“Vagabonds and imposters” had carried the magic lantern everywhere during the quarter century following its announcement, usually claiming it as their own invention. Kircher thought the time had come for him to set down in more detail various additional applications of his magic lantern, invented 30 years before. The only additions Kircher made to the entire tome were in the section on the magic lanterns. Two new plates were made, showing room and box-type projectors and also added was another special plate on a particular application demonstrating that Kircher used the lantern idea to tell a story. (Illustration facing [page 49].)
Let Kircher now explain about Walgenstein, a Dane, one of his first and most successful imitators in the practice of the magic lantern:
Concerning the construction of Magic Lantern or Thaumaturga (Wonder Projector)—
Although we have already mentioned this lantern in several places and shown a method of transmitting images by the sun into dark places, we will illustrate one further use—that is, a method of projecting painted images of objects in their own colors. Because previously we merely outlined this subject and left it entirely apart from other more important inventions, it happened that many who were drawn by the novelty of the magic lantern applied their minds to its refinement.
First among these was a Dane, Thomas Walgenstein, not a little known as a mathematician, who, recalling my invention, produced a better form of the lantern which I had described. These he sold, with great profit to himself, to many of the prominent people of Italy. He sold so many that by now the magic lantern is nearly commonplace in Rome. However, there is none among all these lanterns which differs from the lantern described by us. Walgenstein said that with this lantern model he showed a large number of sufficiently bright and shining pictures in a dark chamber and they aroused the greatest admiration in the audiences. We in our dark chamber at the college are accustomed to show many new pictures to the greatest wonder of those looking on. The show is most worthwhile seeing, the subjects being either satire or tragic plays, all the pictures in the appearances of the living.
From Kircher’s statement Walgenstein should be hailed as the first commercializer of the projector and the first traveling picture showman or “road-show man.” Unfortunately, little is known of this man. While he may have been “not a little known” in Kircher’s time, he left no mark on history, evidently never writing a book or holding an educational or other position which would have been recorded. It seems certain that he was the Dane of whom the French inventor and scientist, Milliet de Chales, spoke about as introducing the magic lantern in Lyons, France, some years after it was invented by Kircher.
Kircher’s statement about the shows which he put on at the Roman College is most interesting. The reference to tragic and comic plays indicates beyond doubt that Kircher used a succession of lantern slides to tell a story as the modern motion picture is made up of a succession of pictures.
Kircher included a description of the slide projector so that all who wished could imitate his work. “All these things have been shown so that the reader can make his own,” he said. “The work of art formerly described does not differ from the new lantern.” He pointed out that moving slides had been added so that the objects might appear with the aspect of living shadows. He again explained how a concave mirror and diaphragm should be used. Kircher informed his readers that he usually used four or five slides, each having eight pictures painted on glass. The illustrations, he noted, explain the system better than words. We echo that and refer the reader to the illustrations of the box and room moving-slide projectors of Kircher.
Kircher in his 1671 edition described a form of revolving disc to tell a story. (He selected the most widely known story of all for the model—The Life of Christ.) The light available would not give a great effect but the pattern was set. Nearly two hundred years later the first projection of motion pictures was to be achieved with a somewhat similar disc and series of painted figures. Kircher’s revolving disc told the story with a series of still pictures rapidly succeeding each other. (Illustration facing [page 48].)
By explaining all details of the method and construction of the magic lantern to everyone interested, Kircher had hoped to expose some of the imposters who were using his invention to arouse fear and make the people believe that the operator had magic powers.