Chapter XIV
MAGIC LANTERNS AND STEREOPTICONS
Boys who have cameras, and who have made good collections of views, portraits, and other interesting pictures, may find a great deal of pleasure in entertaining friends with stereopticon exhibitions of their work. The necessary plates and materials may be purchased at any camera or photographic supply store, and with a little patient practice excellent lantern slides may be made. A good magic lantern or stereopticon is a luxury, but for the ambitious boy there is a way to make one at home with but little outlay of money beyond the cost of the lenses and lamp.
A Home-made Magic Lantern
A box, some thin boards, an ordinary central-draught or duplex-burner lamp, a reflector, some nails and screws, a pair of condensing-lenses, and a projector are the materials necessary.
Make a box of half-inch wood, twelve inches long, eleven inches high, and seven inches wide, outside measure. Cut a round hole four and three-fourths inches in diameter at the front of the box, the middle of the hole being eight inches above the inside bottom. Make a door at the back of the box, and fasten a reflector just opposite this hole.
Cut a hole in the top of the box for a lamp-chimney to come through. Nail a piece of half-inch wood eight inches long to the front of the box three inches from the bottom (see Fig. 1). We will call this the deck. Fasten a piece of wood fourteen inches long and four inches wide on either side of the box and deck-piece (see Fig. 2). Perforate the bottom of the box with holes half an inch in diameter, to afford the necessary draught to the lamp. Elevate the box on two cross-sticks an inch wide (see Fig. 2 B B).
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7.
From an optician or camera supply house obtain a pair of four-inch condensers mounted in a brass barrel, and a quarter-size projector with a rack and pinion. Mount the condensers in the hole in front of the box, supported by means of a block (Fig. 3), fastened on the inside front of the box (see Fig. 4).