Magic and Stereoscopic Views / Journeying into the third dimension (1850-1900)

When, in this magical instrument, you see those eyes looking at you,

those chests you believe you can see breathing.

those arms reaching out to you, you really feel something.

- Ernest Lacan, 1853

While  photography was still in its infancy, the English physicist Charles  Wheatstone (1802-1875) was making head-way with his research into  stereoscopy. The technique involves creating two images - these were  originally drawings or engrav-ings that show the same subject from two  perspectives, with the slight difference between the angles matching  that of hu-man binocular vision. By means of a stereoscope (ill. 1), a  view-er that Wheatstone presented to the Royal Society in London in 1838  and that featured an arrangement of mirrors that ensured each eye could  see only one of the two images, the human brain merges the pictures  into a single one, creating the illusion of a three-dimensional image.