradually raised and the
clouds and the picture were intermin-
gled on the canvas. Then the 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 startlingly realistic nature 1t was as
good almost as looking on the object itself.
1t repre- ;ented great ocean steamer setting
out for Europe. The instantaneous photo
graph had caught the peculiar dapple OF the
sunlight on the water and it seemed as IL il
might wet the canvas The pictures were
by all odds the best had ever seen. In this |
way we wandered through Europe, a most |
comfortable and satisfactory journey.
Sometimes instead Of dissolving the pic |
lures one into another, the covers were |
quickly opened and shut, giving an in
Simultaneous lightning change.