Editing Camera lucida (section)

==History==

The ''camera lucida'' was patented in 1806 by the English chemist [[William Hyde Wollaston]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marien |first=Mary Warner |url=https://archive.org/details/photographycultu0000mari_d6n5/page/6/ |title=Photography: A Cultural History |date=2015 |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |isbn=978-0-205-98894-5 |edition=4th |pages=6–7 |access-date=April 10, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wollaston |first=William H. |url=https://archive.org/details/s2id13415980/page/343 |title=Description of the Camera Lucida |date=1807 |work=[[Philosophical Magazine|The Philosophical Magazine]] |pages=343–347 |author-link=William Hyde Wollaston |access-date=10 April 2022 |issue=27}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pritchard, Andrew |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/28403006 |title=English patents: being a register of all those granted for inventions in the arts, manufactures, chemistry, agriculture, etc., etc., during the first forty-five years of the present century |date=1847 |publisher=Whittaker and Co |quote=[[William Hyde Wollaston|Wollaston, William H.]] 'An Instrument Whereby Any Person May Draw in Perspective, or May Copy of Reduce Any Print or Drawing.' British Patent no. 2993 |access-date=September 10, 2019 |archive-date=October 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025191524/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/28403006 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The basic optics were described 200 years earlier by the German astronomer [[Johannes Kepler]] in his ''Dioptrice'' (1611), but there is no evidence he constructed a working ''camera lucida''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=John |title=The camera lucida in art and science |last2=Austin |first2=Jill |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1987 |location=Bristol |pages=ix, 113–172}}</ref> There is also evidence to suggest that the Elizabethan spy Arthur Gregory's 1596 "perspective box" operated on at least highly similar principles to the later ''camera lucida'', but the secretive nature of his work and fear of rivals copying his methods led to his invention becoming lost.<ref name=":v">{{Cite book |last1=Akkerman |last2=Longman |first1=Nadine |first2=Pete |title=Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2024 |location=New Haven and London |pages=186-187}}</ref> By the 19th century, Kepler's description had similarly fallen into oblivion, so Wollaston's claim to have invented the device was never challenged. The term "{{lang|la|camera lucida}}" ([[Latin]] 'well-lit room' as opposed to {{lang|la|[[camera obscura]]}} 'dark room') is Wollaston's.<ref>cf. {{Cite book |last=Hoppe |first=Edmund |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qDUhQGk3I28C |title=Geschichte der Optik |year=1926 |isbn=9783846014219 |location=Leipzig |language=de |access-date=April 26, 2023 |archive-date=April 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426200035/https://books.google.com/books?id=qDUhQGk3I28C |url-status=live }}</ref>

While on honeymoon in Italy in 1833, the photographic pioneer [[William Fox Talbot]] used a ''camera lucida'' as a sketching aid. He later wrote that it was a disappointment with his resulting efforts which encouraged him to seek a means to "cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably".

In 2001, artist [[David Hockney]]'s book ''[[Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters]]'' was met with controversy. His argument, known as the [[Hockney-Falco thesis]], is that the notable transition in style for greater precision and visual realism that occurred around the decade of the 1420s is attributable to the artists' discovery of the capability of optical projection devices, specifically an arrangement using a [[concave mirror]] to project [[real image]]s. Their evidence is based largely on the characteristics of the paintings by great artists of later centuries, such as [[Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres|Ingres]], [[Jan van Eyck|Van Eyck]], and [[Michelangelo Merisi|Caravaggio]].

The ''camera lucida'' is still available today through art-supply channels but is not well known or widely used. It has enjoyed a resurgence as of 2017 through a number of Kickstarter campaigns.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NeoLucida |url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neolucida/neolucida-a-portable-camera-lucida-for-the-21st-ce |website=Kickstarter |access-date=January 10, 2016 |archive-date=September 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220918170529/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neolucida/neolucida-a-portable-camera-lucida-for-the-21st-ce |url-status=live }}</ref>