Magic lantern
Linterna mágica
- Date
- 1659 · confidence high
- Place
- The Hague, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Christiaan Huygens (1659); popularised by Thomas Walgensten and Athanasius Kircher
- People
- 👤 Atanasio Kircher1602–1680👤 Christiaan Huygens1629–1695
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A projector with a lamp, concave mirror and lenses that enlarged images painted on glass plates onto a wall. The first image-projection device, forerunner of cinema.
Kircher has been cited as the inventor for his Ars Magna (1671), but Huygens's drawing of 1659 is earlier and explicit.
What it led to
- Travelling projection shows and phantasmagorias
- Visual teaching and scientific demonstrations
- Optical illusionism and Enlightenment visual culture
Built on
- Camera obscura with lens1550-1568
- Refracting telescope1608
- Oil lamp and concave mirror
Made possible
- Animation (Reynaud's Théâtre Optique)1892 (patentado en 1888)
- Cinematograph (cinema)1895
- Robertson's phantasmagoria (1798)
- Slide projector