Magic Lanterns
Magic lanterns are that lantern that shows different images on a screen when these lanterns are lit. It is just a placement of wick and revolving glass chambers covers on which images are drawn. As the glass chamber rotates the drawn images are enlarged on a wall or on a screen placed opposite to the lantern. Mr Athanasius Kircher first created these images in Magna Umbrae in1671. Later on in 19th century it became as a trade of magic lanterns. The first slide show of magic lantern was carried out in Britain in which a special effect was introduced. One of the most popular magic lanterns was of Rat swallower, in that numbers of rats were seen entering into the mouth. Other popular magic lantern creation was that of British ships tussle with a French ship that became very popular during the period of Napoleonic war. The glass chamber was rotated with the help of knob and thus the sequence was achieved.
Further as the photography was introduced in these magic lanterns it became cheap and improved the quality of images and its speed to have a great effect. With the help of magic lanterns a particular landmark, famous personalities story, moral tales and political issues were high lighted to draw the attention of the crowd. But later on in 19th century moving picture and talkies took over show from magic lantern and they're after the magic lanterns were left aside.
A German named Ernst Planck developed magic lantern projector called Gloria and later on patented by Henry of Philadelphia in 1870. Due to this the images were made bigger and were seen large audiences in the theatre. In 1894 the Kaleidoscope was invented by Thomas Edison that made possible for single person to see film role, later on the projector came to project a film. This way the magic lantern was upgraded.
In early days in 18th century in Germany a tiny magic lantern was developed with the help of kerosene lamp and that was called nursery magic lantern. During 1908 Ernst Plank Corporation that became very popular developed Gloria lantern kit and it was hot favorite of children. Some of the most acclaimed magic lantern animation are People crossing bridge to reach to church, Father Christmas and mother with children at kiosks, a winter village scene, Snowball fight, Village square and a train, Animals revenge and students at work . To gather more information about magic lantern one can visit web site like The national museum of American history, Lanterna Magica, The Netherlands, Galante So and Henc de Roo web sites.
Magic lanterns played an important role by attracting more number of students towards school, taught the people to live in harmony and in peace, updated their knowledge of current events and made them to understand the morale of the epics. This helped the people from all over the world to unite. Now days one can find magic lanterns only in museum. Thus one can come to conclusion that magic lantern made it possible to invent latest cinema projector.