This catalog is a veritable brass mine of dead media, offering startling insights into an entirely vanished nineteenth- century media environment. It offers for commercial sale to the public several media devices I have never heard of, plus over 40 different commercial varieties of “magic lantern.”
I think it is well to have Mssrs. Peck and Snyder speak for themselves, in the first of what will doubtless turn out to be a long series of Working Notes.
The Peck & Snyder full-page ad is reproduced in its entirety.
THE ELECTRO RADIANT No. 2. The Most Popular Magic Lantern Ever Introduced (black and white woodcut illustration—“this cut represents No. 2 Electro Radiant Magic Lantern. PATENTED.”)
The body of the ELECTRO RADIANT is a cone-shaped reflector which gathers each divergent ray of light and concentrates them all on the main reflector, whence the whole mass of brilliancy illuminated and projects the picture with startling clearness. No combination of lenses, however ingenious, has ever been known to produce equal effects with the light used.
The ELECTRO RADIANT No. 2 projects on screen a picture 8 feet in diameter. The No. 2 Lantern is made entirely of metal. Including the smoke-stack, it stands over 16 inches high when ready for use, but when taken apart it goes into a box 11x9x12 -- small enough to carry in the hand.
[Imagine disassembling, by hand, a fire-driven slide projector made entirely of (red-hot) metal. Yes, the Electro Radiant Magic Lantern features a smoke-stack—a domestic, personal smoke-stack for your parlor.]
The removable parts are the base, the reflector, the lens tubes, the smoke-stack and the lamp. The entire base being removeable, allows the use of any kind of light, whether oil, gas, calcium or electric. A large door at the side gives ample room for manipulating the light. The Slide Box will take in slides 4 ½ inches wide with a 3-inch picture. It is very unusual that slides are made with pictures over 3 inches, and when they are they are for special purposes, and Lanterns have to be made to accommodate them. Therefore our No. 2 Lantern will show the largest of the regulation size slides as well as the smallest and intermediate sizes, whether made by ourselves or others here or in Europe.
[I note here that Magic Lantern ware comes in several different size formats and from a variety of manufacturers and distributors, who apparently could not agree on a standard.]
There are 12 slides with 2 ¾ inch pictures packed with each No. 2 Lantern and included in the price. [The traditional “bundled software” or “first taste is free” marketing approach.]
There are many persons who are able and willing to pay for luxuries—such things as are no better for practical uses, but add to the convenience and perfection of life.
The sentiment is commendable, and, for those who can afford it, is not only a proper but a wise indulgence. [The infant consumer society still required moral lectures at this point.]
For that class [appeals to snobbery were useful also] we have constructed our Electro Radiant Lanterns, with fittings of various kinds, which, though they make the picture on the screen very little if any better, add very much to the convenience of handling and the the general appearance of an outfit, and increase the cost accordingly. [Today this is known as “ergonomics” and “industrial design.” In 1886 this practice required an apologia.]
For instance, the price of OUR MOST POPULAR LANTERN, No. 2, is $12; but with additional conveniences the price is $15.00, $20.00 and $24.00, respectively. The $15.00 Lantern is fitted with Colt’s patent Brass Spun Thread Focussing Tube, with lenses to make an eight to nine foot picture. This focussing tube is the best improvement that has been made in years. It is perfect in working, adjustable by simple turning; there is no loss of light through uneven fitting, it does not catch or hitch, and is as easily and nicely adjustable as the highest price Rack and Pinion Tube made. [One cannot help but marvel as this sudden revelation of an entire peripherals industry for Magic Lanterns. Could this be the same “Colt” who created the Colt revolver?]
For use with a nine-foot screen we recommend the $15.00 No. 2 LANTERN ABOVE ALL OTHERS.
The $20.00 No. 2 Lantern may be used with a twelve or fifteen foot screen, and therefore may be operated in a room that will hold more people.
The $24.00 Magic Lantern is precisely the same as the $20.00 one, except that it has the lenses set in a rack and pinion focussing tube, made of heavy cast brass with milled head adjusting connection, which makes a very stylish and handsome appearance.
Price List of No. 2 Electro Radiant Magic Lanterns
No. 2. With Piano Convex Lenses...$12.00
No. 2A. With Piano Convex Lenses in Colt’s Pat Spun Thread Focussing Tube.........$15.00
No. 2B, Double Achromatic Lenses in Colt’s Pat Spun thread tube $20.00
No. 2C, Double Achromatic Lenses in heavy brass rack and pinion focussing tube....$24.00
12 Slides are packed with each No. 2 Lantern.
P E C K & S N Y D E R, 126, 128 & 130 Nassau Street, New York.
Importers and Dealers in English, French and German Magic Lanterns, at prices from $2.00 to $50.00 each, and also in those of the best American make, prices $5.00 to 75.00 each.
[It must be noted in concluding that the “Electro Radiant,” illustrated with a burning gas lamp, has nothing “electro” about it. The Electro is entirely rhetorical, a futuristic fillip for a cutting-edge device which has already killed off the unlucky “Electro Radiant No. 1.”]
Source: Peck and Snyder’s Catalog (aka Price List of Out & Indoor Sports and Pastimes) 1886, reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press (LC# 75-24886, ISBN 0-87861-094-4)
The scale of the Magic Lantern market
From Bruce Sterling
Mssrs Peck and Snyder offered at least 47 distinct varieties of magic lantern (as well as the Polyopticon and the Megascope, intriguing variants of magic lantern technology).
The large variety of Peck and Snyder’s own product rose from clever recombination of the magic lantern’s basic elements: the body, the base, the reflector, the condenser, the lens tube, the smoke-stack and the lamp. The materials could be cheap japanned tin, or luxuriant brass; the lenses cheap or precise; the lamps powerful and dangerous, or weak and relatively safe.
Some few magic lanterns were imported: “Wrench’s Celebrated London Make Magic Lanterns”, the “Favorite German Lantern,” and the “New Style French Magic Lantern.” The following sample excerpts from Peck and Snyder advertising copy will show how these manufactured variants addressed different purposes and different demographic slices of the magic lantern media market.
[The Professional’s Model] Electro Radiant Lantern, No. 10. The construction of this lantern is such as to especially commend it to exhibitors. A set of Achromatic Object Glasses, as used in No. 10 Lantern, is made up of four lenses of the finest and most accurately ground Crown and Flint Glasses, a concave lens of Flint with a convex lens of Crown glass are paired in cells and placed at the proper distance apart in the focusing tube. The effect on the screen is to bring out a very sharp and well-defined image, free from blurred edges, prismatic color, etc., which invariably accompany the use of plano, or concavo- convex lenses. It accommodates slides of all makes now in vogue and is thoroughly well-adapted for dissolving effects. [”Dissolving effects” or “dissolving views” required the use of dual magic lanterns, projecting two images into the same circle on the screen. With “a simple mechanical arrangement,” two different projected images could apparently dissolve into and emerge from one another. This impressive gimmick led Peck and Snyder to sell their magic lanterns, including the No. 10, in matched pairs. As the unknown copywriter rhapsodized, “The most beautiful effects that can possibly be produced. The effect is indescribably impressive.”))
[The Art Model.] [The Electro Radiant Sketching Lantern pursued an application for the artists’ market. It was essentially identical to the No. 10 model, but came without any bundled lanternware.] “Artists can save many hours of work and attain great accuracy of expression
by using in connection with our Sketching Lantern a photographic negative of the subject to be produced. The picture may be thrown onto the paper or canvas, anywhere from miniature to twice life size. The sketching may be done by a boy or girl, saving the artists’ time and talent. If the artist is not a photographer, an arrangement can generally be made with some photographer to furnish at a low figure a negative plate.”
[The Kid Media Model. Note the free-and-easy attitude toward child employment.] ELECTRO RADIANT MAGIC LANTERN NO. 3. This Lantern was designed Especially for Youths, not only for its remarkable effects on the screen, but also for its limited effects on the pocket. With a No. 3 Lantern a boy may amuse a party of friends, or he may, by charging a small admission fee, earn considerable for any object he may set his heart on. An ingenious boy will have tickets of admission, programmes, music of some sort and numberless little devices to heighten the theatrical, magical and mysterious effect. All devices he will execute himself, filling leisure hours in writing out his tickets and programmes and making other arrangements to make his exhibition a success. Parents and friends should not ignore the instruction and other beneficial effects, and should by all means make their young people owners of a Lantern. [The No. 3 cost only eight dollars. The very similar No. 4 model was sold without a smokestack or chimney burner for a mere six dollars, though this must have increased the fire hazard considerably.]
[The Luxury Model] THE IMPROVED TRIPLEXICON, 100 CANDLE POWER. Price Complete in a Strong Wooden Box, $35.00 The chimney, which connects with the flame chamber, is made in two parts, one sliding into the other, telescope fashion. This allows of the most exact regulation of the current of air supplied to the flame to effect perfect combustion. The body of the lantern may be handled as comfortably, after being two hours in operation, as at the beginning of the exhibition. The reservoir, which will hold enough oil for two and a half hours’ work, is completely out of reach of the heat. Particular care has been taken in the mounting of the lenses to allow for their expansion by heat, thus avoiding the liability of breakage a brilliance and clearness of outline to be surpassed only be the best limelight stereopticons.
[To the modern skeptical eye these oily assurances of comfort and safety conjure up dire vistas of soot- blackened parlors, badly scorched boy-entrepreneurs, and audiences explosively drenched in sheets of flaming kerosene.]
I believe this to be a complete list of Peck and Snyder’s magic lantern models as offered in the 1886 catalog:
The Electro Radiant No. 2, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10.
The New Improved Duplex Magic Lantern, Nos. 1 and 2.
Magic Lantern 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 30, 32, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48.
Wrench’s Celebrated London Make Magic Lantern. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8.
The Favorite German Lantern.
New French Style Magic Lanterns Nos 814, 815, 816, 817, 818, 819.
The Improved Triplexicon.
The Gem Magic Lantern.
The wonder of it is that Peck and Snyder must have had a great many competitors. This catalog offers only a glimpse of what must have been an enormous market.
Source: Peck and Snyder’s Catalog (aka Price List of Out & Indoor Sports and Pastimes) 1886, reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press (LC# 75-24886, ISBN 0-87861-094-4)
anatomy of A Magic Lantern show
From Bruce Sterling
The following, is the complete text of a playbill for a travelling American magic lantern show, circa 1880.
The playbill is apparently designed for poles, columns or door lintels,.as it is very long and narrow. It has a wide, spreadeagle variety of lavish circus fonts in different sizes.
Empresario, Mr. B. A. Bamber.
Price of the show, ten cents.
5th ANNUAL TOUR
————————
B. A. BAMBER’S
---GREAT----
DIME SHOW
New Attractions and Better Than Ever Before
Travels, Art, History. Astronomy, Fun, Electricity.
[A dashing woodcut of the balding, heavily mustached B. A. Bamber]
GRAND STEREOPTICAL DISSOLVING VIEWS SCENES IN MANY LANDS FROM GREENLAND’S ICY MOUNT, TO INDIA’S CORAL STRAND THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD. THE BEAUTIES OF THE WORLD.
Read Carefully Every Word of the Following Programme
PART I. THE PLANETARIUM Will be exhibited and explained. This is an instrument (lately invented) for showing the Planets of the Solar System in their annual motion around the Sun; it also shows their relative size and distance from the Sun, the cause of Tides, Eclipses, Change of Seasons and Signs of the Zodiac. This part will be a lasting benefit to all who desire to know more about the wandering stars that reflect the Sun’s light upon us by night. After this instrument has been exhibited Telescopic Views of the larger Planets will be reflected upon the canvas.
PART II. NATURAL SCENERY Comprises Views of the most Prominent Objects of Interest in both the Old and New World. All cannot travel and see these places, but whoever attends this Entertainment will see them reflected on canvas with a glow of beauty never to be forgotten.
PART III. THE ILL-FATED SHIP Comprises a series of Paintings, showing the sunshine and shadow of a Sailor’s life.
SCENE 1.—Ship at dock in Liverpool Harbor, passengers leaving their native country.
SCENE 2.—Just out of the harbor, sailing on the blue waters of the Irish Sea.
SCENE 3.—A Storm arises, which rapidly increases the furling and reefing of sails.
SCENE 4.—Height of the Storm, rolling on the boundless deep and struck by lightning.
SCENE 5.—Horrible calamity at sea; ship on fire; most on board perish in the flames.
SCENE 6.—The few who make their escape on a raft are now afloat on the wide Ocean.
PART IV. The Highland Lover’s Courtship for Marriage Showing how it is done, also the result which usually follows; a caution to those about to embark on this kind of a ship.
PART V. STATUARY A Magnificent Collection of Statuary from the Centennial Art Gallery will be exhibited, besides other noted works of Sculpture, the beauty of which cannot be described; they must be seen to form any idea of their real beauty and grandeur. Among the many we mention “Flight of Mercury,” “Ophelia,” “Evening,” “Forced Prayer,” Council of War,” &c, &c.
PART VI. MISCELLANEOUS These embrace a large collection of Paintings, Artistic Gems, Dissolving Views and Transformation Scenes, which have been procured at great expense, and for faithfulness in perspective and beauty in design, they stand unrivalled. The whole will be enlivened with NUMEROUS COMIC SCENES
Electricity Without Extra Charge A very fine Galvanic Battery is provided for any who may wish to try it. This is an excellent remedy for Rheumatism, Neuralgia and Headache.
Be sure to come before the show begins if you want to try it.
Positively Everything Advertised on this Bill will be Shown
REMEMBER, THE PRICE OF ADMISSION IS ONLY
10 CENTS FOR ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY
Doors Open at 7 O’Clock.
Begins at 8 O’Clock.
Travels, Art, History, Astronomy, Fun & Electricity—Bamber’s Dime Show was entertainment shovelware to rival CD-ROM. First a weird gizmo, the so-called planetarium, presumably an orrery. Then astronomical slides, no doubt accompanied by a proto-Saganesque cosmic narrative from Bamber. Then telepresence—“all cannot travel,” but a virtuality is beautiful and cheap. Then a melodramatic disaster—the repeated mentions of “rolling,” “sailing” and “reefing” strongly suggests these so-called “paintings” were partially animated. Magic lantern slides were often quite mechanically complex.
A bit of mild bawdry and ethnic humor in part four. Then the statuary—their placement in the show seems odd and anticlimactic, unless the statuary included female nudes, which might make sense as the children have probably left by this time. Then, “miscellaneous” or basically the leftover c
ontents of the professor’s trunk from the previous four tours, with a bang-up ending of eye-boggling “dissolving views.”
Bamber also boasts an interesting sideline in voltaic placebo snake-oil—“Electricity Without Extra Charge.” People can be impressed by gadgets, entertained by gadgets, forced to laugh or weep by gadgets. The truly daring charlatan can even cure the sick by gadgets. The “magic” of the magic lantern was closer to the healing magic of the witch doctor than we might credit today.
Source: THE HISTORY OF MOVIE PHOTOGRAPHY by Brian Coe, Eastview Editions, Westfield NJ, 1981, ISBN 0-89860-067-0
Silent Film, Diorama, Panorama
From Alan Wexelblat
This collection of essays deals with the philosophy, theory, and sociology of film viewing.
In “An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator” Tom Gunning takes on the myth that early film audiences ran in fear from a film of a train apparently coming at them. He discusses several of the (now dead) technologies that immediately preceded film and shows how they were used/presented in such a way as to achieve maximum amazement. He shows that while audiences may have been amazed by the new moving images, they were not apt to confuse these images for reality. An important debunking of popular mythology.
In “Cinematic Spectatorship before the Apparatus: The Public Taste for Reality in Fin-de-Siecle Paris,” Vanessa Schwartz discusses Parisian’s methods of self-amusement in the immediate pre-film period. Flanerie (the taking in of sights while strolling/shopping) translated itself into a bizarre entertainment spectacle whereby the Paris Morgue became a medium of reality display. Bodies of crime victims were put on display, ostensibly so the public could identify the people but in fact for entertainment. Her description of the many-days display of the corpse of a child is particularly interesting. She also discusses a couple of other dead techs—the diorama and the panorama—and talks about how the newspapers of the day combined ‘true crime’ stories and serial novels.
The Dead Media Notebook Page 4