A Little Bit of History
Before I get into the company, let's first discuss the
history, very briefly, of the lantern slide.
Transparent magic lantern slides were very popular forms of entertainment prior to the development of photographs. Made of glass, they were used to project drawings. The first recorded use of an image projection system was the Sturm Lantern in 1676. It was capable of "...producing small, dimly lit images" (http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/history1.htm, George Aukland, 2001).
The first photograph was developed in 1839 by Louis Jacques
Mande' Daguerre, a French painter (Jensen, Kerr, & Belsky, 1970). Now
you know from where the term 'Daguerreotype' photograph comes.
It was Daguerre who coated a copper sheet with a thin coating
of silver. Polishing this sheet to a high luster, it was then placed in
a closed box and activated with iodine fumes, allowing the silver to be
sensitive to light. In darkness he placed this activated "film"
in a plate holder and then into a "camera." Exposing this plate
for 15-30 minutes, produced an image. However the image was not made visible
until it was "developed" over mercury fumes (today we know how
poisonous mercury can be). |
From Keystone Glass Slide #P163 Titled: "Inside A Grocery Store"
From Keystone Glass Slide #P11 Titled: "Christmas Tree and Toys" |
