372 



ON THE CAMERA LUCIDA. 



vrr. 



On the Came?' a Lucida. In a hotter from Mr, 

 T. Sheldrake. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON, 



SIR, 



Camera lucida 



Defects of the 

 camera ob- 

 scura. 



Bruce a good 

 draughtsman. 



ATI A VING been much pleased with the description of the 

 Camera Lucida in your 70th Number, I procured one of 

 the instruments, and made experiments to ascertain the 

 extent of its merits when compared with those of the Ca- 

 mera Obscura. I beg leave to send the result of these ex- 

 periments, for the information of your readers in general, 

 and in hopes that they may induce the ingenious inventor 

 of the Camera Lucida to bring it still nearer to perfec- 

 tion. 



The defects of the camera obscura are, that it is cum- 

 bersome to carry about and set up for use; that the objects 

 it reflects are, under some circumstances, deficient in point 

 of brilliancy, and that the objects are, under some cir- 

 cumstances, a little distorted from the truth of perspective. 

 For these defects, the skilful artist, who chooses to make 

 use of the instrument, will know how to provide a proper 

 remedy. The drawings that are said to have been made 

 by Abyssinian Bruce* by the assistance of this instrument, 



the 



* It was once fashionable to accuse Mr. Bruce of every kind of 

 breach of veracity: among other things it was said, that he could 

 not draw, and that the drawings he showed as his own were not 

 his, but made by another person. Time has done him justice in 

 many particulars, and if any one still believes that which was said 

 of his drawings, I may, perhaps, contribute a mite towards doing 

 him justice on that head. 



Between twenty and thirty years ago there was a sale of drawings 

 at Hutchins's Rooms, King Street, Covent Garden, among them 

 were maay drawings, some finished, and others only sketches, 

 which the Auctioneer publicly declared at the sale to have been 

 nude by a Mr. Bruce, who had been on a public mission to one 

 of the States of Barbary, and was tfien absent on a journey to 

 Abyssinia. 

 My father purchased some of these drawings, so that I had them 



several 



