Perspective machine

A perspective machine is an optical instrument designed to help artists create perspective drawings.[1] The earliest machines were built centuries ago when the theory of perspective was being worked out, and modern versions are still[2] in use.

Timeline
  • 1510: Leonardo da Vinci's Draftsman drawing an armillary sphere shows an early perspective machine in use.[3]
  • 1525: Albrecht Dürer, in his illustration Man drawing a lute, shows an artist using a perspective machine to create a drawing. The machine consists of a wooden frame with a taut string passing through it to represent the viewer's line of sight.[4] Dürer built his second model of such a machine in the same year.[5]
  • c.1765: Scottish engineer James Watt designs a machine based on an easel, with a pantograph mechanism allowing the artist to trace an object using a sight arm and transfer the movement of the sight to a pen drawing on paper. Watt stated that his machine was based on an invention by a Mr Hurst, who lived in India.[6][7]
  • 1763: Philosopher Thomas Reid uses a machine to investigate his theory of perception.[8]
  • 1825: English inventor Francis Ronalds patents two perspective tracing machines. One generated an accurate drawing of an object or scene in nature and the other created a perspective view of an object from drawings of the plan and elevations. Ronalds manufactured the machines and sold several hundreds of them.[9][10]
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References
  1. "Perspective Machine", The New and Complete American Encyclopedia, John Low, 1810, p.441
  2. John Montague, Basic Perspective Drawing: A Visual Approach, John Wiley & Sons, 2013, ISBN 1118414128
  3. Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, 1510, reproduced in R. John Williams, The Buddha in the Machine: Art, Technology, and the Meeting of East and West, p.2, ISBN 0300194471
  4. Daniele Barbaro, La pratica della perspettiva di Monsignor Daniel Barbaro, Venice, 1559, p. 191, accessed 2016-02-08
  5. "Drawing - The discovery of perspective", Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum, accessed 2016-02-08
  6. Perspective machine by James Watt, Science Museum, London, accessed 2020-05-14
  7. Watt, James, "Description of a New Perspective Machine", Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Volume 2, Number 4, Plate 7; Pages 259-262
  8. Alexander Dick, Theory and Practice in the Eighteenth Century: Writing Between Philosophy and Literature, Routledge, 2015, ISBN 1317314530. Dick says that the machine was based on Watt's invention but this contradicts the 1765 date given by Watt himself in Description of his Perspective Machine.
  9. Ronalds, B.F. (2016). Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph. London: Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1-78326-917-4.
  10. "Perspective Drawing Instruments". Sir Francis Ronalds and his Family. Retrieved 11 Apr 2016.
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