THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN. 257 



can be placed the lantern-box, while the lantern itself com- 

 monly screws to the top of the said box. There is always 

 a difficulty in finding the right kind of table. It is either 

 too small or too large, or else it is rickety and unsafe, or 

 perhaps it is too beautiful to be devoted to such a heathen- 

 ish purpose as the support of a lantern-box, all which 

 things happened to me and my assistant times out of 

 number, until I invented a lantern-support for myself, 

 consisting of four iron legs. With them> I can now laugh 

 the decrepit local table to scorn, and the beauty of the 

 leather-covered library specimen, which must not be 

 touched by sacrilegious hands, is a thing which ceases to 

 interest me. In a word, I am independent of such primi- 

 tive supports, and am as proud of my iron legs as is a 

 Chelsea pensioner of the wooden understandings which he 

 exchanged in the Crimea for those with which he was 

 born. 



The accompanying sketches will in a moment cause the 

 form and purpose of these legs to be understood. They 

 are made of iron, having a sectional area of 1 inch by 

 three-eighths of an inch. Each fits into a socket upon the 

 lantern box, and each has at its lower end a kind of flat 

 toe turned outwards, through which is a hole by which 

 the leg can be screwed to the floor. This, however, is 

 hardly necessary, for the weight of the lantern and its 

 box, together with the slides which it contains whilst in 

 use, are quite sufficient to make the whole arrangement as 

 firm as a rock. 



In the annexed cut (fig, 67) A is the lantern box, fitted with 

 a strong frame at the bottom, F, upon which the sockets can 



s 



