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

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To a contemporary of Kepler goes the acclaim for being the first to use the camera obscura apart from a room; in other words, in a portable form. Thus was the first portable camera developed more than two hundred years before photography was invented. The man was Scheiner, another astronomer.

Christopher Scheiner, a German Jesuit, born about 1575 in Swabia, did much work in astronomy and perfected various ingenious optical instruments. Some say he was the first to use the camera projection device for throwing the sun’s image on a screen in order to study its details. This replaced a system which used colored glasses. Kepler, prior to this, suggested the method but it is generally acknowledged that Scheiner made the first application. In 1610 Scheiner invented his Pantograph or optical copying instrument. In March, 1611, he observed sun spots. His superiors were afraid that he and they would be exposed to ridicule if he were to publish such a discovery under his own name—it was so opposed to the contemporary scientific as well as traditional scientific belief. And so his findings were published in 1612 by a friend, under an assumed name.