Lantern slide projector

Pressed steel bodied lantern slide projector, the body painted black. Internally the rear section holds the light source which can be accessed via a hinged door on each side. The projector has been modified sometime in its life to accept a light globe; previously it may have employed a three wick oil lamp or a limelight source. There is a light reflector mounted behind it. A small red circular glass section surrounded by a brass frame is set into each door so that the condition of the light source can be checked during projection without opening the side or rear door. The rear panel is hinged, with a brass clamp holding it in place; this is to enable one to replace or renew the light source. The upper rear section originally carried a removeable chimney for the dispersion of heat and smoke, but this piece is missing and only the rectangular space remains; each side is pierced with a regular diamond pattern which also assists in heat dissipation.

The front circular lens section is of brass and is mounted on the steel base; the slides are placed between main body lens and object lens and projected through the focussed lens. The lens employs a screwed focussing mechanism. The light can be cut by the integral lens cover which was employed when changing slides. There are no markings.

This style of lantern slide projector, produced between 1880 and 1900, usually employed a three wick oil lamp or a limelight source, which necessitated the use of a chimney for the dissipation of smoke (in the case of oil lamps) or heat (in the case of limelight), but after about 1910, these light sources were usually substituted for an early electrical light.

The lantern slides used on these projectors were either painted scenes (in the early days of this technology) but more likely to be photographs during the Boer War.