—Tribune Photo
ANN TAYLOR, MAYOR'S SECRETARY, WITH COMPUTER AND MAGIC LANTERN
City Unearths
Flicker of Past
Spring housecleaning fever developed in one
office at City Hall has "unearthed" a piece of
equipment far from being compatible with high
speed computers.
It's a magic lantern, the earliest feeble efforts
at projecting a magnified image on a screen with
the use of a lens and lighting—in this case via
a wick and lamp oiL
The projector, complete with hand-painted transparencies on glass, was discovered by Don Hale,
administrative assistant to Mayor Hewgley, tucked
away in a cabinet in Hale's office. It was in
its original box.
H How the crude projector got into the
™ shelf has not been determined.
One source estimated that the projector dates
back to at least 1885.
JERRY MURPHY of Projection Engineering
Inc., said the first magic lantern was invented
in the late 1600s, but was improved through the
years.
Murphy, longtime Tulsa movie projectionist and
former head of the projectionists union, theorized
that since the instructions called for use of "petroleum" as a fuel it was a "later" model. He
added, however that incandescent lighting in projectors came into being before the turn of the
century.
Research revealed that glass plates known as
Hyalotypcs. were invented by Frederick Langen-
heim of Philadelphia, who obtained a patent on
Nov. 19, 1850, as "improvement in photographic
pictures on glass."
"It's more than an antique," said Murphy "It's
really a museum piece which should be displayed
where people can view it."
