THE MAGIC LANTERN.
This is one of the most pleasing of all optical instruments, and it is used to produce enlarged pictures of objects, which being painted on a glass in various colors are thrown upon a screen or white sheet placed against the wall of a large room. It consists of a sort of tin box, within which is a lamp, the light of which passes through a great plano-convex lens fixed in the front. This strongly illuminates the objects which are painted on the slides or slips of glass, and placed before the lens in an inverted position, and the rays passing through them and the lens fall on a sheet or other white surface, placed to receive the image. The glasses on which the figures are drawn are inverted, in order that the images of them may be erect.