3D/2 Lantern Slides

[ex836@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (James R. Motley)]

3D/2 Lantern Slides--When 3D/2 Does Not Equal 1 1/2 D.

I'm sure that many Photo-3D-ers own or at least have seen some
of Keystone's Tour of the World Stereo Viewcards and some of the
fortunate ones own the 600 Card Set.  Did you know that Keystone
also produced 3 1/4 x 4 inch glass "Lantern Slides" of the same 
scenes for Projection?  Each glass slide was the same photograph
as one of the two sides of the correspondingly numbered viewcard.

According to Waldsmith's STEREO VIEWS, Keystone expanded their 
smaller sets to the 600 card set about 1921 and about 1929 began
issuing a 1200-view set and "They also added an oak cabinet for
storage, mainly aimed at schools and libraries".  This reference
to the even larger sets is included only because it appears to 
give a time reference to the 600 glass Lantern Slides sets sold
to schools in oak cabinets. 

Last summer I acquired a batch of about 450 glass Lantern Slides  
from a 600 Tour of the World set.  These had been used in a
school, probably in the 1930's and had been in an oak cabinet
(which the owner did not want to sell).

These slides have the image emulsion on the front of the back
glass and a front glass for protection. Between the two pieces of 
glass is a mask that masks the transparency so that it looks just
like one half of a stereo viewcard.  The mask includes Keystone's
identification and a white title strip which shows the position
number, the negative number and a short description of the scene.
The two pieces of glass are sealed by half inch wide black paper
tape similar to masking tape.

Each slide has its own 3 1/4 x 3 1/2 inch buff colored card which
gives the same narrative as appears on a corresponding viewcard.
Half of the narrative is on one side of the small card and the
remainder on the back side.  The slide and its descriptive card
were stored in the oak cabinet separated by a thick cardstock
partitions.  I found the teacher's penciled notes on some of the
cards to "read this", underlining some phrase, and crossing out
others rather interesting.
    
Even tho there were only 450 of the 600 slide set and about 45 of 
these were broken--some (26) front, some back, and some both--
I was pleased to get them (I found some Lantern Slide glass and
will be able to repair many of the broken ones). The owner told 
me that he had given some of this set to some historical groups.
Among the missing views were numbers 593 thru 600, which are 
astronomy views.  It's probably just as well.  I suspect that it
would take a lot of libation to see number 594, the Full Moon, 
Lantern Slide in 3D.

It appears that these slides were made from the left half of the
stereo negative.  Does anyone know if Keystone production method
was to make two lantern slides simultaneously using both halves
of the stereo negative?  If they did, wouldn't it be great to 
find the matching right slides?  

How I found these slides may be of interest.  I stopped by an
antique shop and asked if they had any stereo viewcards.  They
didn't, but a nearby browsing apparently frequent customer heard
my question and told me he had some cards and some Lantern
Slides.  We arranged a meeting about a week later which resulted 
in my buying the slides.  BTW, his "Century" house was very
nicely furnished with many antiques.  This was an example of a
"stoke of luck" resulting from letting your interests being
known.  Before then, I only had two Lantern Slides.

Regards....Jim Motley....ex836@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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