Abstract
Abstract The ‘magic lantern’ slide originated in Europe as an entertainment, but in the United States it came. to wield its greatest impact as an instructional device in public lectures and in formal education. Some historians credit Athanasius Kircher, a Roman Catholic priest, with developing the lantern in the seventeenth century.1 The claim is not as fully authenticated as one might wish; in any event, several versions of the device became common during the following century. The first transparencies ( ‘slides ’) for use in such lanterns were hand-painted glass disks mounted in wooden frames. Despite these early antecedents, it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that the lantern came to be used in America, as a result of efforts by the Langenheim Brothers of Philadelphia to produce lantern slides photographically. At that time also several commercial dealers introduced more effective projectors than had hitherto been available.
Published Version
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