A hand-tinted wooden-framed dissolving views illustrated lantern slide of a lighthouse at dusk with a boat sailing by. Along the top of the lantern slide is a label that reads: 'coast scenery of Devon and Cornwall', from a set of slides, this one is number 13. Slide was made by the Magic Lanterns manufacturer W. Watson & Sons. The company was established at 71 City Road, London, from 1837 and moved to 313 High Holborn in the 1860s. The fact that an image could disappear and be quickly replaced by another added to the mystery of the magic lantern performance. One image gradually faded out, while at the same time another was gradually faded in, giving the effect of a scene slowly changing before the eyes of the spectator. During the second quarter of the 19th century this technique was widely used, using a pair of lanterns side-by-side. Later, particularly after the widespread adoption of limelight illuminants, biunial lanterns (one unit on top of another) were used, and eventually triple lanterns or triunials. This night scene could mix slowly into the identical daytime scene, or the light beam projecting from the lighthouse could circulate, the changes so imperceptible that the coming of daytime or the movement of the projected light appeared entirely natural. Particularly where they involved changes of the same scene, dissolving views required careful registration of each image on the screen. The lenses of multiple lanterns would have to be inclined slightly relative to each other, so that their light beams converged and the images coincided on the screen.
| Item number | 91296 |
|---|---|
| Category | Lantern Slide |
| Type | Magic Lantern |
| Language | English |
| Country of origin | UK |