Kircher’s magic lantern is popularized by others—Schott—Milliet de Chales—Zahn—Molyneux—The name and fame of the inventor are lost to the public while magic shadow projection spreads throughout Europe.
As with many another inventor, Kircher received little praise and much blame for his invention of the magic lantern. Charges of being in league with the devil to achieve the wondrous images on the screen almost broke his spirit. Though his device was widely pirated in Europe without acknowledgement of the inventor, before Kircher’s death he was able to take some satisfaction from the fact that his projector was no longer viewed as “black magic” but as a great boon for mankind. Had he lived longer he would have again been saddened as others claimed the magic lantern as their own. At this later day the name of Kircher was known only to a few scholars although the magic lantern audiences could be numbered in the many thousands.
In the first half century after the invention of the magic lantern projector, four men, in addition to Kircher himself, made its scientific principles and construction widely known. They were a curious group: Gaspar Schott, a protégé of Kircher; Claude Milliet de Chales, a French priest and military expert; Johann Zahn German writer; and William Molyneux, an Irish patriot, teacher and scientist.
Gaspar Schott was the best known of Kircher’s pupils who helped to awaken scientific interest in Europe. He was born at Königshofen, Bohemia, in 1608. He entered the Jesuit Order at the age of 19. Like Kircher, his senior by six years, Schott was compelled to flee the disorders in Germany and continue his studies abroad. For his courses in philosophy and theology Schott went to Sicily. Later he studied under Kircher at the Roman College. From his contact with Kircher, Schott had developed a great interest in scientific matters and mathematics. He conducted research and wrote at Augsburg until his death in 1666. Schott’s books were once very popular. Their subjects ranged from extracts of the diaries kept by Kircher on his various scientific travels to mathematical text books and even a study on the source of the river Nile. So far as the story of magic shadows goes, Schott’s most valuable book was the Magia Universalis Naturæ et Artis. “Wonders of Universal Nature and Art,” published at Würzburg in 1658, with a second edition in 1674.
Schott described every type of magic lantern, basing his remarks, of course, on the work of Kircher. The projection apparatus described by him was better than that of the master, Kircher. Schott described lanterns with and without lenses, and covered points of practical use as well as the theory.
The age-old Burning Glasses of Archimedes were studied by Schott, who knew about the various kinds of images, mirrors, and the focal length and its importance in producing sharp pictures on the screen. A refinement in the telescope was also explained.
Schott was probably the first man to write about, and study with the magic lantern, optical illusions caused by a rapidly revolving wheel, including the appearance of distorted figures. It was this same study, carried on almost two hundred years later in England, France and Belgium, that was to result in the first real motion pictures. In ideas Schott outran the limitations of the physical apparatus available at the time, as did Kircher himself.
Kircher had been asked by Schott to write the foreword to his book. But Kircher was too busy with other works. (It is barely possible that he was jealous of the growing fame of his former pupil; or, more likely, that he was unwilling to appear in print at that time on the subject which had so much contributed to his troubles.) Nicholas Mohr, who did write the introduction, pointed out that Schott had been carrying on the work of Kircher.
Schott discussed the various details of the magic lantern projector in scientific terms. He was a pure scientist without the dash of showmanship which at once distinguished Kircher and probably helped to cause him difficulty with his “enemies.” Schott described how “to construct the Kircher Catoptric Machine.” This was the first coupling of Kircher’s own name with the magic lantern. But people preferred Kircher’s appellation of “magic lantern.” And so his own name did not grow into the language to stand for the device he invented.
About fifteen years after Schott’s book appeared and nearly thirty years after the first description of the magic lantern by Kircher in his Great Art of light and Shadow, the first prominent Frenchman in the history of the magic shadows made a contribution by improving some details of the projector.