Catalogue général des photographies by Naya, Carlo. The Alethoscope :The Megalethoscope
Catalogue général des photographies by Naya, Carlo.
The Alethoscope is an optical instrument by means
of which ail kinds of photographs can be seen in rilievo presenting a splendid
perspective nearly as large as nature.
This effcct may be obtained eitlier by réfaction
or by transparency and can be seen by daylight as well as by lamp liglit or otlier
artificial light.
When used by daylight tlie instrument should be
placed upon a table in front a window. After the photograph lias been introduced
through the aperture G. (figure N. 1) the two reflectors E. F. must be open so as
to throw a powerful light on the photograph, which is seen by réfaction. To observe
it by transparency the two reflectors must be closed and the door L. open so as
to throw day light through the photograph.
When the Alethoscope is used by night a lamp should
be placed at the aperture of reflector F. so as to allow the photograph to be seen
by reflection. To obtain the effect of transparency, the reflectors must be closed,
the door L. opened and the lamp placed in front of it.
The Megalethoscope is an optical device invented by Carlo Ponti, a
Swiss-born optician and photographer who studied photography for eight
years in Paris before settling in Venice in 1854. Ponti first created a
device called an Alethoscope in 1860, for the viewing of prints and
photographs. The Alethoscope was used to view photographs that were
specially prepared and mounted on a curved wooden frame, and showed
day-and-night effects by viewing with either reflected or transmitted
light.
Ponti was reknowned for his lenses and his series of photographic albums, “Ricordi di Venezia.”
He actively edited and published the work of other Venetian
photographers as well as his own throughout the 1860’s. Due to
administrative confusion during the Austrio-Prussian war and the Peace
Treaty of 1860, Ponti lost his copyright and his collaborator Carlo Naya
began producing the Alethoscope under his own name. Ponti tried
unsuccessfully throughout the remainder of his career to regain his
exclusive right to the invention, and died in 1893, completely blind
