stormdog | (no subject)

A few things I picked up at a garage sale today: a magic lantern, a really unusual record, and a nifty, um, thingy. (Cross posted to

obselitism)

The first thing is what I believe to be a magic lantern. I'd read about these and, being an amateur lighting technician, knew a bit about the theatrical ones, but I'd never seen one before. These are devices that would project an image onto a wall in your house or, in the case of the theatrical ones, onto a stage backdrop like a cyclorama or a scrim, an image from a painted or otherwise produced slide. I don't have any slides for mine, but I'm thinking about trying to buy some on ebay and seeing if I can get this thing to work if I can figure out what kind of slides it will take. Here are pictures of mine:

And here is the second thing I picked up. It's a 78 record, but what's really odd about it is that it's one sided. It's got music on one side and the other is completely flat. The person I bought it from said that a good number of early recordings were like that, but I'd never seen one before so I thought I'd post pictures of it here.

The raccoon-girl looked up information on the thing online and it looks like it's pop music from 1905. I can't tell if the record itself is actually that old, but I'm still awed by the fact that I'm actually holding something so old and breakable in my hands; that it's managed to survive for so long. The composer is listed on the record (Egbert van Alstyne), but the performer is not. She did manage to find a reference indicating that it's Albert Campbell's voice etched into the vinyl ("In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree / Albert Campbell on Columbia 3153"). I have a turntable, but I'm leery about trying to play the record. I don't know much about records really and I'm not sure if 78s require a special needle or anything like that. In fact, I eagerly welcome replys with more information about either of these items! I'd love to know more about them.

Lastly, here's what

wooisme bagged: it's a really nifty piece that consists of a brass raptor's talon clutching a solid glass ball. Andrea thinks it was a foot to a piece of furniture in it's previous life. That theory seems to be born out by the wear on the bottom of the orb. It's a gorgeous piece and is just begging to be used as a walking stick topper or something similar. The talon is about the size of a human hand and it's heavy as heck; really nifty piece!