Camera Obscura Diagram

Camera Obscura Diagram

The Camera Obscura is situated next to the Y Consti restaurant and is the recreation of a popular Victorian attraction. It was opened in 1985 and is now becoming quite a prominent tourist attraction. Camera Obscura is the Latin term for veiled chamber. It is an optical device that was used by the Victorians for making detailed drawings or as in this case for entertainment. It is one of the Victorian phenomenon's that led up to the invention of the camera. Light passes through a lens in the roof of the camera obscura which is then projected onto a large white surface within the room. The outside scene is perfectly reproduced in colour upside down. In the Victorian era images from camera obscuras were also projected onto paper, which when traced produced highly accurate drawings.

The principles of the camera obscura have been known since antiquity. Its earliest mention was by the Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti in the 5th century BC. His experiment was similar to the one described above. He called the darkened room the "locked treasure room". Aristotle (3rd century BC) also understood the principle of the camera obscura. It has been claimed that the Islamic scientist Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham (also known as Al-Hazen) is the one who actually discovered it while carrying out some experiments in optics, in the early 11th century, Egypt.

Camera Obscura Diagram