Holmes Stereoscope: Cutting-Edge Victorian Entertainment
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
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Stereographic images were a wildly popular form of home entertainment in Europe and North America from the 1850s to the 1930s, providing an affordable way for people to experience exotic lands and other sights in 3 dimensions.
You deserve way more views and subscribers. Well put together videos on always interesting subjects. TH-cam can be such an unfair place...
As someone who can only see with one eye, I am finally able to see what those photos look like!!! Thank you!
Same here; one eye doesn't focus, so 3D effects are lost on me for the most part. These actually work!
By the way, it's possible to learn to watch stereo images with no auxiliary devices. I've been using such a technique to look at molecules' structure in its very 3D kind. Very helpful, but may require several headaches suffered by those who have never tried it. I've been used to it since my childhood for an unknown reason, and it turned out to be pretty helpful
Oops, just read your comment after posting my own to the same effect. I learned the technique in the 1980's at an eye doctor who used antique steroscopes and the images for eye training. (I was attempting to keep my eyes at 20/20 so I would qualify for pilot training in the US Air Force.)
@@TomFarrell-p9z Did you qualify in the end?
You have in your videos things that this 42 year old either has one, seen one, or will someday see one, and now I will know all about each one. Superb channel, well done.
With some practice, one can see the 3D effect of the images without a stereoscope. You sort of cross your eyes and concentrate on the center of what looks to your brain like three images. The center image will be in 3D. A little hard to explain, but it is like riding a bicycle, once you learn it will be something you can do anytime the need arises. It's also handy for quickly spotting the "what's different in these two images" cartoons in some Sunday comics. The differences look like they are flashing at you!
We used that technique to look at aerial photos in forestry…
Another A+ video … especially the part at the end. Well done.
Back in the day (1950’s?) one could buy a 3-D camera and send off the film to have the photos made into a View-Master reels. I have one such reel somebody shot in my hometown.
Harold Lloyd (the silent film mega-star) was really into 3-D photography later in life. There are several books (complete with glasses) of his photos … and they aren’t of boring ol’ landscapes … 😉
That was rather spiffy. Thanks for the videos duder.
About 20 years ago Pentax came out with the Optio 430 RS digital camera that took 3D photos. You took the first photo and then moved a few inches and took another photo. These were combined into one JPG photo. Worked pretty good.
My paternal grandmother born 1920 had one of that exact wood, wire stand and etched tin hood moddel that I had a lot of fun using in my 1990ies childhood😊
And there is the whole field of aerial photo interpretation.
my mother in law has TONS of these... early viewmasters!
My grandfather had one of these -- or something very similar. Best 3D I've ever seen.
I recently bought a viewer from the 1890s and I want to make cards for it using historic photos of local places I've found online. I only have one angle. So is it possible to make my own cards if I offset and crop the old photo to imitate two photos being taken apart? Its a photo from over 100 years ago so there is no taking two angles for it unfortunately. The photo is rectangular so I could easily crop one side and then the other digitally and then print both out and attach to a card. I may try it just for fun and if it works ill make a more refined permanent one.
The anaglyph image at 11:30 displays VERY WELL on my monitor. Yes, I do keep a pair of anaglyph glasses on my desk.
Regarding the Holmes Stereoscope: Look closely at the lenses. You will find that they are not simple convex lenses, but convex surfaces on a triangular prism. This allows your eyes to aim straight ahead while viewing two images spaced closely together. They not only focus the images, but alter their parallax. If you were to rotate the lenses by 90° or 180° and place them back in their mounts, the stereoscope would no longer work.
I have a film stereo camera and a digital one, which I have used to produce anaglyph images as well as hand constructing many Holmes format stereographs which work fine in an antique stereoscope.
Pause the video at 1:18 then, at full-screen, cross your eyes slowly until the two images overlap and form the 3-D image in the center of your field of vision. This is called "free viewing" as you can see the 3-D image free of devices. It takes a bit of practice to get the knack of it at first, but becomes easier. Your welcome!
My parents had that exact stereoscope. I think they got it from my grandparents. They also had many cards.
I actually found a stereoscopic BOX viewer in an antique shop in Wichita some years back.
It's a fairly brittle yet beautifully crafted box that has the lenses of a stereoscope, and unfolds open like a large easel to view cards in a public fashion. However a unique feature it also has is that it also has a much bigger third lens in the center-top region of the 'lid'.
My best assumption was that it may be a simple magnifier to read the captions on the cards.
Wasn't that Sir Brian May (guitarist from Queen, PhD in astrophysics) in one of your images?
Yup, that was him. He apparently has the world's largest collection of stereo photos.
Your videos are "must watch" for me. Always informative and entertaining. I have to say I was very surprised how well alternating left/right views worked. I fully expect your channel to continue to grow and finally, thank you for your excellent work.
cwtrain - does the expression "I'll be back!" & Give me your clothes and motorbike ...... answer your question !?
7:45 Reflects a need to generate demand by direct salesmanship of the 'cannot tell you, just put this on your face' variety.
If you put the images side by side, with the left eye's image on the right and the right eye's image on the left, you can cross your eyes. Doing that, you can also hold two fingers up, one on either side of your eyes, to block out the extra image that doesn't overlap.
Another method of faux 3D relies on the fact that the human brain processes dimmer images slightly slower than brighter images.
Dimming the image one eye sees (like wearing a pair of close fitting sunglasses with one lens removed), you can create a fake 3D view while watching standard (non-3D) videos. It works best when the camera is panning or when there is a lot of movement.
What happens is that the brain processes the image from the dimmed eye slightly lagged to the other eye. When the brain combines the image it can be tricked into perceiving some depth.
I remember when I was young a Shark Week made use of this. Of course it isn't as effective as true stereoscopic videos.
Neat, you rediscovered "wobble stereo"!
I really like this video a lot. My only thing I wish you emphasized was how these devices reinforced Empire. Not just in letting london masses see the far flungs of empire, but really most clearly in those military shots you showed at that end. That compilation basically made the point without saying it, but the potential of these devices to shrink and consolidate empire is interesting
This was a fascinating video that filled in a few gaps. My family has a stereoscope that looks to be very similar to the one shown here - small differences are that wood is used around the eyepieces and the handle does not fold. When I was younger I would often spend ages looking through it at the slides that came with it. I got it out then and was amused to find a slide with a copyright date of 1886 next to one I tried to make in 2013 :). I was thinking in the last few days that I should have another attempt.
14:00 or just put a hi res scan of the sterogram
You don't need a viewer
Just stare at it cross-eyed the two images will combine and produce a 3rd image in the middle which youll focus on, with your wanted 3d components, takes a little practice though
11:55 or like a Nintendo 3ds exploiting parallax and persistence of vision needing no glasses or occlus rift
An easy way to view these photos is to criss your eyes.
I've got one of those. And about 50 cards for it.
Lord Roberts is really rockin’ it, there.
I've also seen one of these at a gun show.. strange.
'Second Annual Boer War'
Who tf steals a suit!? Like's it's going to fit. Jfc...
I mean, excellent video. I appreciate you.
Who steals a suit!? Maybe a TH-cam troll. Keep an eye out for a new channel: Cabbinet of Curiosities
On one of your stereoscope videos you mentiones that Google had something like that now. What product is that? please send link.
first! thanks again for the amazing content!
I love stereo anything! BTW, your magic eye image is the best I've ever seen.
I have one just like this, although it's largely made of aluminum. This is a good effect, but looking into the real stereoscope is amazing. Since the pictures are all so old, it's like looking back in time. You can feel like you're looking into the eyes of the people in the photos.
My grandparents had a stand up cabinet version with views of Egypt, it fascinated me as a small child. I was as spellbound by the images as I would have been when they were new, thank you for sharing them.
A little trick: close one eye while looking at 3D images (the alternating samples) or simply with a single photograph, the brain interprets the hree-dimensional effect better in that image than with both eyes at de same time.
Loved looking at the pictures of both my grandparents and an aunt who had the Holmes type.
Wow! Awesome!
Thank you so very much!
Stereoscope! The world's first peepshow!
Was that Brian May??
Yeah, had to be
Great video, now you need an Edison cylinder record player and you will have everything you need
for an evening’s entertainment at the turn of the century
By gaslight.
Actually, Edison cylinders will be the subject of an upcoming video!
@@CanadianMacGyver I look forward to that video, I have an Edison player and a large collection
of stereos. When I bought my early 1900’s house I wanted to get a feel of the time period.
wonderfull video
I'd be curious to know more about the process of making these 3d pictures. I mean, I understand the principle, but would be interesting to know how exactly they did it, was it a cobbled together device from two regular cameras, or a special twin camera device manufactured specifically for this, or maybe a single camera using some prisms, projecting the image on a wide "film"?
Damn shame about the suit, I really like it too.
I can't answer your question fully, but you can take stereo photos with a camera (or your phone) simply by taking one photo and then moving your camera 100mm horizontally to one side and taking another photo. The British Library has an interesting TH-cam video of the history of stereo photography th-cam.com/video/Y8EA7sHrHgw/w-d-xo.html There is a phone app that can configure your photos for viewing (explained in the linked video).
@@astrecks What I meant was how the consumer products sold back then actually looked like. Recently though, Gilles uploaded "Viewmaster: The Victorian Stereoscope Reborn" video, where around min 11.08 is showing one such device.
Interesting presentation in your link, thanks. I was especially fascinated by the "tissue stereos" that May was talking about. I'd be really curious to see one, but from what I understand is not really possible anymore.
A quick search shows the first commercial stereo camera was called the Verascope and produced around 1900.
I guess the original stereo images were created as I suggested by moving the camera (maybe on a sliding camera mount).
I noticed with some of the old images a difference in the contrast between the photographs, and I have observed 'ghost' objects in the background that moved between photos taken.
The View-master system was introduced in 1939, and by then, there were many commercially produced stereo cameras.@@airspeedmph
love your work
Hope all is well friend
I love your Cab O’ Cur episodes.