Tufts College Library. a 3 ^ , 6 , m iwl *£. ^cOAi'ir.-x, ^O, ')<?£&&*. r ^lARC Y’s SCIOPTICON MANUAL. REVISED EDITION. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/sciopticonmanualOOmarc <0 WTfc . THE SGTOPTICON MANUAL. EXPLAINING MARCY’S NEW MAGIC LANTERN, AND LIGHT, INCLUDING MAGIC LANTERN OPTICS, EXPERIMENTS, PHOTOGRAPHING AND COLORING SLIDES, ETC. By L. J. MAECY, Optician, No. 1340 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PENNA. REVISED EDITION. SHEBMAN & CO., PBIOTEBS. 1 87 2 . Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, Bt L. J. MARCY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. rus-l-s OGIiLilU-il LIEBABT, Q li<o 32* , A/1 PREFACE. Visible illustrations are so highly esteemed among educationalists of the present day, that the announce- ment that a greatly improved form of Magic Lantern has made its appearance is very favorably received. Between a desire for such an instrument, and the lack of definite information concerning it, many very natu- rally manifest both their interest and their caution by searching letters of inquiry. The inventor has en- deavored, in hasty epistles, to state all the possibilities and impossibilities of the Sciopticon, and of lights, lenses, lantern slides, and tanks; but he finds it increasingly difficult to give each correspondent, individually, a full philosophical exposition. For such, therefore as desire a more detailed account than can be given in a hasty letter, or than is contained in the circular, which it is always a pleasure to forward on application, a Sciopticon Manual has been prepared, to serve as a guide-book to ; IV PREFACE. the various interesting portions of the Magic Lantern field in general, as well as to the Sciopticon in particular. It treats of the Optical Image—without a lens, with a lens, in the camera obscura, in the eye, in the photo- graphic camera, and on the screen of peculiarities ; the of lenses, and the corrections required lenses by ; of the peculiarities of the Sciopticon, and its construction and of dissolving management ; views, phantasmagoria, and the ghost of lantern slides in all their variety of photo- ; ; graphing slides by the wet-plate process, by the dry-plate process, by Marcy's Photographic Printing Apparatus, by the Sciopticon, and other processes of how to paint ; slides, and of how to perform chemical experiments, &c. to which is appended a catalogue, arranged to assist purchasers in making satisfactory selections. Thus this Manual may take the place of private cor- respondence to a considerable extent, allowing in let- ters more space for business, and for an interchange of new ideas, with a view of making the Manual in subse- quent editions more interesting, and the Sciopticon more useful. It was at first my intention to give space to the sub- ject of chemical lights, but reflecting that in this direc- tion there is no lack of printed matter, and that the in- terest felt in the Sciopticon is owing mainly to its giving PREFACE. V good results with little trouble, I have concluded to omit the gas which would increase the bulk of the Manual, , without a corresponding addition to its usefulness. In offering the Sciopticon Manual to those interested in this sort of thing, I feel the more assurance, inasmuch as it covers unoccupied ground. L. J. Marcy. Philadelphia, November 1, 1872. J. CONTENTS OF MANUAL. AGE CHAPTER III. t Introduction, xi PAGE The Construction of the Sciopti- con, 24 CHAPTFR I. No Loss of Light from using an The Camera Obscura, 9 Objective of Low Power with The Inverted Image, 10 a Concentrated Light, 24 Color and Shading, 10 Advantages of Concentrated Light 25 Motion, 10 The Condenser, 26 Size, 10 The Reflector, 26 Size on the Retina, 11 Various Modes of Lantern Illu- Size in the Photographic Camera, 11 mination, 27 Magnified Image, 12 The Size proper for the Illumin- Inferences, 12 ated Disc, 28 Experimental Verification, 13 Analysis of the Sciopticon, 29 Indistinctness, 13 Packing, 32 Convex Lens, 13 Rules for Operating the Sciopti- Stops 14 con 33 Recapitulation 36 CHAPTER II. The Screen, 37 Dissolving Views, 39 The Corrections required by Directions for Produciug the Dis- Lenses, 14 solving Effect, 41 The Form of Lenses, 15 The Phantasmagoria, 44 Pencils of Rays 15 Ancient Magicians, 45 Spherical Aberration, 16 Distortion, 17 CHAPTER IV. Curved Field, 18 Chromatic Aberration, 19 Picture Slides, 50 Unequal illumination, 20 The Standard Size for Lantern Corrections in the Eye, 20 Slides, 51 The Landscape Lens, 21 The Sealed Picture, 52 The-Portrait Objective, 22 Statuary, 53 (v ii) via CONTENTS OF MANUAL. PAGE The Slip Slide, 54 Marcy’s Wet Plate Process, 72 The Lever Slide, 55 The Sciopticon Process,. 74 Revolving Figures, 55 Woodbury Photo-Relief Slides, .. 76 The Chromatrope, 56 Coloring Slides, 77 The Eidotrope, 57 Chemical Experiments, 83 Moving Waters, 57 Description of the Sciopticon,.... 87 Long Slides, 58 The Magic Lantern, 88 Dioramic Painting, with Moving Travelling by Magic, 90 Figures, . 58 TheSciopticonfor Sunday Schools 92 “ “ The Ghost, ..... 58 “ the Parlor 93 The Tank, 59 “ “ “ Lecture Room 94 Precautions about Slides, 60 Oral Descriptions, 94 Bible Lands, 103 CHAPTER Y. Views of Interest in different parts of the World, 119 PHOTOGRAPHY. Nursery Tales, 119 Glass Positives for the Magic Composition Pictures, 121 Lantern, 61 Statuary, ... 122 Dry Plate Process, G7 Movable Slides, 123 Collodio-Chloride Process, 71 Scientific Slides, 123 —————— CONTENTS OF CATALOGUE. TAGE 6. the Drunkard in Notice to Purchasers, 3 Stomach of of Dis- The Sciopticon and Dissolving its Different Stages 23 View Apparatus, 5 ease, 23 Marcy’s Photographic Printing 7. The Gambler’s Career, 8. Commandments,... 23 Apparatus,....^. 6 The Ten 9. The Lord’s Prayer 24 10. Four Scenes from the Life 24 MAGIC LANTERN SLIDES. of a Country Boy, 11. Shakspeare’s Seven Ages of Class Man, 24 I. —Old Testament Illustrations, 7 12 Masonic, and other Lodge II. —New Testament Illustra- Pictures, 24 tions, 8 13. Tam O’Shanter, 24 III. —Holy Land and Egypt, 9 *14. New Tale of a Tub, 24 IV. —Ancient Greece and Rome, 11 15. Renard, the Sly Fox, 25 Y.—Complete Illustration to the 16. Fables of Lafontaine, 25 Text of the Holy Bible, 12 17. The Crusaders, 25 VI. —Views of Interest in Differ- 18. The Ill-Fated Ship, 25 ent Parts of the World, 17 19. Schiller’s Song of the Bell, 25 VII. —American History, 20 20. Rip Van Winkle, 26 VIII. —Franco-German War,.... 21 Class IX.—Views In Sets, conveying X Miscellaneous Pictures 26 Moral Lessons, 22 XI Dissolving Views, 28 1. The Pilgrim’s Process, 22 XII Chromatropes, &c, 30 2. Christiana andher Children, 22 XIII Original Leaf Designs,... 32 3. The Drunkard’s Progress, ... 22 XIV Statuary and Bas Reliefs,.. 32 4. The Bottle (Cruikshank), .. 23 XV Select Painted Comic Slip 5. The Bottle (Comic), 23 Slides, 33 (i X) ————— ——— X CONTENTS OF CATALOGUE. PAGE XVI Paintings with Levers, XXVI—Flowers and Plants 41 Comic, 34 XXVII—Physical Geography,... 42 XVII Dioramic Paintings, XXVIII—Astronomy, 42 with moving Figures, 35 XXIX Geology, 44 XVIII—Paintings illustrating XXX Natural Phenomenon, 45 Nursery Tales, 35 XXXI Anatomy and Physiology 4 5 XIX Fine Engravings, 36 XXXII—Microscopic Anatomy, 45 XXXIII—Optics, 46 SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT. XXXIV—The Microscope and Class its Revelations, 46 XX Mammalia, 37 XXXV—Crystallography, 47 XXI— Birds, 38 XXXVI—Spectrum Analysis, .... 47 XXII Reptiles and Fishes, 38 XXXVII—Statuary and Bas XXIII—Insects, 39 Reliefs, 49 XXIV Arachnida, Crustacea, et XXXVIII— American Views,... 50 Caetera, 39 XXXIX—Hymns, 52 XXV Botany, 40 XL Woodbury Slides, 53 INTRODUCTION. The Sciopticon (pronounced Si-op-ti-con), is by far the most convenient and easily managed of any form of Magic Lantern. Its ridge of wide, intensified double flame, lying lengthwise in the axis of the condensing lenses, gives it much greater efficiency than any other lamp-illuminated lantern. All who have become acquainted with this new in- strument, see in it the accomplishment of what has long been greatly desired by those who appreciate the value of visible illustrations as a means of imparting instruc- tion and of affording rational amusement. Confessedly, the medieval magicians with their lan- terne magique effected little good by their incantations and ghostly spectres. But modern educators have higher aims and better means at hand. Their lenses are greatly improved in form and quality. The pho- tographer secures images of all that is interesting or (xi) Xll INTRODUCTION. beautiful in nature and art. Literature and the sciences teem with pictorial illustrations, from which choice se- lections can be easily copied for lantern slides. And now the Sciopticon, with its own peculiar light for all ordinary occasions, and with the oxy-hydrogen light for occasions extraordinary, comes in to show up what is thus made ready. In form and construction the Sciopticon is very unlike that relic of the middle ages, the old magic lantern. Those who are interested in the philosophy involved in it, in the peculiarities pertaining to it, in the practical management of it, in making and selecting slides for it, in performing scientific experiments with it, and in pro- moting the interest of education by it—will do well to inquire within. SCIOPTICON MANUAL. CHAPTER I. THE CAMERA OBSCURA. A picture formed by rays of light from the several parts of an object as seen at A (Fig. 1), is called an image ; and the cham- ber in which it is formed, and from which all light is ex- cluded, except what • enters a small hole as at /S, is called a camera obscura. This dark chamber claims attention here because its properties, which arc common to the eye, the Sciopticon, and all forms of the camera, are seen on a broad scale, and may be readily verified by inexpensive experiments.