Seeing Double

This is one of 7 fantastic stereoscopic glass slides that Mel picked up for em today, after I bought them from an auction near Perth last week.

Sure some of them have cracks in them, but they are just such lovely things, with the images held up to light being crystal clear. Six are black and white, produced by Ferrier et Soulier, with one shot of Loch Lomond, others of Constantinople, one in the Bois De Boulogne, and this steamer in the US. 

And there's one colour slide, of a museum (in Greece I think) either produced by the famous Lumière Brothers, or using the Autochrome developing process that they invented, which revolutionised colour photography (it had existed for a long time up to that point, but was a time consuming, difficult and expensive procedure).

You can get steroscope viewers for these, but you can also achieve the same 3D effect that these were made for by holding them up to the light, and crossing your eyes. It's just like viewing those Magic Eye pictures that became big in the 1990s, but much more satisfying.

The Lumière Brothers actually invented a stereoscope moving picture process as well, as far back as the 30s! Theyw ere amazing pioneers of cinema in most respects.

Glass slides like this tended to be replaced by pictures pasted to card, which was cheaper and quicker to make, as well as not being prone to breaking if you dropped them. But the glass slides have a crispness to the image that printed images don't.