Accession No
5908
Brief Description
animated astronomical magic lantern slide of projecting orrery (planetarium), by Carpenter and Westley, English, 1846 - 1875 (c)
Origin
England; London; 24 Regent Street
Maker
Carpenter and Westley
Class
demonstration; optical; astronomy
Earliest Date
1846
Latest Date
1875
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, steel); wood (mahogany; lignum vitae); glass; paper
Dimensions
width 94mm; length 176mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Tesseract, Box 151, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 10706 on or before 20/03/2003.
Inscription
MOVEABLE ASTRONOMICAL SLIDERS
No. 1.
The Solar System, shewing the Revolution of all the Planets with their Satellites round the Sun.
CARPENTER & WESTLEY, 24 REGENT-ST., LONDON.
Description Notes
projecting orrery (planetarium) magic lantern slide, by Carpenter & Westley, c. 1846 - 1875.
Mahogany slide with a central window; seven geared rings each carry a representation of a planet and its moons. The Sun is represented by a central hole filled with yellowed glass and the planets are all present except Pluto, which was discovered in 1930 (Neptune was discovered in 1846). The rings are turned by a lignum vitae handle with a brass and steel crank. Paper label pasted onto the reverse of the slide, bearing the inscription detailed above.
Condition: good (crank is not located in the central tube); complete (number 1 of a set)
References
Events
Description
Magic lanterns are an early type of image projector. They use a powerful light source to project images onto a screen or wall. They were the precursors to modern slide, overhead and motion picture projectors. Although first developed in the 17th century, it was in the late 18th and 19th centuries that the design of the instrument became developed enough to make magic lantern shows a popular form of general entertainment and scientific and artistic education.
The basic elements of a magic lantern are a metal or wooden body, a light source, a condensing lens, a focusing lens, and interchangeable slides that were commonly produced in sets. Early lantern slides were hand painted on glass, but by the late nineteenth century a number of companies were mass producing slide sets utilising photographic transparencies. Hand cranked mechanisms were sometimes also built into the slides to produce elaborate animated effects. Slide sets might show recent events, exotic locations from around the world, or illustrate tales and fables. For scientific lecturers, the magic lantern was an invaluable instrument for illustrating their public talks, enabling the projection of spectacular astronomical images or massive diagrams of plants and animals.
03/04/2014
Created by: Joshua Nall on 03/04/2014
FM:46350
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