Fig. 130.
The heads of pipes, sword-hilts, umbrellas, and canes can be turned into shapes unrecognizable as at all human, yet giving a shadow, of which the outline reproduces the profile of some eminent man.
CHINESE SHADOWS.
Opaque bodies, cut in various shapes, are held against a transparent screen, with a powerful light behind them. The audience are in a dark room.
Fig. 131.
To increase the effect, make the figures of acrobats, rope-dancers, performers on the horizontal bar, &c., of sheet metal, and fit them with joints, so that the limbs can be moved by mounting them on thin rods at right angles with the rope on which they seem to walk. These rods can be turned by cranks, or end in a cogged wheel locking in a ratchet.
ANAMORPHOSES; OR, DISTORTED FIGURES.
Having drawn a subject, such as a human face, on a piece of paper, enclose it in a square, as A, B, C, D (Fig. 130), and divide it into smaller squares by marking off equal parts of the sides and drawing straight lines across, as when you wish to make a reduced copy of a picture.