What's It Wednesday - 3D pictures
3-D pictures and virtual reality were born in the 1800s It sounds far-fetched, but we have two British scientists to thank. Maybe this will help clear the view.
3-D imagery was discovered by this British scientist, Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) Of course it wasn’t called that.
Charles Wheatstone published a paper in June 1938, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society vol. 128. His article, ‘Contributions to the Physiology of Vision—Part the First. On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, Phenomena of Binocular Vision’ was based on Wheatstone’s experiments with binocular vision.
The article included a diagram to support the visual illusion he had discovered. Drawing two pictures of the same image from difference perspectives and then looking at the image, Wheatstone discovered that the brain merges the two images into a 3-dimensional image.
A person’s eyes are set about two inches apart. Each eye sees an image from a little different perspective, a binocular vision. The brain processes both images and assimilates them into one.
Wheatstone surmised that:
‘Careful attention would enable an artist to draw and paint the two component pictures, so as to present to the mind of the observer, in the resultant perception, perfect identity with the object represented. Flowers, crystals, busts, vases, instruments of various kinds, might thus be represented so as not to be distinguished by sight from the real objects themselves.’
The concept of 3-dimensional pictures and virtual reality was born!
Wheatstone built a table-sized viewer using mirrors to demonstrate his concept.
It wasn’t the most practical device for viewing. But it demonstrated Wheatstone’s discovery.
As with most inventions, another scientist and inventor, Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) refined Wheatstone’s design in1849. He created a hand-held viewer that a person could raise to eye level. Brewster also used light refraction with prisms instead of reflection with mirrors and his stereoscope was more compact.
At the same time in the 1850s, photography was being widely explored. Wheatstone had drawn the images that he used. Not everyone was an artist, and some inventors and printers became frustrated by their lack of artistic skill. Wheatstone had also experimented using daguerreotypes in his viewer but the photographs were on metal and the metal caused odd reflections in the mirrors.
As photography advanced, the ability to fix photographic to paper, instead of to glass or metal, was developed. This made stereographs - cards with two photographic images taken from slightly different angles - possible.
In 1851, Brewster’s refracting stereoscope was exhibited at the Great Exhibition. Queen Victoria was intrigued by it as well as the photographic stereographs which were also exhibited. The popularity of stereoscopes increased dramatically. The London Stereoscope Company developed a technique for mass-production of stereographs an in 1854-1856, the company sold over half a million stereographs.
From the 1850’s stereoscopes and stereographs were the most important item of entertainment in Europe and the United States. Mass production resulted in stereoscopes that were relatively cheap and were much more compact and easily used.
Stereoscopes made traveling the world, from your own parlor, accessible. Images of famous ancient landmarks, castles and cathedrals were popular in Europe. In the U.S, stereographers captured views of the landscape such as Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. In the Victorian times traveling was too expensive for anyone but the wealthy, so stereoscopes provided virtual sight-seeing trips at a relatively low cost.
In 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. a Boston physician and poet created a new stream-lined, handheld, stereoscope design. He had complained about getting headaches when a stereoscope. His design had a sliding cross-piece to hold the stereograph cards. The cross-piece adjusted for viewing distance and solved his headaches.
Holmes deliberately did not take out a patent on the design. Consequently, many manufacturers copied the design. This style of stereoscope was the most popular style for many years.
The late 1890s presented another market for stereoscopes and stereographs. Manufacturers began to market stereographs to schools. They claimed that viewing the images was better that reading about places in a textbook. The Keystone View Company, in Meadville Pennsylvania began production of educational, comedic, and sentimental stereo views in 1892. By 1905 they were the largest stereographic company in the world.
Keystone continued making stereo views until the mid 1960’s when interest waned due to the increasing attraction of color television. However, one of their most popular products still is available today – The View-Master 3-D!
Do you remember these? And to think it all started with a scientist or two, 183 years ago!
Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your comments and memories.
Marilyn
Resources
Andover Center for History and Culture Collection
Smithsonian Magazine - Original Virtual Reality
Britannica - Development of Photography
Opening a new packet of View Master pictures on Christmas morning was a big deal!