Читать книгу Magic Shadows. The Story of the Origin of Motion Pictures онлайн

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The developments claimed by Porta in the second edition of Natural Magic published in 1589 had been described previously by others. Once again he was a copier and popularizer rather than an inventor and discoverer. And that seems proper for a man who was by profession a playwright with a hobby interest in secret things, especially those relating to natural phenomena.

During the three decades prior to 1589, important developments were made in the science of optics. Both Barbaro and Benedetti described camera obscura systems fitted with lenses to improve the images, and E. Danti, an editor and translator, explained in 1573 how an upright, instead of an upside down, image could be shown through the use of a lens-mirror system.

Monsignor Daniello Barbaro published at Venice, in 1568, La Pratica della Perspettiva, “The Practice of Perspective”, a book on optics. He describes the instrument designed by Alberti, the camera lucida, and gives an illustration of it. As in the case of Benedetti, Barbaro’s chief title to memory is that he introduced the projection lens to the natural camera, thereby enlarging its scope. Without any lenses even a modern camera would give only inferior results and motion pictures would not be practical. It is also said Barbaro introduced the diaphragm, which is very important as a means of controlling the light in the camera.