Historical and Contemporary Animation 2 - Magic Lantern

The Magic Lantern is one of the earliest known forms of animation in history, as well as an early type of image projector. The invention of the lantern is credited to Christann Huygen, although the original inventor is subject to debate. During the 17th and 18th century this device was used for entertainment and educational purposes. During the later part of the 18th century however, this device had become widespread in the use of illusionists and magicians, to summon up things like ghosts and spirits. During the 1900s there were even some instances of it being used for pornographic imagery. Nowadays however mostly it's just a collectors item.