Camera

[rmhowe <magnusm@ncsu.edu>]

Poster: rmhowe <magnusm@ncsu.edu>

> Poster: RowenRhys <RowenRhys@aol.com>
> 

> 'Tis true that camera date to the time of the American Civil War 
> Rowen ferch Rhys

Actually the term camera dates to renaissance times. It refers to 
the "camera obscura", Italian for Dark Room. It was a tent like a
little round pavillion. In the middle of the roof was a hole with
a lens in it, above this was a mirror mounted at 45 degrees. The
whole thing operated much like a periscope. In the dark tent
there was a table with a light surface. The light would strike the
mirror, be focused through the lens, and strike the table and one
would see the first moving pictures. "The trick seems to have been
known in ancient days but it was not until 400 years ago that any
great use seems to have been made of it." They charged for the trick.

Clipped the page a long time ago from possibly an old volume of 
Book of Knowledge. Shows the tent, table, mirror and lens.
But obviously a modern depiction.

The first box camera seems to date from about 1670 and was a black
box with a lens at one end and a white glass plate at the other.
One looked at the image and sketched from it. Invented apparently
by Englishman Robert Boyle.

Magnus Malleus, repository of inane and_obscure_trivia.

(Now I suppose Dafydd will have to build one...)
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