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

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His work on optics, published at Antwerp in 1613, was famous. In it is found for the first time the expression “stereographic projection,” which has survived to the present. This was known from the time of Hipparchus but had not received a permanent name until it was given by d’Aguilon, to whom must go part of the credit for the name of all devices with “stereo” somewhere in the title. D’Aguilon explored at length the subject of after-images. He correctly pointed out that the image physically disappears when the cause is removed (as a camera no longer “sees” after the shutter is closed) but there remains something impressed on the organ of sight, a certain effect on the sense of vision.

D’Aguilon was revising his book on optics when he died, in 1617. One edition was published in Antwerp in 1685 with the title Opticorum Libri Sex. Perhaps he was on the eve of the great discovery which was to be made in a few years by one of his successors. However, to him goes the credit for the name which was attached for centuries to all kinds of shadow-plays, and is still known today—Stereoscopic.