Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria was a precinema projection ghost show invented in France in the late 18th century, which gained popularity through most of Europe (especially England) throughout the 19th century.
A modified type of magic lantern was used to project images onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, frequently using rear projection. The projector was mobile, allowing the projected image to move on the screen, and multiple projecting devices allowed for quick switching of different images. Frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts were projected.
The Enlightenment threatened to make magicians obsolete by encouraging the public to think rationally. Magicians responded by relating their tricks to science. Cook uses the example of Robertson, creator of the phantasmagoria to explain how magicians responded by relating their tricks to science. "This Belgian optician was the very first performer in Western popular culture to disenchant his own magic tricks in public, to make self-directed expose of a central feature of magical entertainment. By presenting his simulations of the supernatural as a tool of Enlightenment rather than an antirational threat, Robertson was beginning to carve out a more respectable, secularized form of magical performance."
A modified type of magic lantern was used to project images onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, frequently using rear projection. The projector was mobile, allowing the projected image to move on the screen, and multiple projecting devices allowed for quick switching of different images. Frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts were projected.
The Enlightenment threatened to make magicians obsolete by encouraging the public to think rationally. Magicians responded by relating their tricks to science. Cook uses the example of Robertson, creator of the phantasmagoria to explain how magicians responded by relating their tricks to science. "This Belgian optician was the very first performer in Western popular culture to disenchant his own magic tricks in public, to make self-directed expose of a central feature of magical entertainment. By presenting his simulations of the supernatural as a tool of Enlightenment rather than an antirational threat, Robertson was beginning to carve out a more respectable, secularized form of magical performance."