Editing Magic lantern (section)

===Christiaan Huygens===
[[File:1664-12-11 Lantern sketch - Huygens a Petit.jpg|thumb|A sketch of the lantern configuration (without a slide) from Huygens' letter to Pierre Petit (11 December 1664)]]
Dutch scientist [[Christiaan Huygens]] is considered as one of the possible inventors of the magic lantern. He knew [[Athanasius Kircher]]'s 1645 edition of ''Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae''<ref>{{cite book|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k778725|title=Oeuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens. Supplémént à la correspondance varia. Biographie de Chr. Huygens. Catalogue de la vente des livres de Chr. Huygens / publ. par la Société hollandaise des sciences|first=Christiaan (1629-1695) Auteur du texte|last=Huygens|publisher=M. Nijhoff|via=gallica.bnf.fr}}</ref> which described a primitive projection system with a focusing lens and text or pictures painted on a concave mirror reflecting sunlight. Christiaan's father Constantijn had been acquainted with Cornelis Drebbel who used some unidentified optical techniques to transform himself and to summon appearances in magical performances. Constantijn Huygens wrote about a camera obscura device that he got from Drebbel in 1622.<ref name="Snyder"/>

The oldest known document concerning the magic lantern is a page on which Christiaan Huygens made ten small sketches of a skeleton taking off its skull, above which he wrote "for representations by means of convex glasses with the lamp" (translated from French). As this page was found between documents dated in 1659, it is believed to have been made in the same year.<ref>{{cite web|first=Christiaan|last=Huygens|title=Pour des representations par le moyen de verres convexes à la lampe|url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv22_01/huyg003oeuv22_01_0093.php|language=fr}}</ref> Huygens soon seemed to regret this invention, as he thought it was too frivolous. In a 1662 letter to his brother [[Lodewijck Huygens|Lodewijk]] he claimed he thought of it as some old "bagatelle" and seemed convinced that it would harm the family's reputation if people found out the lantern came from him. Christiaan had reluctantly sent a lantern to their father, but when he realized that Constantijn intended to show the lantern to the court of King [[Louis XIV of France]] at the Louvre, Christiaan asked Lodewijk to sabotage the lantern.<ref>{{cite web |first=Christiaan |last=Huygens |date=19 April 1662 |title=letter to Lodewijk Huygens |language=fr |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv04_01/huyg003oeuv04_01_0059.php#z1005}}</ref>

Christiaan initially referred to the magic lantern as "la lampe" and "la lanterne", but in the last years of his life he used the then common term "laterna magica" in some notes. In 1694, he drew the principle of a "laterna magica" with two lenses.<ref>{{cite web|first=Christiaan|last=Huygens|date=1694|title=Aanhangsel II bij het eerste Complement van de Dioptrica |language=nl |url=https://adcs.home.xs4all.nl/Huygens/13/compl-v.html}}</ref>