The Old Projectionist
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One often wonders as to the origin of such stories as "The Great Djinn of the Middle Sea". When my wife, Carmaletta, and I visited England during 1983 to participate in the English Magic Lantern Society convention, we met Doug and Anita for the first time. The Lears during the 1980s were probably the premier lanternists extant. We had corresponded for several years. During the course of the three-day convention held at Bedford Square in London, I learned that one of the props used by the Lears was a little stuffed figure in the form of a Djinn.
However, for some time I had known of J. Voskuil of Geldermalsen, Holland and of his fine article entitled "The Origins of the Magic Lantern", which had been published in a magazine entitled "The International Projectionist" during the fall months of 1949. The article told of Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit priest, imitating an earlier authority, Porta, by using a physician’s specimen bottle in lieu of a lens, which in the 1640s and 1650s probably were in very short supply.
An errant thought came to me: Remembering the Lear’s small Djinn-like figure, what if an actual Djinn were imprisoned in the comely, well-shaped dusty bottle found in Kircher’s storeroom? The connection was made. From that moment on in my mind's eye, the Old Djinn of the Middle Sea began to take on a life of his own.
The author, Robert O. Bishop, Sr., sometimes known as "The Old Projectionist", is 83 years young. He was born in the Illahee of the Pacific Northwest, almost in the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle. He has been married for sixty-two years to Carmaletta, his high school sweetheart, who has been most patient with his steadfast attention regarding the magic lantern medium over many years.
Athanas Kircher, a Jesuit Priest who lived in the sixteenth century, was vexed. So very close to achieving his dream of perfecting a device that could project in the dark. But his simple bowl of olive oil or oil of rape produced only enough light to make a short throw.
But before the military would make an award a much longer throw of shadow letters would have to be achieved. Perhaps another lense. But lenses were in short supply. Kaspar Schott, his first assistant, volunteered the information that Porta, an earlier scientist in the field had used a physician’s specimen bottle as a lense and that "it had worked well".
Together, they walked to kircher’s storage room, not knowing the flask to be found contained a great Djinn.
