The Magic Lantern

    The magic lantern is what made the whole history of animation possible. A lantern is simply a projector- but back in the day, nobody really knew about moving pictures and how they were to be projected. Most likely, the creator of the first lantern was the Dutch astronomer and inventor, Christiaan Huygens. He lived from 1629 to 1695. Huygens was the first person to assemble all of the elements necessary to create a successful projecting lantern. The elements needed for a projecting lantern were the camera obsura with a condensing lens, a focusing lens, and a light source amplified by a mirror. Christiaan Huygens' lantern no longer exists, but more enhanced and technological projectors do.





 Wait, what is a projector?

     A projector is basically a machine that allows you to view things from the machine onto the surface. A projector, well, projects things onto either a wall or screen. Basically this is what a projector is:     

           If you use a camera backwards-shine a light from the inside of the camera out
           the lens-what do you get? (When you think camera here, think big. 
           Something at least the size of a shoebox.) You get a simple form of a comm-
           on machine: a projector. And if you put something-say a piece of 
           film or a glass silde with a picture on it-inside the camera between the light a-
           nd the lens, you can project that picture onto a wall or screen.1


           1- Paul Clee