In keeping with what has not been an infrequent practice amongst French historians in claiming inventions for Frenchmen, it has been held that Claude François Milliet de Chales, and not Athanasius Kircher, invented the magic lantern. Milliet de Chales was a talented man but, as he himself clearly wrote, he did not invent the magic lantern. What happened was that de Chales saw one exhibited in Lyons, where he was stationed, and then devised some improvements.
De Chales was much too young to have invented the magic lantern, as he was born at Chambéry in 1621. He entered the Jesuits in 1636 and after his studies spent some time in missionary work in Turkey. While de Chales was on the missions, Kircher had already demonstrated the magic lantern at Rome.
Father de Chales had an interesting career. Upon his return from missionary work he became a professor of humanities and rhetoric. Later his attention was turned to things scientific. Louis XIV made him professor of hydrography at Marseilles and there de Chales was able to devote much time to navigation and to other arts which would have a military application. De Chales later taught mathematics and theology, eventually becoming rector of Chambéry. He died in Turin in 1678.
Oculus Artificialis Teledioptricus, 1685
JOHANN ZAHN, Gaspar Schott, Claude Milliet de Chales and William Molyneux perfected Kircher’s magic lantern projector and spread knowledge of it throughout Europe. Illustrated are table models by Zahn. The mounting of the slides shows the quest for movement. No basic improvements in the projector were made for another century and a half.
De Chales’ monumental work is Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus, “The Mathematical World,” written in 1674. An edition, edited from the author’s reviewed manuscript, by Amati Varcin, S. J., was published at Lyons in 1690, 12 years after de Chales’ death. One section was devoted to optics. De Chales studied the eye and knew that the image is upside down on the retina. He investigated other vision problems, including angular vision and vision at long range, considered binocular vision and the images formed by each eye. He devised satisfactory lenses and spectacles for both far and near-sighted persons. (The original name for near-sightedness—“Myopia”—came down from Aristotle.) De Chales experimented with light and dark colored objects and gave consideration to why we see better with two eyes than one. He noted that the eye actually sees color and light and not objects and movement—a fact upon which the whole motion picture process is based. He pointed out that the ship appears to stand still and the shore moves to an observer aboard. He also studied the nature of color and the laws of light. De Chales even attempted three dimension projection! Even now many efforts are being made to achieve “three dimension” motion pictures without the use of special glasses or other viewing devices for the spectators.
Oculus Artificialis Teledioptricus, 1685
Time and wind indicators by projection were among the curious adaptations of the magic lantern device developed by Zahn. Above, the hour was indicated by the point of the sword. Below, the wind instrument was ingeniously connected to a vane on the roof. It was automatic in action; the “clock” was not.