THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN. 253 



.impedimenta in the shape of lantern and lantern belongings 

 to the smallest possible bulk consistent with efficient work. 

 As much of my time has been and is spent in this way, 

 I have given a great deal of thought to this matter of 

 reduction of bulk, aud have achieved some little success in 

 it. But it is only to one particular point that I now wish 

 to draw attention, and I do so in the hope that what I have 

 done may be as useful to others as it has been to me. In 

 the first place I think that all lecturers will agree that each 

 lantern picture should be fitted in a carrier of its own. The 

 various forms of panoramic and shifting carriers which are 

 fixed in the lantern while the glass pictures are passed 

 through them at the time of exhibition are all very well 

 for home use and private work, but in my opinion are not 

 suitable for employment in public halls. I need not name 

 all my objections to them, for one will suffice. The 

 pictures are not sufficiently protected from breakage, and 

 the risk of breakage, even of one slide out of a set, is a 

 thing not to be thought of by a good exhibitor. At first I 

 used 7 by 4 mahogany-grooved carriers for all my pictures, 

 but I found that they were objectionable, on two grounds : 

 one of these is that they readily break, and the other is 

 that in packing they take up far too much room. It was 

 to obviate these difficulties that I designed the carrier now 

 to be described, and which I have had in constant use for 

 three years with every success. My only objection to it is 

 the necessity for making it myself, which is perhaps no 

 real objection at all, for a little carpentry forms a healthy 

 relaxation to one whose occupations are chiefly of a seden- 

 tary nature. 



