Fig. 26.
You can paint your lantern all over with black paint. Brunswick black is the best to do this with. It makes the tin parts look nice. If you prefer it, and I think it is far the best, you can make your lantern of mahogany instead of deal, and polish it, and blacken the tin parts only. Mahogany board can be got for this very little dearer than deal. If you were to solder a brass-wire ring round the outside of the edge of the tube that carries the front lens, it would make it stronger and easier to regulate the focus, besides giving it a more finished look. If the nozzle and focusing-tube were made altogether of this brass plate it would add to the finish.
III. How to Make the Slides for a Magic Lantern.
A magic lantern without slides is not of much use. These slides cost a good deal to buy, the price, ranging from two shillings to a guinea, being regulated by the time and skill expended in their production. In this section I will tell you how to make your own slides at a small outlay for materials. The time and skill you must supply yourselves.
The materials required are—a glass-cutter; some strips of patent plate-glass four inches wide—the glass of the thickness called eleven-ounce glass; thin black paper, crystal varnish, turpentine, tubes of water-colours, three or four sizes of sable-hair pencils; a good-sized camel-hair brush, with the hair cut straight off half-way down, for varnishing; some glue, two or three small dabbers made of fine linen or kid stuffed with wool, a palette, an easel, and a penknife.
The colours required are opaque black, warm brown, blue, dark green, yellow, and crimson. The palette can be made of a piece of glass six inches square, with a piece of white paper pasted on the back.
Fig. 1