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enlarged image could be seen and to the people of that era it
was just magic! - it was truly a "magic lantern".

Progress was slow over the next 200 years. Oil lamps with
multi wicks arranged in a circle seemed to be the most
significant development of the period. Then in the late 1800s
things began to brighten up. A carbide burner was invented
using the principal of 3 or 4 burners in a row to maximise the
light output. This was connected to an acetylene gas producing
unit using calcium carbide partly immersed in water -
remember the old bike lamps? - same principal. But the big
breakthrough came with the invention by a brilliant Austrian
Army Officer,
Baron Franz Von
A triple jet carbide burner
Uchatius, of a
device for signalling over long distances in daylight.
His signal lamp used a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen
gasses impinging through a small jet on to a block of
lime. When lit the gas flame excited a spot of brilliant
incandescence on the lime. A simple condenser lens
focused the limelight spot into a narrow intense beam
of light that could be modulated for signalling
purposes. Then the multiplier effect began. Theatre
owners saw the potential and used the invention to
"spotlight" their star performers on the stage and in the
process created that wonderful phrase - to be "in the
An "Off the Shelf" carbide generator with
limelight".
a four jet burner.
Then of course the Magic Lantern entrepreneurs latched on to limelight too, using the new light
source they produced spectacular shows using multiple projectors to throw superimposed and
dissolving images on to giant screens –all synchronised with a full orchestral accompaniment -
they blew their audiences away! Then in the late 1890s, just as the skill of the Lanternists reached
its peak another new invention was added to their repertoire - Moving Pictures. Again limelight
provided an excellent light source for the tiny moving picture images and the textbooks of the
time provided detailed
instructions not only for the
operation of the limelight
apparatus, but also gave
details of how to make your
own gas supplies when
working away from large
cities. The books
recommended a number of
gases that could be used to excite the lime. You could use
Above right: Beard's "Biojector" oxygen with acetylene, petrol, industrial ether, coal gas
combination mixer and injector jet from the town supply or best of all, hydrogen. All of these
limelight burner. A deluxe, heavy duty,
burner. gases are highly explosive and oxygen and hydrogen when
mixed together make inter-space rocket fuel, the most
explosive combination imaginable. Then, use limelight with highly inflammable nitrate film and
you had a cocktail that did blow the audience away, and burnt down many halls and theatres too.

September 2020 REEL DEALS 7