Welcome	About	Introduction	Chapter One beginning of time – 999 AD
Chapter Two 1000 AD – 1399	Chapter Three 1400 – 1599	Chapter Four 1600 – 1649	Chapter Five 1650 – 1699
Chapter Six 1700 – 1749	Chapter Seven 1750 – 1799	Chapter Eight 1800 – 1819	Chapter Nine 1820 – 1829
Chapter Ten 1830 – 1839	Chapter Eleven 1840 – 1849	Chapter Twelve 1850 – 1859	Chapter Thirteen 1860 – 1869
Chapter Fourteen 1870 – 1879	Chapter Fifteen 1880 – 1884	Chapter Sixteen 1885 – 1889	Chapter Seventeen 1890 – 1894
Chapter Eighteen 1895 – 1899	Chapter Nineteen 1900 + post cinema	Chapter Twenty 1911 +	Copyright
HOTDOC Internet Archive Channel	HOTDOC X Channel	HOTDOC You Tube Channel

_{Period: 1800 to 1819}

The chapters are becoming more crowded now because the decades are full of activity leading us to animated pictures. And they will be arriving much earlier than many ever imagined.

At the end of chapter seven, Fulton, an American was granted a license of exploitation that allowed him to introduce Robert Barker’s Panorama into France. The first Panoramic painting to be displayed in Paris was exhibited by Fulton. It was called Vue de Paris depuis les Tuileries, painted in 1800 by Pierre Prévost, for Fulton. It depicted Rue des Panoramas translated as Panorama Street.

We reach now in this chapter, the start of the nineteenth century. During this period, many pre cinema players appear and undertake extraordinary roles in the field of photography. The image seen for hundreds of years in plates, on walls, on glass is finally captured forever.

In 1825 Joseph Niépce takes the first photograph ever retained.

The first half of the 19^th century saw great advancements in the new science of capturing nature in picture form. Disks, wheels, paper cut-outs and finally –flexible plastic – brought us that much closer to the final product, cinematography.

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Davy is pictured here giving his lecture on the right and in the lower half which is underneath the stage on the left, we see the multitude of batteries in the basement needed to secure enough power to create the jump.

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Similar in principle to the Magic Lantern (and longevity), it has an opposite function, since the images are not projected outside, but inside, making it more like a Peep Box, which it was.
A rather large Peep Box. Think Raree or Galantee So, only on a slightly larger scale.

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Its greatest circulation is documented between the 18th and 19th centuries, mainly by street Savoyards and Itinerant Showmen who went to town festivals, asking for a fee in advance of course.

Pay-per-view if you will.

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“I am lucky to live in such an illustrious and famous City as this, which no doubt could be called The Theatre of the World and the Eye of Italy“

^{– Francesco Sansovino, 1765}

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The Savoyard could illustrate to the people the events of the day, and narrate the images being peeped at. It became highly desired during the French Revolution. Itinerant showmen would cry out “Chi vuol veder il Mondo Nuovo?” (Who wants to see the New World?).

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Cosmoramas, which I shall discuss later, were not unique to Venice; they were a popular tourist attraction throughout Europe in the eighteenth century, from Germany to the Netherlands, from France to Britain.

However, Mondo Nuovo bears a distinctly Venetian reference. The Mondo Nuovo hawkers marketed and sold both the world and novelty to people, in the streets of Venice, as the etymology suggests.

Its origins go back to the 15th century and by 1850 the Mondo Nuovo had been bypassed by the Diorama. Over three hundred years in longevity, rivalling the Magic Lantern.

This fairground Peep Box below, undated, resides at Württemberg State Museum, Stuttgart. Photo Andreas Praefcke.

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The Mondo Nuovo is a large chest. Inside were hand-coloured paintings on paper, often with a montage for detail, to obtain the day-night effect of a landscape.

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The Mondo Nuovo were depicted in great pieces of art like this fresco below, Il Mondo Nuovo by Giandomenico Tiepolo, 1750-1791. Now housed at the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, but was originally in his home.

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In these scenes there were sometimes human figures appearing to be animated because of threads or strings that were used to manipulate the scenes or characters, (perhaps like a Marionette) giving an impression of motion. Images Early Visual Media.

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The Mondo Novo or Mondo Nuovo depending on your language, were simple wooden boxes. Through a lens you could see Panoramic drawings, sometimes with 3D effects.

These were of various parts of the world, especially of the Americas, still called the New World, hence the name.

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The New World Peep Shows were even seen throughout the Orient and the Far East.

^{Images Early Visual Media}

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Popular during the French Revolution was the beheading of Marie Antoinette. Executions were spectacular events. If you couldn’t make it to the show, these reproductions would satisfy.

Come and see the Mondo Nuovo!

Like viewing You Tube highlights of the beheading you missed.

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The impact the Mondo Nuovo had on the European population of the 18th century is seen here in the film appropriately title Mondo Nuovo, directed by Ettore Scola in 1982.

Scola honours his pre cinema roots with the scene referred to, at the 3:30 mark.

THE PANORAMA – A PRECURSOR TO WIDE SCREEN CINEMA
From Illusions in Motion – Media Archaeology of The Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles by Erkki Huhtamo, MIT Press, Boston, 2013 available at Google Books minus images and some pages.

Claude Nicolas Ledoux, The Creating Eye, 1804 taken from The Panorama – History of A Mass Medium, Stephan Oettermann, Figure 1.1, Zone Books, New York, 1997, opening page.

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one of the greatest attempts of past centuries to immerse an audience into a moving life-like experience was the panoramic painting

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Here is the key to Robert Burford’s View of the Island and Bay of Hong Kong, Ralph Hyde, Panoramas – A Brief Introduction to a World-Wide Phenomenon, The World of Panoramas. Ten Years of International Panorama Conferences, 2003.

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Taken from Illusions in Motion – Media Archaeology of The Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles by Erkki Huhtamo, MIT Press, Boston, 2013.

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The oldest surviving Panorama in the world, painted by Marquard Wocher 208 years ago, The Panorama of Thun in 1814. This 38 metre-long painting of Thun Switzerland is owned by the Gottfried Keller Foundation and is housed at Schadau Castle, Thun, Canton Bern, Switzerland.

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According to Richard Altick, the panoramic super widescreen experience

“was so designed that two of the forces which militate against perfect illusion in a gallery painting — the limiting frame and standards of size and distance external to the picture itself — were eliminated… The intrusive elements of the spectator’s surroundings being blacked out, the world in which they were entwined consisted exclusively of the landscape or cityscape depicted on the canvas suspended thirty feet away.”

^{– Richard Altick, The Shows of London, Cambridge/ Harvard University Press, 1978, pp132-133}

19^TH CENTURY CHINESE SHADOW BALLS
Another early motion entertainment toy from the Asian and Javanese cultures is this brass Chinese Shadow Ball meant to cast shadows around a room as it’s rolled. Reminiscent of a modern-day disco ball, these Brass Chinese Shadow Balls bring into play the cave art of antiquity, Plato’s shadows in The Republic, as well as Shadow Puppets, Shades and illusionary optical toys all rolled into one.

^{Image the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford UK}

The ball has images of both birds and plants engraved into the brass encircling it, with several openings to allow the light to shine outward and cast shadows from a flame which is housed inside. The ball has two equal pieces which are hinged together.

A gimballed centerpiece holds a wick which when lit, allows the flame to remain upright even when turned, dropped, rolled or spun.

As the ball rolls around a room, it casts shadows across the wall of a darkened or semi-darkened room. The walls, floor and ceiling would dance with light and shadows.

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1802
Wedgwood published a process he calls “sun-printing” or Photograms. He had duplicated previous work by Scheele and Schulze who had also placed sensitized paper out under the sun but could not keep the sheet from going completely black.

His work produced only shadowy and silhouetted images on paper. These were coined as Photograms as Talbot had also called them. Some have referred to Wedgwood as “the first photographer,” likely because of the Quillan Leaf seen here.

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WATCH as Professor Schaaf gives an enlightening and in-depth talk on “The Quillan Leaf.” This 44-minute lecture on The Damned Leaf: Musings on History, Hysteria & Historiography explains the uncovery of photographic history, peeling back layers, to finally recognize the creator of the damned leaf.

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The artist is able to outline in pencil the image projected onto their paper by the instrument’s optics within the darkened walls of the camera. The principle of the Camera Obscura and Camera Ottica was known to the ancient Greeks and Chinese.

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During the Renaissance, artists started to use the optic chamber or Camera Ottica, to sketch perspective more precisely. Ottica is optics in Italian.

Not having to be a native of the French region of Savoy, nor an exhibitor of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a travelling showman of the Magic Lantern became known as a Savoyard. Someone who carried their projecting lantern on their back and went from village to town.

1801-1802
PAUL M. PHILIPSTHAL (1755-1829)
His exact origins are unclear, but he is believed to have been from the Duchy of Brabant (now parts of Belgium and the Netherlands) or the County of Flanders. He was also thought to be German at one point. He was active as a showman from 1785 to 1828, travelling throughout Europe.

He also traded in “physical instruments” and taught his tricks to paying customers. He claimed to have received praise and gifts from various European courts, including Catherine the Great. In 1801 Philipsthal gave Robertson’s Fantasmagorie the English spelling Phantasmagoria and presented shows in London at the Lyceum.

He was also helpful in the development of Dissolving Views with Henry Langdon Childe. Philipsthal was granted a British patent for his Phantasmagoria on 27 January 1802.

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so ghoulish were these projected Magic Lantern Phantasm shows, the word séance was used

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This gentleman went by several names, and was documented severally as Phylidoor, Philidor, Filidort and M. de Philipsthal. They may be simple mis-spellings over the centuries but he was a master Phantasmagoria show pioneer ranking alongside Professor Robertson.

A Philipsthal programme of 1803 below, including it would appear, automatons or mechanical pieces of art in the programme.

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On seeing one of Paul Philipsthal’s Phantasmagoria performances at the Lyceum, Sir Humphry Davy shared for posterity, what he had experienced;

“The small theatre of exhibition was lighted only by one hanging lamp, the flame of which was drawn up into an opaque chimney or shade when the performance began. In this ‘darkness visible’ the curtain rose and displayed a cave with skeletons and other terrific figures in relief upon its walls. The flickering light was then drawn up beneath its shroud, and the spectators in total darkness found themselves in the middle of thunder and lightning.

A thin transparent screen had, unknown to the spectators, been let down after the disappearance of the light, and upon it the flashes of lightning and all the subsequent appearances were represented. This screen being half-way between the spectators and the cave which was first shown, and being itself invisible, prevented the observers from having any idea of the real distance of the figures, and gave them the entire character of aerial pictures. The thunder and lightning were followed by the figures of ghosts, skeletons, and known individuals, whose eyes and mouth were made to move by the shifting of combined sliders. After the first figure had been exhibited for a short time, it began to grow less and less, as if removed to a great distance, and at last vanished in a small cloud of light.

Out of this same cloud the germ of another figure began to appear, and gradually larger and larger, and approached the spectators till it attained its perfect development. In this manner, the head of Dr. Franklin was transformed into a skull; figures which retired with the freshness of life came back in the form of skeletons, and the retiring skeletons returned in the drapery of flesh and blood. The exhibition of these transmutations was followed by spectres, skeletons, and terrific figures, which, instead of vanishing as before, suddenly advanced upon the spectators, becoming larger as they approached them, and finally vanished by appearing to sink into the ground. The effect of this part of the exhibition was naturally the most impressive.The spectators were not only surprised but agitated, and many of them were of the opinion that they could have touched the figures.”

^{– Sir Humphry Davy, c. 1802}

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Two Philipsthal Phantasmagoria posters from the Lyceum shows. The light projection depicted in the poster on the left, would be a spotlight used for effect. Nothing was being projected.

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Here are two pages from The Art of Projection and Complete Magic Lantern Manual by Expert, published by E. A. Beckett, London, 1893 referencing a Philipsthal performance, on pp2 and 3. So ghoulish were these projected Magic Lantern Phantasm shows, he uses the word “séance.”

Harrup conclusively showed in Nicholson’s Journal salts of mercury were reduced by visible radiation, not by temperature. Jacques Bérard (1789–1869), Johann Ritter (1776–1810) and Thomas Seebeck (1770–1831) from 1802 onwards, all elicited conclusions in favour of light.

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1802
NEW AND IMPROVED PHYSIOGNOTRACE
JOHN ISAAC HAWKINS (1772-1855)
John Isaac Hawkins was a British-American inventor of extraordinary calibre, and civil engineer known for his contributions to several fields, particularly in musical instrument design, optics and mechanical innovations. Hawkins invented in 1802 an improved Physiognotrace, a device that could easily create a profile portrait, similar to Chrétien’s device.

Hawkins’ version of the Physiognotrace was an improvement over earlier silhouette-making techniques, which often relied on freehand drawing or less precise mechanical aids. His design was portable and relatively easy to use, making it accessible for itinerant artists and commercial portrait studios.

The Physiognotrace became popular in the United States and Europe, particularly in the early 19th century, as it allowed for quick and affordable portraiture. It was used in public settings, such as fairs and museums, where people could have their profiles made in minutes.

Hawkins collaborated with artists like Charles Willson Peale and his sons, Raphaelle and Rembrandt Peale, who incorporated the device into their exhibitions at the Peale Museum in Philadelphia.

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While Hawkins is credited with the invention, there is some debate about its origins. The term Physiognotrace was inspired by earlier European devices, such as those developed by Gilles-Louis Chrétien in France, who created a similar machine around 1786.

However, Hawkins’ version was distinct in its mechanical refinements and was patented in the United States. He worked with the Peale family to refine and market the device, and it became associated with their museum’s offerings.

Above is an illustration of the Hawkins improved Physiognotrace including the explanation of its workings, in Hawkins own hand.

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Before returning to England to claim an inheritance in May 1803, he secured a patent for the polygraph, as his “pentagraph and parallel ruler” duplicating machine was known, for which Peale was granted American manufacturing rights.

Oh yes, Hawkins also gave us the upright piano. So silent movies could have some music.

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Robert Hare created the oxy-hydrogen blowlamp in 1802. By the middle of the century, Drummond’s limelight (created in 1816) replaced all but the household lantern as the primary source of illumination. Lieutenant Thomas Drummond added calcium oxide to his signal lamp in 1826.

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1803 
PAUL M. PHILIPSTHAL (1760-1829)
Philipsthal provided an evening or two of enjoyment with his version of the Phantasmagoria as reported by Brewster. The apparitions were apparently produced within a small room such as an apartment and included music.

At least a century before Kircher’s show (which would place it at approximately 1540), the history of Cellini provides us with a report on a Phantasmagoric-type show presented at the Coliseum, documented by Roscoe in his Life Of Benvenuto Cellini.

Philipsthal’s lantern shows were known to have resided upon tracks or rails.

Phantasmagoric visions were seen upon a translucent sheet or similar material as opposed to the dissolving view were an opaque background was required. Philipsthal not only introduced the Phantasmagoria into England, he also invented the idea of the Dissolving View.

Dissolving Views were also known as Melting Sights, or Mist Pictures. Some of Philipstal’s Phantasmagoria apparitions were produced within a small room or salón such as an apartment and included music.

Below is an illustration of one such room used by Phylidor from Von der Reck, in Christlieb Benedict Funk’s Natürliche Magie, 1783. READ the book here at the Library of Congress, Harry Houdini Collection. This image is found following page 270, on Plate XIII (the very last page and image).

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Also found in Natürliche Magie, is this illustration (Plate V), of a projecting lantern with a woman appearing in a cloud or possibly smoke.

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1803
PANORAMOGRAPH / PANORAMAGRAPH
ÉTIENNE-LOUIS CHAIX (c 1768–c 1830)
The Panoramograph was a mechanical drawing instrument designed to facilitate the creation of Panoramic sketches. It’s description makes it appear to be that of a distant relative to the Camera Lucida, allowing artists to capture 360-degree viewpoints on a flat surface while compensating for cylindrical distortion.

This was essential for preparing large-scale Panorama paintings, which were popular public spectacles in Europe as it peeked in popularity. Étienne-Louis Chaix, routinely referred to as Chaix in Panoramic art histories, does not appear to have patented his Panoramograph, sometimes spelt as Panoramagraph (a vs. o), because no number is cited in my studies, possibly because systematic patenting for such devices was less formalized pre 1850s.

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The Panoramograph emerged during the height of static Panorama exhibitions (e.g., Barker’s Panorama in London, 1792 and onward). It addressed technical challenges in sketching full rotations, as a static Panoramic sketching tool from the classical Panorama era.

It has been directly referenced in Panorama histories like Stephan Oettermann’s The Panorama: History of a Mass Medium, 1997, on p51 which notes “To help over-come the particular difficulties of making a full circle of sketches, a certain Monsieur Chaix, subprefect of Briançon, invented in 1803 an instrument he called a Panoramagraph.”  

Andjelkovic’s article builds on this tradition, focusing on “art meeting the sciences” in Panoramic innovations (Of Innovations in Panoramas: Art Meeting the Sciences, Katarina Andjelkovic, Ph.D., M. Arch. Eng., International Panorama Council, 2020).

As well, Bernard Comment, in The Painted Panorama (1999/2000), on p37 makes a very brief mention of Chaix’s device with no description or image.

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Secondary sources say a rotating horizontal arm with a sighting tube or prism traced a circular path while the draughtsman followed the horizon line onto paper or canvas. It corrected for the curvature that normally distorts hand-drawn Panoramas.

For now, the device remains text-only in the historical record. No images of any kind are found. Chaix left almost no paper trail beyond those two newspaper notices and the later citations by Panorama historians. As well, everything else about his life appears to have vanished.

The price in 1804 was 120 francs which was quite expensive for the time.

1803
PROJECTED PICTURES
THE JAPANESE UTSUSHI-E
The literal translation of utsushi-e (写し絵) is “projected pictures.”  When the Magic Lantern arrived in Japan from the Netherlands approximately 1803, utsushi-e was conceived. Utsushi-e is a traditional Japanese form of visual storytelling from the Edo period.

Also known as nishiki-kage-e (brocade shadow pictures), utsushi-e combined shadow play and storytelling, often depicting scenes from nature, people, or narratives. Performers manipulated slides and used candlelight or oil lamps to create moving images, a precursor to modern animation and cinema.

It was a popular entertainment form, sometimes performed on boats or in theatres, and is considered an early influence on anime.

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The Minwa-za Company of Tokyo performs traditional utsushi-e around the world. Here is an excerpt from their performance called Daruma Yawa at the Freer Gallery, Washington, DC, July 2008.

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A Minoru Kishimoto production of utsushi-e called ‘Edo-utsushi-e Daruma’ with narration and a behind-the-scene peek at how it all works. Runs 1:21

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The Minwa-za Company of Tokyo enchanted the crowd at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in 2011 with the lost pre cinema art of utsushi-e sponsored by and at the University of Chicago. Here is a short excerpt.

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The noun “e” means “picture,” and the verb “utsusu” refers to the act of motion or movement, therefore utsushi-e can also be translated as “motion pictures”

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The use of these lightweight, handheld projectors operated by multiple lanternists, was an important aspect of utsushi-e. This fundamental concept of freely moving characters across and around the screen differed significantly from the popular Magic Lantern techniques in the West which were more lateral and horizontal in their delivery.

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I find that the traditional definition of early Japanese cinema has not necessarily been naturally connected with pre cinema history as we know it in the West.

It’s almost as if Japan created its own pre cinema history timeline running parallel with ours.

1804
THE FEUX PYRIQUES
Like the Moisse Fantascope discovered by Thomas Weynants in a French chateau in 1990, the late modern-day Galantee So showman Herman Bollaert (1929-2021) discovered this Feux Pyriques optical box in a Belgium castle. The largest ever seen in the Boite ‘d Optiques genre. Feux Pyriques is a French term that translates to pyric fires or pyrotechnic fires in English.

It refers to fire-related effects, often associated with fireworks or pyrotechnic displays. Specifically, it can denote:

The term is sometimes used to describe fireworks, especially in the context of elaborate displays or imitations of fireworks created using transparents or other optical effects, as seen in historical or theatrical settings.

🎦 Also known as feux arabesques, it refers to a type of optical toy box that displays pictures with twinkling light effects. These devices use perforated paper or cardboard plates and a rotating wheel with coloured transparent paper to create flickering, colourful light patterns, often mimicking the visual effect of fireworks.

🎦 In film, feux pyriques can describe controlled fire and flame effects, such as those created using gas ramps (e.g., propane-fueled metal tubes) to simulate fires or explosions without burning actual sets. This technique is common in blockbusters to create dramatic visuals safely.

The term pyrique relates to fire (from the Greek pyr for fire), and feux means fires or lights, so it broadly pertains to fire-based or fire-imitating effects, whether in entertainment, art, or optical illusions.

_{Image Ditmar Bolleart}

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Found in the horse stables of a Brussels chateau, this near-pristine Feux Pyriques optical box stood 4 by 4 feet and was 18 inches deep. See this 200+ year old pre cinema spectacle here operated by son Ditmar Bolleart.

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it’s believed to have been forgotten for more than two hundred years, in the stables of an old Belgian chateau

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Bolleart dated his Feux Pyriques optical box, based on the fashions depicted in the imagery as well as the style of furniture. He states that this find of his dates to “the ‘Empire’ period of 1804 to 1820” saying “the French style which reached its peak during Napoleon’s reign.”

_{Animation Ditmar Bollaert}

_{Images Herman Bolleart}

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This unique installation was discovered in the stables of an old French castle. It is believed to have been stored there for more than two hundred years, forgotten by owners. The ingenious mechanism still works perfectly today. Originally, no less than 22 oil lamps were lit behind the painted panels (pictured).

_{Animation Ditmar Bollaert}

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This panel of lights was now facing a large wheel with a spiral of slots emanating from its centre. The wheel could be set in motion by means of a handle. While turning, the light falling through the slots would be continuously interrupted.

In front of that wheel were two frames, positioned one behind the other, both filled with thin glass tubes for refracting the light. These peep-show boxes were truly optical instruments but also intended as scientific toys or physiques amusantes.

_{Images Herman Bolleart}

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Some parts, especially the edges of the robes and necklaces, diadems and garlands, are perforated. When a wheel is set in motion behind these images and in front of the candles, (as we saw in the Ditmar Bolleart video), the open parts in the scenes start to twinkle and glitter.

_{Animations Ditmar Bollaert}

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These images are tableaus 1 through 12 taken from Herman Bolleart’s report in The Magic Lantern from 2021 including description, on his discovery in the Brussels chateau. These images would have been seen in the video that you just saw directly above.

_{Images Herman Bolleart}

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The pictures themselves were circular and transparent. The device transforms these circular paintings into true indoor fireworks. Upon the discovery, Herman Bolleart was quoted as saying;

_{Embedded image Herman Bolleart}

If you were wondering where does the nation of China come into the name Chinese Fireworks, the answer is historical only.

Historical records suggest they were first developed around the 2nd century BC, with early forms made by mixing saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal—key ingredients of gunpowder—discovered by Chinese alchemists.

These mixtures were packed into bamboo tubes and ignited, creating explosive displays.

By the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), fireworks were used in celebrations and rituals, evolving into a cultural tradition. The Chinese term for fireworks, yanhua (烟花), literally means “smoke flowers,” reflecting their visual spectacle. While other cultures later adopted and adapted fireworks, their invention is widely credited to China.

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It depicts 14 separate scenes as a movie would, and commemorates Oregon history as it ascends from base to top in chronological order. It even has inter-titles to explain the scenes just like a silent movie.

On the interior, visitors may ascend a 164-step staircase to the top. The view offers the Pacific Ocean as well as the Columbia River.

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The Astor Column was erected in 1926. The fourteen scenes from base to top reads as a film treatment;

Dedicated in 1926, the Column celebrates three historic events: the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray, the end of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the arrival of the ship Tonquin.

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The artwork was created by immigrant artist Attilio Pusterla – who, with workers, completed it in approximately 120 days. Visit the Astoria Column online, HERE.

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The robot can produce a drawing in about 3 minutes. This requires multiple cams, and the machine must move the entire stack by three millimeters (0.13 inches) to shift to another stack, or else the process breaks down. Pictured here are three examples of The Drawing Boy’s work.

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Unbelievable precision is accomplished by parts that were largely made by hand. The Boy can write three poems (two in French and one in English) and make 4 drawings, including one of a Chinese Temple seen in the centre.

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Here, Sir David Brewster writes two references both within twenty-seven years of the appearance of the automata of Maillardet.

Found in Brewster’s Letters on Natural Magic, published by John Murray, London in 1832, on pp 262 and then 334.

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Here we can see the inner workings of Maillardet’s The Drawing Boy seen from four different angles, without his clothes on. This automaton was given a complete cleaning and overhaul in 1932.

SEE an Oscar-winning performance of the Maillardet automaton at The Franklin Institute here. An absolutely fascinating video of this working automaton from 218 years ago.

The Boy will draw the ship.

His work bridged the Romantic era’s fascination with natural philosophy and the emerging rigorous scientific methodologies of the 19th century. The observation of combining certain kinds of glass, and the re-fracted chemical and optical rays may be made to coincide, was recognized by Ritter.

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Building on William Herschel’s 1800 discovery of infrared radiation (invisible light beyond the red end of the spectrum), Ritter hypothesized that there might be invisible light beyond the violet end.

Using a prism to disperse sunlight and silver chloride (a light-sensitive chemical), he observed that the chemical reacted most strongly to invisible rays just beyond the violet portion of the spectrum.

This discovery of ultraviolet light expanded the understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum and had implications for optics, photography, and later scientific fields.

Ritter wrote in September 1805;

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While Ritter did not focus extensively on the design or development of lenses, his experiments with prisms—an essential optical tool—demonstrated his engagement with optical phenomena.

Prisms were critical in his work to separate light into its constituent wavelengths, enabling him to identify ultraviolet radiation. His use of optical instruments like prisms shows his practical involvement in the study of light, though his contributions were more about understanding light’s properties than advancing lens technology.

Here we read on p33 about Sir John Herschel’s influence on Ritter’s work in The History of Photography – From the Camera Obscura to The Beginning of The Modern Era, by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, (Thames and Hudson, London, 1969).

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Ritter’s discovery of ultraviolet light laid the groundwork for later developments in spectroscopy, photography, and the study of electromagnetic radiation.

His work with prisms and light-sensitive materials indirectly influenced optical technologies, as understanding the full spectrum of light was crucial for advancements in lens design, photography, and other fields.

There is no doubt that this discovery led, after more than thirty years, to the construction of Photographic lenses in which the optical and chemical foci coincide. Crucial to future lens makers.

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The Galantee showmen gave way to the Professors, showmen who had access to more elaborate equipment and wonderful, but expensive, animated slides. Robertson was a professor of the Magic Lantern show and perfected the Phantasmagoria.

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Complex and spectacular shows were presented at the Royal Polytechnic Institution (founded 1838). The screens at the Polytechnic were about 25 feet (8 metres) and included musicians, and sound effects people. The projectionists often used 4, 5 or even 6 large-format projectors.

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The Royal Polytechnic Institution would present fabulous shows including spectacular dissolving views.  It closed in 1876 and its slides were auctioned off in 1882 for £900. As Magic Lanterns were bought by the public, people could create lantern shows for themselves at home.

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W. H. Wollaston himself depicted here in profile, made by his own invention, the Camera Lucida. Also shown is Wollaston’s specification sheet from his patent.

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We have here, three separate depictions of the same James W. Thayer Panorama that had two distinct rotundas. They were located at the entrance to the Passage des Panoramas in Paris.

The Variety Theater is seen on the left side of each picture with the two levels of four columns. On the right of the Variety Theater are the two rotundas.

The structure could seat 150 per show and patrons sat no closer than 36 feet from the screen. Thayer’s paintings were done by Pierre Prévost and Charles Bouton to name two.

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Two of his Panoramas were called Panorama of Paris seen here, and The Evacuation of Toulon by the British in 1793 both by Pierre Prévost.

Thayer commissioned the French Panorama artist Prévost to paint for a new location, with enormous proportions.

This was the first Panorama presented in Paris in 1801 and which was then shown in Vienna (1803), in St. Petersburg (1805) and in Amsterdam (1808). It resides at the Carnavalet Museum, History of Paris.

It was located between the rue Neuve-Saint-Augustin and boulevard des Capucines with measurements in excess of 93 feet (radius) and 330 feet (diametre) by 48 feet high.

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Here is another Prévost Panorama for Thayer, A Panoramic View of London, from the tower of St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, in 1815.

As the Napoleonic Wars came to an end in late 1815, French artist Pierre Prévost took the chance to visit London, where he created this 360° vista. It was painted from St Margaret’s Church’s tower, under the shadow of Westminster Abbey.

The original Prévost/Thayer canvas is now lost. His canvas was thirty-two metres in circumference when it first appeared in Paris, in the specially designed rotunda.

Panoramas were a popular source of motion entertainment in the early nineteenth century as the either the audience turned or the painting. These massive 360° landscape paintings immersed visitors, placing them in the environment and allowing them to experience it like being there.

Newly acquired by the Museum of London, an epic panorama 20 feet wide records what London looked like 200 years ago.

^{– with assistance from Francis Marshall, Senior Curator, Paintings, Prints and Drawings, Museum of London}

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Now, from the Museum of London, SEE as they say, “this lost view of the city, now uncovered for the first time in centuries.”

Explore the collection of pictures to get Prévost’s perspective on London’s evolution over time. VISIT the museum HERE.

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Originating from the spying peep shows that were popular in European fairgrounds and other venues, Cosmoramas were not something a Savoyard could carry on his back. They were erected in some of the most chic exhibition houses in the mid cities where images were displayed behind an arrangement of lenses embedded in the wall.

For instance, this illustration below.

^{Called Explanation of the Cosmorama, by C. Blunt, La Belle Assemblée, Nº155, volume, 24 November 1821, on p233}

A gentleman peeping in to see his view and another gentleman instructing his lady how exactly the works, and what she will be seeing.

1809
EPINAL IMAGES, STORY-BOARDING, AND THE MAGIC LANTERN
JEAN-CHARLES PELLERIN (1756-1836)
Named after the town of Epinal (the French Vosges region) where Pellerin first printed these storyboard “show things on their bright side.” Pellerin was a French draftsman, illustrator, and printer, best known for founding the Imagerie Pellerin in Épinal, France, and popularizing the images d’Épinal, colourful, mass-produced prints that became iconic in French culture.

Pictured on the left is Florian’s fable “The monkey who shows the magic lantern.”

On the right, “The cricket and the ant” by Pellerin.

Sometimes referred to as “The grasshopper and the ant.”

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Born in 1756 in Épinal, in the Vosges region of France, Jean-Charles was the son of Nicolas Pellerin, a “maître-cartier” (master card maker) who produced playing cards. The family originated from Mauvages in the Meuse department.

In 1773, at age 17, Jean-Charles succeeded his father as head of the family’s printing business, initially called the Fabrique de Pellerin. This business focused on producing playing cards and religious prints, typical of the region’s artisanal output.

Image d’ Epinal were designed to become the slides seen in a Magic Lantern, just like the storyboards of today are used by a director for the same reason.

Here we see:
🎞️ Left, a seance of shadows
🎞️ Next, different story heroes
🎞️ Last, the Universal Exhibition of 1889

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These coloured storyboards were several sequenced images forming an Optical View or Vue d’optique on a board composing a tale or short story. A process called Xylography where an engraving on a wooden board was printed on pellicular paper using a Gutenberg press.

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The images d’Épinal became synonymous with French popular art, known for their vivid colours, bold designs, and accessibility. They were sold by peddlers across France, decorating homes, schools, and public spaces, and shaping visual culture in the 19th century.

Stencils were used to hand colour each Image d’ Epinal board. Lithography was later used and small text was inserted for the lanternist–reminiscent of today’s storyboard with written direction for the director to frame and compose each scene prior to filming.

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Storyboards are used by filmmakers to translate ideas from their mind to the screen. Ideas have to be communicated to a variety of different professionals involved in the process. Just like what Pellerin was trying to achieve in 1809 with his image d’ Epinal.

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A storyboard is a pictorial representation of a plot, idea, or script that is broken up into panels that represent the individual scenes. A storyboard is a crucial component of the animation design process.

Pellerin was creating cinematic storyboards without knowing it. Jean-Charles’s grandson, took over in 1853. He introduced cardboard construction models (e.g., cut-out buildings or toys) and expanded the workforce, employing sixty-six workers in 1853 and 140 by 1860.

The Imagerie d’Épinal remains active today, preserving traditional techniques like pochoir and housing a unique 19^th century colouring machine. The Pellerin family’s influence has waned, but the Imagerie is a cultural institution, with its prints celebrated in museums and collections worldwide.

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SEE how James Cameron directed his 1997 Titanic Sinking Scene — with the Sets, Gear, and SPFX illusions explained here. How They Shot It is from Studio Binder.

1810 – 1880’s
THE MOVING PANORAMA
The Moving Panorama was extremely popular from the early 19th century to the later part of the century. Unlike the fixed Panorama introduced by Robert Barker, this one ‘moved’ or more precisely scrolled before the audience.

The Moving Panorama was as short as 100 feet and sometimes as long as 1,000 or longer. The Federal Procession of 1788  in Philadelphia was depicted at 1,300 feet in 1811.

Wound on a giant supply spool just like in a film projector, the Moving Panorama was cranked over onto the take-up spool, but not before passing behind a facade or proscenium to give the impression of being in a theatre.

The facade also hid the spools and cranking mechanism from the audience. A speaker would always provide a narration as the painted mural passed before an enthralled audience.

How much closer can we get to cinematography in 1810? These painted giants were produced by men like John Banvard and Moses Gompertz. Moving Panoramas were popular throughout the US, Canada, Europe and the UK right up until the 1880’s.

Early Moving Panoramas were popular for their variety of scenery; parades and other celebratory public events, common street scenes, battles both on ground and the sea, harbours from around the world, arctic voyages, the Great Lakes, local country life as well as cultural views of foreign countries, cityscapes and many more depictions too numerous to mention.

The Marshall Brothers of Edinburgh may have been the first to show their Moving Panoramas throughout the UK.

This moving panorama about the Trans Siberian Railroad was a whopping 800 feet long. It was divided into four spools. It was performed at the 1900 Paris Exposition and has survived! It is housed at the Hermitage Museum in Russia.

Some of the great Moving Panoramas were entitled; John Vanderlyn’s Panoramic View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles (1819); The Marshall Bros.’s The Coronation of George IV (1823) and their  The Battle of Bannockburn (c.1824); John Martin’s  The Departure of the Israelites from Egypt (c.1835); John Skirving and Joseph Kyle’s  John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1850-1851); Godfrey N. Frankenstein’s  Moving Panorama of Niagara Falls (c.1850); Arctic Explorations (1855); Thomas F. Davidson’s  A Whaling Voyage (1860); Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington’s  Whaling Voyage Round the World (1848) [Melville based parts of Moby Dick on accounts shown in this same Panorama].

Moving Panoramas came in three basic sizes; pocket size, parlour size and prodigious in height and length.

Moving Panoramas were peristrephic. The scrolling painting was pulled across a very slight convex (curves outward) surface or wall as opposed to a flatter surface. This added an extra sense of movement and depth to the viewer.

Rotundas were specifically built for both the stationary and Moving Panoramas. This handbill (left) from 1880 is from an exhibition by Walter Bayne for his Bayne’s Original Gigantic Series of Panoramas Entitled a Voyage to Europe!

This original painting by Bayne, was based on his own sketches and although the size is not known, Bayne boasted that it  “constituted by far the largest Panorama ever presented to the public.”

According to Bayne it took three years to construct.

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The Moving Panorama, a progression of this concept, emerged in the early 19th century, with Robert Fulton credited for patenting the spool mechanism in 1799 in France.

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Notable examples include John Banvard’s Panorama of the Mississippi River (1840s), which he claimed was three miles long (likely exaggerated) and earned him a fortune, and the Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress at the Saco Museum, one of the few surviving examples.

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Moving Panoramas were a significant entertainment medium before photography and film, offering immersive storytelling through visual art, motion and narration. They influenced early cinema, particularly techniques like rear projection, where a moving background created the illusion of motion (e.g., in films with stationary actors in a car).

The Trans Siberian Railway Panorama establishes how the presentations of painted Panoramas shifted over the second half of the 19th century.

Pictured: A Trip to Siberia Panorama shown at the Panorama building at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904.

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Moving Panoramas often depicted a journey—along a wagon trail, river, or train line. Series of photographs portraying rail travel were predominant in the US.

Major railroad companies commissioned qualified photographers to document growth along the line, generating images that could be used to encourage the sale of railroad bonds. Notable surviving works include:

🎨 The Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress at the Saco Museum, valued for its size and condition.

🎨 A panorama of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s life (c. 1860) at Brown University’s Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection.

🎨 A section of the Texas and California Moving Panorama (1851–1852) at the Bullock Texas State History Museum.

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Numbered photographs showing the landscape along a railroad line, were occasionally issued as plates in expensively, bound books intended for stockholders. From Illusions in Motion- Media Archaeology of The Moving Panorama & Related Spectacles, Erkki Huhtamo, MIT Press, 2013.

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SEE The Rockland Panorama by Artists Samuel Fuller and Ebenezer Finch in 1849. Painted on cotton and often accompanied by music and a script read by a presenter describing the scenes as they appeared. Henry Luce Foundation and Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Sue Truman upload.

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Rocks and sand appeared on the 1st canvas sitting on a fast-moving belt. Further away and slower, a smaller 2nd canvas showed bushes and vegetation. Beyond this the landscape appeared on a 3rd canvas. A depth of field was established.

Pictured: Pavillon de l’Asie russe et de la Sibérie, Arjan den Boer Collection (with my insert).

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The principal canvas for the Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama was twenty-five feet tall and viewers starred out the window and felt the car moving through the instinctual effects of motion parallax. Pictured here, is the interior of parlour car Nº 724. Photo Wagons-Lits (Des Cars/Caracalla).

The International Panorama Council (IPC) is working on a UNESCO Memory of the World nomination to recognize panoramas as a significant media art form, with a timeline from 2023–2028. Moving Panoramas, sometimes called “crankies” in modern contexts, have inspired contemporary art forms, such as poetic collages on scrolling fabric or paper, as seen in crafting communities.

1810
THE MAASKAMP DIORAMA VAN AMSTERDAM
EVERT MAASKAMP (1769-1834)
Thought originally to have been a Panorama strip published by Evert Maaskamp and then cut into pieces forming a Myriorama, the Maaskamp Diorama van Amsterdam was a Dutch Panorama consisting of a continuous view of Amsterdam along the waterfront from east to the west viewed from the Ij (pronounced like ‘eye’ in Dutch).

The term Diorama is used in a print‑publishing sense rather than the later theatre diorama invention. In fact, it predates the more well‑known theatrical Diorama invented by Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton in 1822.

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The format places it in the realm of evolving “visual spectacle” devices in the early 19th century

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This Panorama fits very nicely into the domain of early Panoramic displays of urban waterfronts and could be considered a transitional “graphic display” device in the early 19th century Netherlands.

The Maaskamp Diorama van Amsterdam is 5 inches by 8.1 feet in length and copies reside at the Allard Pierson Heritage Material of the University of Amsterdam and at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection of the Yale Center for British Art (pictured in two sections).

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The format (long Panoramic strip, roller + drum) places it in the realm of evolving “visual spectacle” devices in the early 19th century. This scroll format is akin to what later became Moving Panoramas.

The fact that it was designed to display a continuous waterfront view suggests it may have been intended for visual immersion even though evidence of mechanical movement is absent.

_{Image Marlborough Rare Books}

The segmentation into 32 pieces (Myriorama style) suggests a consumer version: users could re‑arrange segments, making it interactive (a characteristic of pre cinema toy visual devices).

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The Napoleonic Wars are depicted in The Place Vendôme Column’s spiralling bas-relief. The obelisk-monument erected to the glory of Napoleon the Great’s Grande Armée, began on 25 August 1806 and finished 15 August 1810.

The column was to be decorated with 108 friezes climbing in a spiralling fashion, upwards and topped with a statue of Charlemagne, but this was later abandoned.

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Following a one-year-long restoration of the Colonne Vendôme, a celebration took place the evening of Monday, 27 June 2016. It was an amazing light show projected onto the column by projection lanterns. This five minute forty-one second video is well worth watching TO THE END.

1811
CORNELIUS VARLEY (1781-1873)
This artist and scientist developed a version of a Camera Lucida which he called a Graphic Telescope. This device was actually a combination of telescope, and lucida. He patented it in 1811.

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The Graphic Telescope had of course, a telescopic lens which allowed the easier drawing of objects or subjects at greater distances. This illustration below was made by Cornelius Varley showing his idea of the Graphic Telescope.

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From the American Philosophical Society, a marvellous illustration of the Varley Graphic Telescope eyepiece showing how the observer can see both the object and the drawing area at the same time. For instance, this young miss taking instruction on how it works.

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Concerning the knife edge, the primary component that makes the Varley instrument operate, is that it serves a similar role as the prism in the Camera Lucida, in that it allows you to see the object of interest superimposed on the drawing at the same time.

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First off here is a rendering of Varley from his own Graphic Telescope published in the Illustrated London News Ltd. / Mary Evans. Next is the Graphic Telescope itself from the University of Cambridge and the Whipple Museum. Finally, the Graphic Telescope as seen on the cover of the Magazine of Science, 10 October 1840.

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The plate resides at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre, the University of Texas at Austin. Image Jean-Louis Marignier/speos.fr

Right, the Gras estate.

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The pewter plate on the left, was sensitized with Bitumen of Judea and may have had an 8-hour exposure, however there has been speculation on that recently. The reproduction following work by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim and the Eastman Kodak Company, right. Both are in the Gernsheim Collection, University of Texas in Austin.

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Niépce’s Heliograph was restored through the Helmut Gernsheim and Kodak Research Laboratory, 21 March, 1952. The pewter plate is identified as G’s Photograph.

The gelatin silver print is eight by ten inches. Here is the Camera Obscura used by Niépce, minus the lens.

^{Image Musée Nicéphore Niépce}

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A recent photograph on the right showing the view from the window at Le Gras where the Heliograph was taken from. On the left a closer view from one side. Both pictures are the first camera Niépce made.

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without photography we would have no cinematography, only hand drawn animation

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Clearly, throughout countless resources, histories, commentaries, Niépce must be recognized as the one who ahead of others, was able to secure an image from further action of light.

Heliography means a drawing from the sun.

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Bitumen of Judea hardened under sun light. After an eight-hour (or a day or two) exposure depending on your studies, the Bitumen was hardened enough from the action of the sun.

The plate was then flushed with a solvent to remove any remaining amount.

The plate was now fixed.

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What remained is what has been named View from the Window at Le Gras. The areas of the hardened Bitumen were the dark areas like the ground and shadows. The areas of the image with no Bitumen, were the lighter areas like the sky.

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Unlike Herschel who gave us a stop bath of hyposulphite of soda, Niépce used a simple but unknown cleaning solvent. He simply washed off any remaining Bitumen. Writing about his process in December 1827, Niépce acknowledged that it required further improvements, but was nevertheless;

1811
OPTICS
DOMINIQUE-FRANÇOIS-JEAN ARAGO (1786-1853)
In 1811 Arago in alliance w/ Augustin-Jean Fresnel discovered that two beams of light polarized in vertical directions do not interfere, eventually resulting in the development of a transverse theory of light waves.

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Arago was also instrumental in the success and funding of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre’s photographic process, known as the Daguerreotype.

While studying sunlight, he discovered over 500 dark lines in the solar spectrum, now called Fraunhofer lines, which are absorption lines indicating the presence of specific chemical elements. These lines became foundational for spectroscopy and stellar astronomy.

Fraunhofer’s work in the field of optics was ground-breaking, and he left an indelible mark on the field. He received widespread praise for his work from the scientific community in the area of optics and lenses.

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Fraunhofer improved the quality of optical glass, enabling the production of precise lenses for telescopes and microscopes. His work at the Optical Institute in Benediktbeuern revolutionized lens-making, reducing aberrations and improving image clarity. He also invented the diffraction grating, enhancing spectral analysis.

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Here are two different portrayals of Fraunhofer (standing centre in both), demonstrating his Spectroscope, a device that measures light properties over a particular portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

His high-quality lenses were used in telescopes, aiding discoveries like the parallax of stars. His spectroscopy work laid the groundwork for understanding stellar compositions. Fraunhofer’s health deteriorated due to prolonged exposure to glass dust, and he died of tuberculosis in 1826 at age 39.

His discoveries earned him nobility (Ritter von) in 1824 and lasting recognition, with the Fraunhofer Society, a major German research organization, named in his honor. His work remains critical to modern physics, astronomy, and optical engineering.

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A younger Joseph Von Fraunhofer and another invention of his called a Heliometre c. 1851, was used to make a photograph (perhaps the first) of a total solar eclipse.

Fraunhofer’s expertise in crafting high-quality optical lenses allowed him to create Heliometres with exceptional accuracy, which were used for tasks like measuring stellar parallax (the apparent shift in a star’s position due to Earth’s orbit) and the Sun’s diametre.

His work on the Heliometre, combined with his improvements in lens-making, enabled astronomers like Friedrich Bessel to make the first successful parallax measurements in 1838. Fraunhofer’s Heliometre was a testament to his skill in optics and contributed to advancements in understanding the scale of the universe.

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From Brewster’s A Treatise on the Kaleidoscope.

Right; illustration of the Polyangular Kaleidoscope of R. B. Bate, Figures 18, 19, 20 plate III, addendum.

Left; Brewster’s comparison of the mirror construction of Kircher (left) vs. Bradley (right), figures 39 and 40.

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This is a cut-a-way illustration of Sir David Brewster’s Polyangular Kaleidoscope on page 90 of his book, 1819, Chapter XI, figure 19.

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Left: Brewster Polyangular Kaleidoscope on tripod mount, manufactured by Robert Brettell Bate, c. 1820.

Right: Brewster’s Kaleidoscope built by Philip Carpenter 1820.

^{Images The Science Museum Group}

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Here is a series I curated for Twitter in 2021. Ten in all, explaining the Brewster Kaleidoscope in a timeline.

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In the letter, Niépce writes . . .

“As there is less light inside the box the image becomes clearer and its outlines as well as the dark and light patches are more sharply defined. You can see this if you look at the roof of the ¹pigeon house, the angles of its walls, the casement window of which the lattices are visible, the glass even seeming transparent in some places. In short, the paper retains an exact imprint of the coloured image, and if everything cannot be seen distinctly is because the image represented here being very small, this object appears as it would if seen from very far away.

The ²pigeon house being depicted in reverse, the barn, or rather its roof is on the left instead of on the right. That white mass to the right of the ³pigeon house above the fence, which is not very clear but just as it appears on the reflected image, is the de Beurré-blanc pear tree, which is much further away and that spot on the upper part of the tree is a patch of light visible between the branches. The shadow on the right side indicates the roof of the bake house which appears lower than it should, because the boxes (camera obscura) are placed about 5 feet from the ground of the room.

Finally, my dear friend, those little white streaks over the barn are branches of the trees in the orchard of which one catches a glimpse and which are reflected on the “retina”. The effect would be more striking if, as I have told you, or as I don’t need to tell you, the order of the dark and light parts could be reversed.”

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Niépce’s first experiments towards the discovery of photography included the first non-fixed negative. In May of 1816 he created an image from nature, another view from a window. The paper he placed at the rear of the Camera Obscura was coated with silver salts and eventually turned black.

Niépce referred to these as “retinas.” Nicéphore Niépce’s House Museum has produced this one minute 28 second video on how the retina was taken using the exact process Niépce used except with some added modern fixing so you can see the finished product.

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Niépce would now try and obtain positive images. He started to use compounds that would be bleached by light instead of being blackened by the sun. He introduced salts to iron oxide, and manganese black oxide which produced minor results but not enough success to fix the images. He tried to create images that could be etched.

He observes the action of light on certain acids and if/how they decompose. Based on his results he starts to use calcareous stones, whose strength would vary with light intensity. He learned the hard way through time, that acids are not decomposed by light.

He became interested in working with any substance that interacted with light.

In March 1817, Niépce read up on his chemistry and focused his attention to resin of Gaïacum which is extracted from the coniferous tree. He found that the yellow resin becomes green when exposed to day-light. What interested him was, that it lost its solubility in alcohol.

He thought this may be a way to fixing the image.

1817
Here is a well-known image that students of pre cinema have likely seen. It is an Italiana Liebig Storia Della Fotografia card, from series Nº 288. It shows an 1817 painter working inside of a Camera Obscura cabinet. Strictly advertising because this famous German meat company of its time, created these cards from a multitude of subjects. Optics was one of them.

This card was issued by the Imperialist Tobacco Company in the 19th century in the UK. Image Jack and Beverly Wilgus. Visit Bright Bytes and The Magic Mirror of Life.

A Cosmorama illustration from what could be the catalogue for patrons of the opening of the Eden Museum Montreal. It is undated. Image provided from French researcher Denis Gaubert, Paris.

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Below is Cosmorama of Chateau Versailles with its three large sections sewn together (1818-1819) retained at MoMA.

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the images of the Cosmorama are extremely realistic because of the special planning of lighting and lenses

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Cosmoramas were standard entertainment at public events and the most universal forms of public screen entertainment.

From the 1820s onward Cosmoramic views prolonged the fashion for both the homemade transparencies designated in Mansfield Park (Jenny Davidson, A Modest Question) and the window-screens of Whittock.

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The Cosmorama being a prime member of the Panorama family of life size motion entertainment became a world-wide phenomenon that people flocked to see. One example of this would be in Haiti.

Port-au-Prince, Haïti Cosmorama programme took place 2 March 1834. These perspective picture shows of various places and landmarks around the world were astounding as this write up from the newspaper Feuille du Commerce on page four states;

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The programme included, translated from French;

🎞️ View of Paris, with Place Vendôme and the beautiful high column by Napoléon

🎞️ View the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, presenting the graves of Molière, Lafontaine Delisle, Grétri etc.

🎞️ View of the beautiful and picturesque fall of Tequendama in Colombia, near Santa Fe de Bogota

🎞️ Perspective view of Madrid and the palace King of Spain

🎞️ Interior view of London with a view of the Thames from Black Friars Bridge, the prospect of the beautiful church of St. Paul

🎞️View of the Battle of New Orleans, between the Americans and the English. (January 8, 1815)

READ the Cosmorama piece from the Port-au-Prince, Haïti Feuille du Commerce on page four scanned by Gallica, HERE.

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“red objects fade quicker than objects that are blue when they are of the same brightness”

^{– Jan Evangelista Purkyne, ‘Observations and Experiments Investigating the Physiology of Senses and New Subjective Reports about Vision,’ 1819}

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The Purkyně Effect attributed to him in 1823 describes how the human eye is far less sensitive to dim red light than to faint blue light, and provides a description of various entoptic phenomena.

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Seeing the work of Stampfer and Plateau in 1841, Purkyně suggested the use of 3D photographs. The Phorolyt was advertised in two sizes. Pictured is a Phorolyt disk from Rossell, 2022 on page 7, of a hand writing the letter ‘a’ in eight phases from 1860.

This disk is 4.7 inches in diametre and sold with 12 disks in a box. Also, a Purkyně Phorolyt disk of an illustrated beating heart of a sheep, from 1861.

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1861
Purkyně created a modified Phorolyt he now called a Kinesiskop. The shutter disk was larger and the picture disk was smaller. It held nine photographs of sequenced motion– a disk with Purkyně’s own head slowly revolving is shown here.

Purkyně would entertain his grandchildren with this particular disk of his head spinning on the Kinesiskop as they howled in laughter.

Later in a future chapter I will talk about a frog’s beating heart photographed in motion by a doctor. Stay tuned.

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Three Phorolyt/Kinesiskop disks with photographs of a spinning Purkyně himself, un-tinted but quite faded. The faded orange photograph (top right if you’re on a phone) is by Petr Kliment. The other two are from the National Technical Museum Collections, Czech Republic. Photographs by Jan A. Novák.

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Purkyně’s celebrated non-sequential portraits are seen here. From the National Technical Museum Collections, Czech Republic. Photograph by Jan A. Novák. Also pictured here is an illustration of Purkyně relaxing in his library.

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1819
MENISCUS PRISM
CHARLES CHEVALIER (1804-1859)
To alleviate achromatism, Chevalier began work on replacing the lens of the camera with a prism containing lens surfaces.

His work will be finished in 1823 with his meniscus prism of which Joseph Niépce ordered many.

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Just seven years before the first permanent photograph was produced in 1825, Niépce ordered a Meniscus Prism from Chevalier. Gernsheim has suggested that Niépce used the prism in the taking of the window photograph at Le Gras (1826).

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1819-1824
JOSEPH NICÉPHORE NIÉPCE (1765-1833)
Following his attempts at using Gaïacum resin from pine trees, Niépce began trying mineral-based materials such as asphalt or bitumen of Judea. He learned that bitumen became non-soluble.

From 1822 onward, he discovered he could reproduce drawings that were placed in contact with a base coated with bitumen such as glass plates, calcareous stones, copper and tin plates. Then using the aqua fortis process to etch the images made with acid and then printed them on paper.

The process known as photoengraving now had its base, and could be used to print photos and graphical documents.

All photographers know what a contact print is. Niépce can be said to have conceived of the contact print. He documents that he placed varnish to the verso of one of his etchings in order to make the paper trans-lucid.

Then after a period of drying he placed the etching in contact with the copper or tin plate that was coated with bitumen varnish. Niépce then records that he then exposed all to the light of day for between three to four hours.

He then rinsed the plate in lavender of oil he had diluted with white kerosene.

The raw material (etching) was left exposed because the bitumen had been protected from the effect of light under the lines of the drawing. When the sunlight went through the trans-lucid paper it made the bitumen non-soluble.

It remained on the plate base following the lavender oil rinse. The bitumen image became the drawings negative.

Up until 1825 Niépce had made his etchings on copper but afterwards he began using tin.

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Many museums in the world house metal etchings made through the Niépce process. The Nicéphore Niépce House Photo Museum owns ten of those metal plates on which Nicéphore reproduced engravings.

Other Niépce etched metal plates are preserved at La Societe française de Photographie; The Royal Photographic Society; or in the Janine Niépce Collection.

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TOP
CHAPTER NINE

Welcome	About	Introduction	Chapter One beginning of time – 999 AD
Chapter Two 1000 AD – 1399	Chapter Three 1400 – 1599	Chapter Four 1600 – 1649	Chapter Five 1650 – 1699
Chapter Six 1700 – 1749	Chapter Seven 1750 – 1799	Chapter Eight 1800 – 1819	Chapter Nine 1820 – 1829
Chapter Ten 1830 – 1839	Chapter Eleven 1840 – 1849	Chapter Twelve 1850 – 1859	Chapter Thirteen 1860 – 1869
Chapter Fourteen 1870 – 1879	Chapter Fifteen 1880 – 1884	Chapter Sixteen 1885 – 1889	Chapter Seventeen 1890 – 1894
Chapter Eighteen 1895 – 1899	Chapter Nineteen 1900 + post cinema	Chapter Twenty 1911 +	Copyright
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