Accession No
3094
Brief Description
part of camera lucida and box of parts
Origin
Maker
Class
optical
Earliest Date
Latest Date
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass); glass; paper (cardboard)
Dimensions
box length 256mm; breadth 200mm; height 46mm
Special Collection
Steward collection
Provenance
Collection purchased from member of the Steward family, 1974.
Inscription
Description Notes
Brass clamp and rod; extension rod slides inside principal rod. Detachable prism with box of assorted brassware camera lucida parts: including 6 clamp screws, 2 principal rods with extensions, 3 eye shades, 7 mounts for lenses, 1 prism mount plus various screws, etc.
Condition
References
Events
Description
The camera lucida (meaning “room of light”) was an aid for artists, surveyors and architects. The camera lucida is a four-sided reflective prism on the end of a supporting arm. When positioned above a horizontal sheet of paper it worked by reflecting an image of the scene or document in front of the artist onto the paper to allow it to be copied, and the sliding bar could be adjusted to produce a reduced or enlarged image.
If an exact copy of an object was needed the prism would be positioned at equal distance from the object and the table. The further the object was from the table the more the image size would be reduced.
This particular camera lucida may have been made by William Hyde Wollaston, who originally invented them in the early 1800’s.
23/05/2002
Created by: Izzie Foote on 23/05/2002
FM:42160
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