The Dead Media Notebook Read Online Free PDF Page B

the best limelight stereopticons.
    [To the modern skeptical eye these oily assurances of comfort and safety conjure up dire vistas of soot- blackened parlors, badly scorched boy-entrepreneurs, and audiences explosively drenched in sheets of flaming kerosene.]
    I believe this to be a complete list of Peck and Snyder’s magic lantern models as offered in the 1886 catalog:
    The Electro Radiant No. 2, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10.
    The New Improved Duplex Magic Lantern, Nos. 1 and 2.
    Magic Lantern 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 30, 32, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48.
    Wrench’s Celebrated London Make Magic Lantern. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8.
    The Favorite German Lantern.
    New French Style Magic Lanterns Nos 814, 815, 816, 817, 818, 819.
    The Improved Triplexicon.
    The Gem Magic Lantern.
    The wonder of it is that Peck and Snyder must have had a great many competitors. This catalog offers only a glimpse of what must have been an enormous market.
    Source: Peck and Snyder’s Catalog (aka Price List of Out & Indoor Sports and Pastimes) 1886, reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press (LC# 75-24886, ISBN 0-87861-094-4)
     

anatomy of A Magic Lantern show
    From Bruce Sterling
    The following, is the complete text of a playbill for a travelling American magic lantern show, circa 1880.
    The playbill is apparently designed for poles, columns or door lintels,.as it is very long and narrow. It has a wide, spreadeagle variety of lavish circus fonts in different sizes.
    Empresario, Mr. B. A. Bamber.
    Price of the show, ten cents.
    5 th ANNUAL TOUR
    ————————
    B. A. BAMBER’S
    ---GREAT----
    DIME SHOW
 
    New Attractions and Better Than Ever Before
Travels, Art, History. Astronomy, Fun, Electricity.
    [A dashing woodcut of the balding, heavily mustached B. A. Bamber]
    GRAND STEREOPTICAL DISSOLVING VIEWS SCENES IN MANY LANDS FROM GREENLAND’S ICY MOUNT, TO INDIA’S CORAL STRAND THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD. THE BEAUTIES OF THE WORLD.
    Read Carefully Every Word of the Following Programme
    PART I. THE PLANETARIUM Will be exhibited and explained. This is an instrument (lately invented) for showing the Planets of the Solar System in their annual motion around the Sun; it also shows their relative size and distance from the Sun, the cause of Tides, Eclipses, Change of Seasons and Signs of the Zodiac. This part will be a lasting benefit to all who desire to know more about the wandering stars that reflect the Sun’s light upon us by night. After this instrument has been exhibited Telescopic Views of the larger Planets will be reflected upon the canvas.
    PART II. NATURAL SCENERY Comprises Views of the most Prominent Objects of Interest in both the Old and New World. All cannot travel and see these places, but whoever attends this Entertainment will see them reflected on canvas with a glow of beauty never to be forgotten.
    PART III. THE ILL-FATED SHIP Comprises a series of Paintings, showing the sunshine and shadow of a Sailor’s life.
    SCENE 1.—Ship at dock in Liverpool Harbor, passengers leaving their native country.
    SCENE 2.—Just out of the harbor, sailing on the blue waters of the Irish Sea.
    SCENE 3.—A Storm arises, which rapidly increases the furling and reefing of sails.
    SCENE 4.—Height of the Storm, rolling on the boundless deep and struck by lightning.
    SCENE 5.—Horrible calamity at sea; ship on fire; most on board perish in the flames.
    SCENE 6.—The few who make their escape on a raft are now afloat on the wide Ocean.
    PART IV. The Highland Lover’s Courtship for Marriage Showing how it is done, also the result which usually follows; a caution to those about to embark on this kind of a ship.
    PART V. STATUARY A Magnificent Collection of Statuary from the Centennial Art Gallery will be exhibited, besides other noted works of Sculpture, the beauty of which cannot be described; they must be seen to form any idea of their real beauty and grandeur. Among the many we mention “Flight of Mercury,” “Ophelia,”