P/iot(>!fr(ij>/ii(' IfenearrhfH and Par/ rait lire 



285 



Galtoii very soon discovered that the metliods of optically comhining 

 images are very various indeed. Thus in a paper of 1878 tie writes' : 



" I hiivf" tri^l many i)tlier plnn.i ; indt-ecl the po8Ril)Iu niotluxlH of optically «upt'riinp<>Ming 

 two or nioio iiim>;t's iiro very numerous. ThuN I hiivc uho<I a ncxtant (with it« t«'h«cop«! 

 Httach(><l); also Mtripw of mirrors placed at differont anKlex, their several refleotionH lM)ing 

 simultaneously viewed through a teUwcop«». I have also use<l a dividwi lens, like two stereo- 

 scopic^ lenses brought close together, in front of the ohject-glass of a telescnp*'. 



I have not yet had an ojjportunity of superiin|>osing images by placing glass negativ<w in 

 separate magic lanterns, all converging upon the same scrt«n ; but this or even a simple 

 dioramic apparatus would Ix! very suitable for exhibiting composite effects to an audience, and 

 if the eU>ctric light were used for illumination, the effect on the screen could be photographed 

 at once. It would also l)e possible to construct a camera with a long focus, and many slightly 

 divergent object-glasses, encli throwing an image of a separate glass negative upon the same 

 sensitised plato." (p. 140.) 



Among Galton's instruments in the Galton Laboratoiy is a piece of 

 apparatus for compounding six objects. It is of the following nature. Six 

 dinerent photographs, arranged symmetrically round a blackened screen, face 

 six different object-glasses which, set round the base of a conical tube, form a 

 composite image of all six on a small focusing screen towards the vertex 

 of the cone. This image is examined by an eye-piece passing through the 

 centre of the vertical screen and entering centrally the base of the cone. 

 The focusing screen is only about 2 inches in diameter, but the image is 

 magnified by the eye-piece. Six components can be superposed and 

 examined visually, but there does not seem any special provision in the 



Diagram i. 



' "Composite Portraits," made by combining those of many different persons into a smgle 

 resultant figure. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. viii, pp. 132-42, 1878. 



