Illustrated Catalogue of mathematical, optical and philosophical instruments and school apparatus made and for sale by James W. Queen & Co. (Sign of Franklin"s head) Philadelphia - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt: ...3 inches diameter, the box 10 by 8 inches square, and 16 inches high 16 00 753. Magic Lantern, no brass work, no spring, entirely plain, but of as high a magnifying power as the $18 lantern; solar lamp to burn lard or oil, with condensing lenses 3 inches diameter, the box 10 by 6 inches square, and 1$ inches high 12 00 DISSOLVING VIEWS. The exhibition of the Dissolving Views is one of the most extraordinary and magical effects that the lantern is capable of producing. No terms can better express these wonderful changes than "dissolving;" for, while the spectator is viewing a painting, it is made, almost imperceptibly, to melt into quite a dissimilar picture. A painting representing the exterior of a cathedral being under view, this is insensibly changed into the interior of the same building, without the observer being able to detect any apparent alteration, until the new picture appears to grow perfectly distinct before him: hence he is led to suppose the change to have taken place upon the same painting; whereas a new view has been substituted, without leaving the screen in darkness for an instant. The mode of producing this Eleasing and fascinating illusion is by the employment of two Phantasmagoria,anterns, of precisely the same magnifying powers, and arranged on a stand, or of the Binoptric Lantern, of which the inventor, Dr. Beechey, says: " This Dissolving Apparatus possesses, within as small a compass as a single lantern of the ordinary description, all the powers of two lanterns, with only one lamp, of intense brightness, free from the objectionable smell and great heat of ordinary lamps, whereby a disk of twenty feet for each tube maybe obtained. Each disk is capable of being darkened to any required extent without the least shadow ...