How to shew the wonderful Magic Lanthorn.
This is the magic lanthorn that has made so much wonder in the world, and that which Friar Bacon used to shew all his magical wonders withal.
This lanthorn is called magic, with respect to the formidable apparitions that by virtue of light it shews upon the white wall of a dark room. The body of it is generally made of tin, and of a shape of the lamp; towards the back part, is a concave looking glass of metal, which may either be spherical or parabolical, and which, by a grove made in the bottom of the lanthorn, may either be advanced nearer or put farther back from the lamp, in which is oil or spirit of wine, and the match ought to be a little thick, that when it is lighted, it may cast a good light that may easily reflect from the glass to the fore part of the lanthorn, where there is an aperture with the perspective in it, composed of two glasses that make the rays converge and magnify the object.
When you mean to make use of this admirable machine, light the lamp, the light of which will be much augmented by the looking glass at a reasonable distance. Between the fore-part of the lanthorn, and the perspective glass, you have a trough, made on purpose, in which you are to run a long, flat thin frame with different figures, painted with transparent colours upon glass; then all these little figures passing successively before the perspective glass, thro’ which passes the light of the lamp, will be painted, and represented with the same colours upon the wall of a darkroom, in a gigantic and monstrous manner.
By this Lanthorn you may shew what man, or woman, or birds, or beasts, and all sorts of fish that are in the sea: so if any gentleman has a desire to furnish themselves with one of these lanthorns, I have the best that can be made.
The figure is as follows.
To seem to swallow a long pudding made of tin.
This pudding must be made of tin, consisting of twelve or thirteen little hoops made as in the figure following, so as they may almost seem to fall one through another, having little holes made at the biggest end thereof, that it may not hurt your mouth, hold this pudding (for so it is called) privately in your left hand, with the hole end uppermost, and with your right hand take a ball out of your pocket, and say, ‘If here is ever a maid, that has lost her maidenhead or an old woman that is out of conceit with herself, because her neighbours deem her not so young as she would be, let them come to me, for this ball is a present remedy:’ then seem to put the ball into your left hand, but let it slip into your lap, and clap your pudding into your mouth, which will be thought to be the ball that you shewed them; then decline your head, and open your mouth, and the pudding will slip down at its full length, which with your right hand you may strike it into your mouth again, doing this three or four times, then you may discharge it into your hand, and clap it into your pocket without any suspicion, by making three or four wry faces after it, as tho’ it stuck in your throat, and if you practise smiting easily upon your throat with your fist on each side, the pudding will seem to chink; as if it were flying there; then say, ‘Thus they eat puddings in High Germany, they fling it down their throats before their teeth can take possession of it.’
