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[[Image:Megalethoscope.jpg|thumb|Ponti's Megalethoscope ([[Princeton University Library]])]]
[[File:Interlaken, Switzerland Carlo Ponti.jpg|thumb|Carlo Ponti, Interlaken, Switzerland, night view albumen print shown rear-lit in megalethoscope]]
The '''megalethoscope''' (Italian: ''megalethoscopio'') is an [[optics|optical]] apparatus, a sophisticated version of the [[Raree show|peep show]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Wolf |first=Mark J.P. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/809532788 |title=Before the crash : early video game history |date=2012 |publisher=Wayne State U.P |isbn=978-0-8143-3450-8 |location=Detroit |pages=36-7 |language=en |oclc=809532788}}</ref> designed by [[Carlo Ponti (photographer)|Carlo Ponti]] of [[Venice]] before 1862.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Paoli |first=Sylvia |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203941782 |title=Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-94178-2 |editor-last=Hannavy |editor-first=John |pages=1144–1146 |language=en |chapter=Ponti, Carlo (c. 1822–1893) Optician and photographer}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Mannoni|first1=Laurent|title=Le Mouvement Continué|date=1970|publisher=Mazzotta|location=Italy|isbn=88-202-1164-5|page=196}}</ref>
== Invention ==
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The megalethoscope and the alethoscope are capable of a certain illusion of relief. Both devices enlarged photographic views through a wide, thick magnifying glass, or compound lens, that creates an illusion of the subjects' plasticity, perspective depth and modelling. The instrument’s arrangement minimises surrounding indicators of depth that would let us know this is a flat picture, and also because the image is magnified to nearer the scale of the real scene the picture is depicting. As the light coming from the lens to the eyes is collimated, it confounds accommodation; the image is suspended at an indeterminable range. The broad, thick lens could also enhance depth perception by creating binocular stereopsis, because each eye views the image through a different part of the magnifying glass; chromatic aberrations at he edges of the lens may contribute to [[chromostereopsis]]; and depth clues in the image, which were usually in perspective, help to create the illusion.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Verwiebe |first=Birgit |date=September 1995 |title=L’illusione nel tempo e nello spazio. Il megaletoscopio di Carlo Ponti, un apparecchio fotografi co degli anni 1860 |journal=Fotologia |language=it |volume=16/17 |issue=Autumn/Winter 1995 |pages=53–61}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Bantjes |first=Rod |date=October 2021 |title=The Optical Machine's Asynchronic Progress: Perceptual Paradigms and 3-D Enhancement Technologies, 1700–1925 |journal=Technology and Culture |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=1119-1142 |doi=10.1353/tech.2021.0155}}</ref>
''The Practical Mechanic's Journal'' of 1867 noted minor improvements over the alethoscope that were made to later models of the megalethoscope, but the relative size of the two otherwise similar instruments is their distinguishing difference;<blockquote>1. The two lenses [one in front of the other] which may be removed through the small door for the purpose of cleaning them, instead of one fixed lens; 2. the substitution of several diaphragms, opening on a hinge...so as to inclose [sic] large and medium sized photographic views and [[Carte de visite|cartes de visite]], for the single diaphragm used in the Alethoscope; 3. the method of fixing ordinary portraits and small photographic views. By these improvements the magnifying of the views is considerably increased; the relief is more developed, but without exaggeration; the defects of sphericity [of the lens] are reduced to a minimum; greater clearness is obtained; and by the inclosing of the views in a frame, the eye is prevented from wandering to the margin at the expense of the stereoscopic effect. Each view is so disposed that it may be seen by reflection or as a transparency, and by day or by artificial light. The instrument is first placed on a table in front of a window, and the photographie view is introduced through the aperture... if it be desired to view the object by reflected light, the two reflectors...are opened so as to throw light on the same, but if by transmitted light, the reflectors are closed, the door...opened, and the light at the middle of the aperture passes through the back of the photographic view. Its effects are more striking with artificial light; and a gas burner or petroleum lamp answers the purpose very well. The observer places himself before the eye-glass...of the apparatus...moves forward or draws back the lens, by means of the two lateral handles... to suit his sight; and according as the photographic view is required to be on the wide or narrow side, the instrument... is turned a quarter turn from right to left by means of the buttons...which carry upwards, or to the right, the notch.. intended to receive the photographs. In order to prevent the eyes from being strained by the excess of light at the time the transparent views are changed a rough glass is placed between the two lenses when there is no photograph between the eye and the lamp. Two flat bars...sliding in a groove on the internal frame of the door...are provided, which adjust themselves to the size of the smaller views, such as portraits, etc. and ...the size of the diapbragms used should also be proportionate to that of the photographs to be viewed.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=March 1868 |title=The Megalethoscope |journal=The Practical Mechanic's Journal |location=London & Glasgow |publisher=Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer |volume=III, Third Series |issue=March 1868 |pages=111}}</ref></blockquote>
Ponti and others produced specially prepared photographs for use in the Megalethoscope, and the entire unit could be rotated for either horizontal or vertical format images. The [[albumen photograph]]s may be either backlit by an internal light source—usually an oil or kerosene lantern—or lit by daylight admitted via a system of opening doors. The plates for some versions of the megalethoscope are curved with slotted wooden braces for optical correction of [[Optical aberration|lens aberrations]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heylen |first=Sylke |last2=Maes |first2=Herman |date=1999 |title=Megalethoscope Plates: A Case Study: Conservation Treatment of Megalethoscope plates from the Collection of the Museum for Art and History |journal=Topics in Photographic Preservation |volume=8 |pages=23–30}}</ref> and pinprick perforations and mechanically thinned areas on the albumen prints have been made for viewing the photographic images under reflected and transmitted light to suggest day or night lighting, fantastic effects (''diavoletti'') and to add colours.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dune |first=Corinne |date=1 September 1996 |title=La photographie en spectacle : traitements de papiers albuminés peints transparents |journal=Coré |language=fr |volume=1 |issue=1996 |pages=26–30 |issn=1277-2550 |oclc=886969366}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Iglesias |first=Rodrigo Martín |date=2011 |title=A través de la pantalla |journal=Jornadas Nacionales de Investigación en Arte en Argentina |location=La Plata |volume=VIII |issue=2011}}</ref>
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== Rights ==
Ponti's rights to these devices lapsed after 1866, due to administrative confusion after the after the [[Third Italian War of Independence]], when Venice, along with the rest of the [[Veneto]], became part of the newly created [[Unification of Italy|Kingdom of Italy]]. Despite Ponte's legal battles between 1868 and 1876 to prevent it, Carlo Naya began to manufacture and sell the Aletoscopio and Megalethoscopio (in some versions labelled a 'graphoscope')<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alethoscope - Single Lens, Italy, 1860-1870 |url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/384562 |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=Museums Victoria Collections}}</ref> which Ponti tried to counter by issuing variations of the instrument under other names including ''Amfoteroscopio, Dioramoscopio, Pontioscopio,'' or ''Cosmorama Fotografico''. Well aware of their market value, Naya counter-sued Ponti for the many views that he had taken and were sold with Ponti's megalethoscope, though many were actually taken by Naya's assistants.<ref name=":0" />
==Developments==
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