Photographic magic lantern (hyalotype) with limelight
Linterna mágica con placas fotográficas y luz de gas (hyalotipo)
- Date
- 1849-1860 · confidence medium
- Place
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Credited to
- William and Frederick Langenheim (photographic plates); Thomas Drummond (limelight)
- People
- 👤 Frederick Langenheim1809–1879👤 Thomas Drummond1797–1840👤 William Langenheim1807–1874
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A projector that replaced hand-painted plates with photographic slides on glass and used limelight or oxy-hydrogen gas light, allowing projection to large halls. It turned the lantern into a medium for teaching and mass entertainment.
The magic lantern dates from the 17th century; the industrial leap was the combination of photography on glass (the hyalotype, 1850 patent) with intense light sources.
What it led to
- Illustrated lectures and visual education
- Phantasmagoria shows and dissolving views
- Scientific and travel slides
- The path towards cinema
Built on
- Calotype and negative-positive process1835-1841
- Huygens's magic lantern (1659)
- Drummond's limelight (1826)
Made possible
- Cinematograph (cinema)1895
- Slide projector
- Projected zoetrope