Some historians maintain that it was the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) who in around 1659 constructed the first working magic lantern. Although the illustration contained some technical contradictions, it indicates Kircher's objective of projecting a series of images successively onto a large screen. Interestingly, the slides were shown mounted in the inverted position in order to provide an upright presentation, and thus indicated his understanding of optics. Kircher's drawing indicated a lamp as light source, a lens, a mirror, slides, and an image projected on a wall. In Kircher's expanded second edition of Ars Magna (1671), he illustrated a projection lantern, and took credit for its invention. In 1657, and again in 1671, Gaspar Schott (1608-1666), in his Magica Optica, described every type of magic lantern then known, and gave Kircher credit for originating the technology. A few years after the initial publication of Ars Magna, Kircher's pupil, missionary Martin Martini, reportedly began touring Europe, illustrating his trip to China by projecting images from glass slides, a contraption Martini attributed to Kircher. The mirror was replaced with images painted on a water-filled glass container. Kircher's modifications included the addition of a bi-convex lens arrangement, using either candle or sun as a light source. 1535-1615) of Naples, Italy, in his Magiae naturalis libri viginti (1589). This method of projecting images etched into highly polished metal plates had earlier been described by Giambattista della Porta (c.
1602-1680), a German Jesuit priest, detailed improvements in "mirror writing" in Ars Magna lucis et umbrae. The invention and first public demonstration of the magic lantern has long been a subject of debate. The combined processes of controlled light projection through specialized lenses and intermittent movement of painted images in the magic lantern lay the foundation for modern slide and movie projectors.
This "magic lantern" technology incorporated the same basic components as modern optical projection systems-a subject in a holder, a light source, a projection lens, a condenser, or lens to redirect as much light as possible through the projection lens and a ground, or viewing screen. In the seventeenth century, the optical principles of the camera obscura were applied to display multiple images painted on glass plates. By the Renaissance, ground glass lenses had made possible the improvement and widespread use of spectacles and telescopes, as well as improved focus in pinhole boxes or "cameras obscuras," from which the magic lantern derives. It is now thought that al Haytham was describing optic principles already well known throughout the world. Around the tenth century a.d., the Arab philosopher Ibn al Haytham (965-1038) described the mechanics of the pinhole camera. Others attribute the earliest description of sequential animation to Titus Lucretius Carus, a Roman poet and philosopher, in c.
During the fourth century b.c., Aristotle (384-322 b.c.) similarly described what would eventually be called the camera obscura Chinese inventor Ting Huan is said to have perfected a device for projecting moving images in c. In the fifth century b.c., Chinese philosopher Mo Ti described a "collecting place" or "locked treasure room" where an inverted image appeared on a screen when light passed through a pinhole. Consequently, they discovered the value of image projection for religious, educational, and entertainment purposes. More than twenty-five hundred years ago, intellectuals from many cultures began to experiment with image projection in their attempts to understand the relationship between the mechanics of the human eye and the physical principles of light. The Origins and Development of the Magic Lantern Overview