It was to remain a prodigious conjuring device throughout the following two centuries. By the manipulation of two or more layers of glass astonishing eye movements, sudden revelations or transformations were possible. In the 18th century travelling showmen presented their popular exhibitions in barns, at wayside inns and in private houses. These gallanty showmen were picture-story tellers  and masters of state-of-the-art optical special effects’. Their shows were often presented with atmospheric effects and musical accompaniment p5rovided by an assistant. The evil-smelling sperm or colza oil which supplied the source of their illumination, could also be relied upon to add piquancy to their nefarious performances.  Sensational Bible stories, tales of shipwrecks, sights - natural and unnatural and creatures from beyond the grave, formed the principal repertoire of  the lanternist right up until the coronation of Queen Victoria.

During the 18th century there was a sudden upsurge of interest in the paranormal as a backlash against rationality and science. Many sought to find truth through contact with the spirit world and their were many enterprising men and women who were only to pleased to give rich seekers after truth a helping hand.  Freemasonry flourished and gave rise to a number of messianic individuals who conducted exotic ceremonies as a means of summoning the spirits. Chief among them was a German coffeeshop proprietor, Johann Schropfer who employed a magic lantern as a way of ensuring that any attempts to raise a ghost were always sucessful. Many of Schropfer’s manifestation were conjured up on a screen of smoke to add to the effect. When he eventually committed suicide in 1774, supposedly a paranoid victim of his own invisible demons, his practices fired the imaginations of amateurs of science and stage magicians. The theatrical consequence of this fascination was a revolutionary new form of magic lantern entertainment - the phantasmagoria.

It was a mysterious showman of German or Flemish origin, Paul Philidor (later known as Paul de Philipsthal), who christened the new form and first visited it upon the unsuspecting public. After a brief fling in Vienna he took it to Paris, the capital of enlightenment Europe, in 1792. Unfortunately the French were somewhat preoccupied at the time. The revolution was at its height and the King was awaiting a trip to the guillotine.

Nevertheless Philidor’s show was very successful - though, rather  like the king, shortlived. The satirical notion of having Robespierre’s face suddenly transform itself into the face of the devil was somewhat lost on the new revolutionary government and the show was closed down . Philidor only just esacped the guilotine thanks to the intervention of an influential friend, M Curtius,the uncle of the famous wax-modeller, M. Tussaud. Phlidor went missing after that, resurfacing in London eight years later at the Lyceum and sporting a brand new name, Paul de Philipsthal.

Meanwhile, back in Paris, Philidor’s invention had been further developed by a Belgian showman, Etienne Gaspard Robertson. He turned it into an amazing multi-sensory instillation. Staged within the precincts of the disused convent du Capuchin, Robertson’s dark seance incorporated elements of back-projection, movable lanterns, multiple projections, ventriloquism, three dimensinal puppets, masks, eerie music and live actors.

At a time when the public taste for Gothic horror in literature and art was at its height the phantasmagoria enjoyed phenomenal success across Europe and America. In the first two decades of the 19th century short phantasmagoria performances became the staple of many theatres as a prelude to the main programme. Such displays also began to inspire a whole new wave of interest in the humble lantern per se and its possibilities, not only among magicians and other stage performers but men of science, artists and educators.

In the 1820s the popularity of the phantasmagoria was eclipsed by an altogether more sedate style of lantern presentation - ‘dissolvant’ or ‘dissolving views’ With the aid of two carefully synchronised projectors, set side by side, it was possible to execute a slow transformation, enabling a rural summer scene to suddenly become cloaked in snow or a dormant volcano to suddenly erupt in fiery fury. Similarly elements could be added to an existing projected scene, thus a swan with a moving neck could be superimposed onto a milpond or an aurora onto a polar landscape.

In 1838 the Royal Polytechnic opened in Regent Street, London. Bent on promoting science as fun, it boasted its own optical theatre where spectacular shows were given on a ginat screen, using up to six lanterns at a time, complex animated slides and images of stunning quality. In its heyday, in the 1860s, lantern pantomimes based on Robinson Crusoe and  more traditional children’s stories drew packed houses. As did one very particular mirror illusion in the 1860s, perfected by the Polytechnic’s avuncular director, Professor Henry Pepper. This was commonly known as ‘Pepper’s Ghost’.

In Britian the Polytechnic encouraged a growing commercial trade in lanterns and slides for use in the home and public halls.  Whilst many were content to see it as an instrument of amusement others began to realise its potential as an instrument of social change and propaganda.  Although many among this new responsible breed of lanternist frowned upon the old style phantasmagoria professors, nevertheless they were not averse to adopting many of their methods.

it was in the 1850s that the temperance movement began to use the lantern to hammer home the temperance mesage with frightening images of a different stamp. The Band of Hope and similar organisations argued that salvatuon could only be attained through abstinence, hard work and attention to the scriptures.  As exemplified by lantern slide illustrations in particular, all routes from the public bar were vividly depicted as leading to inextricably to misery, madness and the gallows.

The arrival of the photographic lantern slide in the 1850’s, made possible by the collodian wet-plate process, changed the nature of the lantern show entirely. Reality began to replace the drawn and painted image

In the 1880's enterprising photographers such as Joseph Bamforth of Holmfirth in Yorkshire and York and Son of Bridgwater, began to produce fictional stories and songs in photographic form. These sets of slides featured models - often local townsfolk or employees posed against painted backdrops an comprised from four to upwards of sixty slides per set., The works of Dickens were brought to life in this way alongside a preponderance of sentimental and moralising ballad poems depicting life among the poorer classes. The most popular ballads were ‘Billy’s Rose’, ‘The Level Crossing’ and ‘In the Workhouse Christmas Day’’ by the Victorian playwright George R Sims.

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