Pre-19th century
1550
Gerolamo Cardano applies the biconvex lens to a Camera Obscura and obtains a sharper, clearer image.
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1559Giovanni Battista della Porta publishes Magiae Naturalis, in which he describes a Camera Obscura with precision.
In the 17th century, shadow puppetry shows reach Western Europe.
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1646The German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher publishes Ars Magna Lucis et umbrae, in which he describes projection experiments performed with mirrors and lenses.
1659Earliest description of a magic lantern, in the notes of Dutch scientist and astronomer Christiaan Huygens.
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1665The Dane Thomas Rasmussen Walgenstein is the first to perform public projections with a magic lantern.
1700 - c.1731First optical boxes or Mondo Nuovo shows and beginning of the mass production of optical views.
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1713S. J. Rhaneus describes the first glass plate for a magic lantern with a mechanism to make the projected image move.
1725Johann Heinrich Schulze demonstrates that silver nitrate turns black when exposed to the sunlight.
1788Englishman Robert Baker inaugurates the panorama in Edinburgh.
1798Belgian Étienne-Gaspard Robert, alias Robertson, begins his magic lantern shows, called Phantasmagorias, in Paris