A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF OBTAINING OR PRODUCING OPTICAL ILLUSIONS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gaetan Bonelli, Ex-Chief Director of the Telegraphs
in Italy, of 2; Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris, Empire of France, for the
Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF OBTAINING OR PRODUCING
OPTICAL ILLUSIONS."
Sealed the 8th December 1865, and dated the 12th June 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gaetan Bonelli at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th June
1865.
I, GAETAN BONELLI, Ex-Chief Director of the Telegraphs in Italy, of 2, Rue
Sainte Appoline, Paris, Empire of France, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention-for "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF OBTAINING OR PRODUCING
OPTICAL ILLUSIONS," to be as follows:-
It is known that under certain optical conditions, and by the use of an
instrument known as a thaumatrope or phenakistoscope, by combining the
successive positions of subjects, or pictures of subjects placed in a circle on a
disc capable of turning on a centre, that by communicating a rotary motion to
this disc, and looking at the pictures through an aperture or in a glass an
appearance of animation or life is given to these subjects or to pictures of the
same.
To obtain these résults the subjects must be represented in circles in the
different positions they are to successively occupy in such manner that by
communicating a rotary motion more or less rapid to this disc, and under
certain optical conditions these picturės or subjects have the appearance. of
motion and animation.

page_text: I apply these known elements according to my Invention in combination
with microscopical photography to the producing of novel results of several
kinds, first, to produce subjects which appear animated as well as to obtain
different representations of the same subject, for example of a statue of a group
of isolated or other subjects. This is accomplished by making a series of
successive microscopical pictures, and in placing these pictures upon a small
disc, by causing the disc to rotate, each picturé is brought in front of a lens or
magnifying glass, whereby the statue or group appears to the eye in motion in
all the different positions in which it is represented, and in an apparatus of
very small or limited dimensions. A barrel with spring wheels and pinions is
used to impart the required motion.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gaetan Bonelli in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th
December 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GAETAN
BONELLI, Ex-Chief Director of the Telegraphs in Italy, of 2, Rue Sainte Appo-
line, Paris, Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date. the Twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and. sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Gaetan Bonelli, Her special licence that I, the said Gaetan Bonelli, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Gaetan
Bonelli, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
METHOD OF OBTAINING OR PRODUCING OPTICAL ILLUSIONS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Gaetan Bonelli, my executors or administra-
tors, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gaetan Bonelli, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
that is to say:-
It is a well known fact, based on certain optical conditions, and by the use
of an instrument known as a phenakistoscope, that an appearance of motion or
animation may be given to pictures or subjects that have been expressly drawn
or photographed for the purpose. The phenakistoscopic apparatus or instru-
ment being known it will not be necessary to state how the pictures are
arranged to produce the optical illusions, it will be sufficient to say that an
identical result will be obtained with images or pictures of small size and
even reduced to a microscopic scale if to each of the images or pictures a lens
is applied. It is only by the application of as many lenses as there are images
on the disc and not by the successive passage of all the images under a single
lens that the effect will be obtained. Thus if a disc carries sixteen images, as
many lenses or magnifying apparatus would be necessary, which receive a
rotary motion in the same direction as the images before which each lens will
be respectively placed.
The pictures or images thus reduced enable me to construct phenakisto-
scopic apparatus, whether simple or steroscopic, of sizes and shapes not hitherto
done, and thereby forming a novel application of microscopic photography.
In carrying my Invention into effect I avail myself of every aid that optical
or meebanical science may afford to enable me to reproduce subjects of different
forms, kinds, arrangements, and sizes which cannot be obtained without the
use of lenses arranged in the manner herein-before described.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my new or
improved method of obtaining or producing optical illusions, the application of
pictures or images of small and even microscopic size to simple or stereoscopic
phenakistoscopes by the employment of as many lenses as there are pictures
or images on the disc, all substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I the said Gaetan Bonelli, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
(L.S.) Jngr. GAETAN BONELLI.