"...a lanthorn, with pictures on glass, to make strange things appear on a wall, very pretty."
Samuel Pepys, diarist
The "magic" lantern was used to project still images onto a wall or sheet and was an early version of the slide projector. The idea has been understood for many centuries. Light, shining through a translucent picture, will project the image onto a light-colored flat surface. The earliest reference to the use of a lantern to project images is in Liber Instrumentorum by Giovanni de Fontana, written around 1420.
Optics developed rapidly in Europe during the seventeenth century. As early as 1659, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) had made a lantern with a lens to focus the light and produce a sharp image. Danish mathematician Thomas Walgensten (1627-1681) traveled throughout Europe in the 1660s, selling the lanterna magica. Numerous designs survive from this period and, in 1663, optician John Reeves of London was making and selling lanterns. The diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) bought one from Reeves in 1666.
During the eighteenth century, improvements in lenses, light sources, and mirrors transformed the magic lantern into a powerful projector. Showmen traveled throughout Europe putting on elaborate "phantasmagoria" shows, using magic lanterns to present ghost and horror stories.
